Location: in the churchyard of St James on the West Malvern Road.
Description: a recess with a spout and basin, the latter at ground level.

This spout is tucked into a niche in the churchyard wall adjacent to the main road. The water in the basin probably originates from the Westminster Bank spring. Nearby is the grave of Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869) which, unusually, is lying north/south rather than east/west. His famous thesaurus of English words, first published in 1850, classified words according to their meaning.

In 1793, Dr. Thomas Beddoes MD (1760-1808), English physician and scientific writer at Oxford University decided to settle in Clifton and the Hotwell Spa, with a view to establishing a Pneumatic Institute for the treatment of diseases by inhalation. A young doctor helping Beddoes with the outpatients was Peter Mark Roget, later author of the Thesaurus. The apparatus was constructed by James Watt, Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, and financed by Mr. Lambton, and Thomas Wedgwood, son of Joseph Wedgwood the potter, who had all moved to Clifton. In 1798, the institution was opened in Dowry Square, at that time the residential heart of Hotwell Spa, and later in Broad Quay. Dr. Beddoes's work is considered important for having fostered the genius of young Humphry Davy, Superintendent of the Institution, who there discovered the properties of nitrous-oxide gas in 1799, otherwise known as laughing gas, and the forerunner of modern anaesthetics.[1]


Illustrations:
1. St James' Churchyard Spout.
2. St James' church and churchyard 1932.

Footnotes:
[1] Bruce Tyldesley, The Clifton Spa Pump Room (2010) see Ch.16. - click logo below. 

 

 

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).

 

 

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