Location: on the corner of the road outside the shop at Link Top.
Description: A public iron hand pump now removed.

Just above Ivy House at the junction of Worcester Road, Hornyold Road and Newtown Road, was a public iron pump. The pump appears on post cards c.1920 and is believed to be the site of a 117 ft well into the Keuper Marl mentioned by Richardson and described as Link Top.[1]

By early 1927 the old iron pump didn't work, perhaps because the pipe from the well had perforated or rotted away. Malvern Urban District Council decided to provide a new pump, costing 15 pounds 6 shillings (using the Retail Price Index that would be 677 pounds in 2010), and connect it to the more reliable public main.

Fortunately The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association stepped in and provided a drinking fountain and the Council erected it in October 1927 on common land belonging to the conservators. It was more than six months later that the water was finally connected, and then it was only available during the summer. The supply was turned off for the rest of the year because of possible frost damage.[2] The conservators paid the council one pound a year for the water supply. The fountain was round, made of stone material, and waist high. It was foot-operated by pressing a metal rail round the base and the water from two spouts was caught in chained cups. A decorative ball surmounted the structure.[3]

No one thought to remove the old iron pump and it became a danger and an eyesore. In April 1935 the exasperated residents of Link Top petitioned to have the pump removed, the well filled up and the land in front tarmacked. Ten years later, in 1945, it was declared unsafe, and it was in the summer of 1946 that the pump was finally removed and the area tidied up.

 

Illustrations:

1. Link Top Pump behind the children, from an old postcard.

2. A more recent picture of the same location.

3. This drawing of the drinking fountain is based on one by Ken Davis who was born in 1926 and has lived in Malvern all his life.

Footnotes:
[1] Richardson L. (1930) Wells and Springs of Worcestershire, HMSO, p.116.
[2] Malvern Gazette 19 Oct. 1956.

[3] Ken Davis, Malvern, private communication. 

 

The map alongside is a small section of our more comprehensive map of the area. For the complete map together with a description and history of this site see "Celebrated Springs of the Malvern Hills" (2012).

 

 

Click on Website below or the top banner to go to the DISCOVERY TRAIL INDEX of springs and wells.

 

Celebrated Springs of 
THE MALVERN HILLS  

A definitive work that is the culmination of 20 years researching the springs and wells of the Malvern Hills, published by Phillimore. This is the ideal explorers guide enabling the reader to discover the location and often the astounding and long forgotten history of over 130 celebrated springs and wells sites around the Malvern Hills. The book is hard back with dust cover, large quarto size with lavish illustrations and extended text. Celebrated Springs contains about 200 illustrations and well researched text over a similar number of pages, together with seven area maps to guide the explorer to the locations around the Malvern Hills. It also includes details on the long history of bottling water in the Malvern Hills.

Written by Bruce Osborne and Cora Weaver, this book is available on-line for £15.00 (delivered UK) - click Malvern Bookshop on the green panel top left. Alternatively send a cheque payable to Cora Weaver with your name and address to 4 Hall Green, Malvern, Worcs. WR14 3QX.