Survey Data
Reg No
15402539
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Social, Technical
Original Use
Water pump
Date
1870 - 1910
Coordinates
235968, 247053
Date Recorded
29/09/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding cast-iron water pump, erected c.1890, comprising banded cylindrical shaft with fluted head having fluted spout, and ‘cow tail’ curvilinear handle. Original fluted ogee-dome cap with finial now missing. Surrounded by low modern rubble limestone wall, open to the south. Located adjacent to rural junction to the centre of Dysart village.
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. Water pumps were frequently located close to rural road junctions, as is the case with this example at Dysart. This cast-iron pump now serves as an attractive piece of street furniture, aesthetically enhancing the rural landscape to the southwest of Mullingar.