The Repair of a Village Pump

The village pump in the Nottinghamshire village of Stanton-by-Dale was erected in 1897 to commemorate 'the beneficent reign of Queen Victoria'. It originally had a large horse trough and a smaller trough at ground level to satisfy the thirst of passing dogs! At some point in its history, the horse trough was filled with concrete. This absorbed rain water which froze and expanded producing numerous cracks along the base of the trough as well as breaking open one of the sides and fracturing the corner of a panel. The upper part of the decorative pump column also had large horizontal cracks which detracted from its appearance and made it structurally unsafe. In this case, repairs involved dismantling the pump to remove all of the concrete, then employing a combination of metal stitching and 'insert' techniques to repair fractures and replace sections of missing material. In addition, the pump column was made structurally safe with new internal steelwork. During the rebuilding phase, the pump handle and spout were refitted and the decorative sections restored to their former appearance. Now resplendent in its finished coat of green and gold paint, the pump will continue to delight residents and visitors to Stanton-by-Dale.

This article is by Terry Simms of Casting Repairs, the company that repaired this village pump, and is reproduced from The Building Conservation Directory 1997.   Thanks to Cathedral Communications Limited