Survey Data
Reg No
15402313
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Social, Technical
Original Use
Water pump
In Use As
Water pump
Date
1870 - 1900
Coordinates
211909, 248110
Date Recorded
11/11/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding cast-iron water pump, erected c.1885, comprising banded cylindrical shaft with fluted head having fluted spout, ‘cow tail’ curvilinear handle, and a fluted ogee-dome cap with finial over. Set on concrete plinth to the side of a country road. Located to the east of the former Kilkenny West Rectory and to the east of Glassan.
Appraisal
A typical late nineteenth-century water pump, of a standard design encountered throughout rural Westmeath. Water pumps played an important social role in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries by providing a communal water source before the development of mains water supply. This cast-iron pump now serves as an attractive piece of street furniture, aesthetically enhancing the rural landscape to the east of Glassan and adding incident to the roadscape.