Village Pumps More than you ever thought you needed to know about... Village Pumps

Welcome to this unique website, dedicated to the study of old Village Pumps in the UK, investigating their remaining locations, their design and manufacture, their history, and the relationship to their communities then and now. From the fanciful: To the functional: To the forgotten:
Southwold Pump Over Norton Pump East Ilsley Pump Chedworth Pump Raithby Pump Neen Sollars Pump

The menu on the left should be self-explanatory. The ever-growing Directory is a location index leading to the core of the site, where you can find details and photographs of thousands of old pumps. Check to see if your local pump is included yet and, if it isn't, then why not send me the details, along with a photograph if possible, and I'll add it to the collection. Please note that after adding a representative example of each type I'm no longer including any pumps that can be bought new, e.g., those that are widely sold through garden centres or are newly installed in parks or at seaside wash-down areas.

Fakes, replicas, water pillars and assorted street objects that have fooled us in the past have a page of their own, and a "grey-out" feature indicates where a pump has been lost since we photographed it. Thankfully, it's a rare occurrence.

Following my earlier concerns regarding having to run my reliable but old HTML software on an ancient and creaky Vista laptop, I've now been told of a way of doing this on my main Windows 10 (soon to be 11) PC via Oracle Virtual Workbox, and when forced to do it I'll embark on this solution.

The UK Distribution Map provides an alternative method of getting to the pump details. The red numbers that appear against each County/Unitary Authority/Region are derived from the National Register of Village Pumps, which currently totals:


Current Total

If you'd like to read more, then there are just a few copies left of "The Book"...
Latest Updates

New! 1 Oct 2024 Update to Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks.
New! 29 Sep 2024 Horton, S. Glos. Update to Rochford, Essex.
New! 9 Sep 2024 Llechfaen, Powys. Update to Lizard, Cornwall.
New! 25 Aug 2024 Briningham, Norfolk and Polebrook, Northants.
New! 21 Aug 2024 Update to Paglesham Eastend, Essex.

Updated: 1 Oct 2024

Original photographs and text Copyright © 2006-2024 R. K. Williams - exceptions where shown.
See also http://www.gloucesterrugbyheritage.org.uk