INTERESTING DISCOVERIES
GOING BACK TO THE OLD DAYS IN PONTEFRACT
It seems a far cry from air raids to the parish pump, but there is a very valid connection in Pontefract, where, as in other towns, the authorities are anxious to investigate every source of water supply for use in emergency.
For long regarded as a curio and a relic of ancient Pontefract, in spite of the fact that only recently it ceased to perform a very useful service, the Cross Pump, at the Butter Cross, Market Place, now assumes a new importance. Beneath it and connected to the town’s oldest known water supply, lie tanks to the capacity of 34,000 gallons, where water could be stored in the event of the main supply being rendered ineffectual.
During the past week the Borough Engineer (Mr. W. D Newton) has been making investigations to ascertain the repairs necessary to make the tanks watertight and secure. One of the tanks was pumped out and dried and workmen descended into it. It was thought that that was the only tank but examination revealed that a wall, nine feet in thickness, separated it from a second and larger tank, built on a slightly lower level, with a pipe connecting the two. Water enters the first tank from a pipe at the roof which carries the supply from a spring in Wakefield Road, at Westfields, which constituted the town supply as long ago as 1810 during the reign of George the Third.
The spring was marked until 1933 by a stone shed known as The Waterhouse. the shed was demolished in that year but the spring still flows. It receives its water from a fissure 11 feet long and 2 feet deep.
The flow to the tank is controlled by a ball cock. The first tank is solidly constructed of brick with a facing of cement and has a flagged floor. According to theory it was repaired in 1861. There is an inscription on the cement of the wall, “George Spurr, July 23rd 1861” The tank measures 3 yards by 4 by 11 feet high and it was found that the only thing needed to make it watertight was a concrete floor, the installation of which was begun immediately. The second tank was found on test to be watertight and needs no further attention.
The Cross Pump, which was fed by the tanks, was disconnected some time ago and a tap was fitted which is connected to the modern water mains.
There are other tanks, in Bridge Street, at Town End, and in Horsefair, which are also to be opened and investigated. Together they should form a valuable reserve supply for fire fighting. The tank in Horsefair is said to be the largest of all and originally fed the Horsefair Pump.
The above item was printed in The Pontefract and Castleford Express on 16/12/1938
According to tradition, The Cross Pump was presented to the town by Queen Elizabeth the First in 1572.
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