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.

As of October 2023 my old laptop, which uses a redundant Windows operating system to run my even older HTML software, is getting decidely creaky, and is probably on its last legs. I urgently need to find website coding software that will run on my main PC, but to convert this website to WordPress would be prohibitively expensive. I will continue to search, but there's a risk that at some point there could be a hiatus in my update activities.

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! 12 Mar 2024 Updates to Glastonbury, Soms and Dry Drayton, Cambs.
New! 9 Feb 2024 Updates to Illogan, Cornwall; Llanuwchllyn, Gwynedd. Updates to Fakes, Replicas, etc.
New! 15 Jan 2024 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne & Wear; Thropton, Northumbs. Update to Ardwell, Dumf & Gall. Manufacturer C. Dove, Newcastle-upon Tyne.
New! 5 Jan 2024 Updates to Bristol; King's Sutton, Northants.
New! 3 Jan 2024 Update to Exmouth, Devon.

3D Printing of Replacement Caps available. And a contact who could make replacement pump parts.

Updated: 12 Mar 2024

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