The Jubilee Pump
Golden Jubilee celebrations for a British reigning monarch were almost without precedent. Previous to Victoria (1837-1901), only George III (1760-1820)[1] had marked his 50th year on the throne, and those celebrations were relatively restrained compared to later commemorations.[2] There was a sense that Victoria’s Golden Jubilee of 1887 was something of a reset of the relationship between the monarchy and the British public, and indeed the Empire as it stood. As such, it set the standard of lavish celebrations that have continued, most recently with those celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.[3]
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As part of Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, an enormous number of commemorative monuments were built throughout the British Isles and the Empire - including Overton. The Jubilee Pump was built on Station Road beside the old Police Station, at the expense of Edmund Peel of Bryn y Pys.[4] It was one of several pumps in Overton, but certainly the most splendid.
The chamfered square stone column with its folate pediment and ball finial is sturdy and impressive indeed, bearing the inscription VR and the date 1887 on its street facing frontage. The pump mechanism is enclosed in a wooden case to its rear, while the lead spout projecting from the front would have once fed the still extant basin. It is, in its gruff splendour, quite wonderful.
It has in fact been moved a little in its lifetime. It once stood a smidgen to the west, but was moved when a robing room for magistrates was built onto the end of the existing police station. The well which serves the pump remains beneath the floor of this later building, accessible by a trap door in the floor.
As to the quality of the waters drawn, it was generally believed that the very best tea was brewed using water from the Jubilee Pump. Whether it was on these grounds that the pump was listed, I could not possibly say.
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Footnotes
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1. Previous to Victoria, only Henry III (1216-1272), Edward III (1327-77) & James VI & I (1567-1625 in Scotland) had enjoyed 50 years or more on the throne.
2. Moel Famau, the highest peak in the Clwydians, had upon its summit the ill-fated Jubilee Tower built to mark the occasion.
3. Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 were more restrained.
4. Whatever you think of how the rich make their money, it used to be that the wealthy were apt to build a school, a library, an art galley, a water pump. Today they seem only to spend their vast wealth on vanity projects - space rockets sending their friends into space and the like.
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