The National Register of Village Pumps.
	The National Register of Village Pumps continues to grow, with information coming in from many sources; ever more people are contacting me to tell me of pumps in their area, or which they've seen on their travels. Thanks!
	The information goes into a simple offline database, which records the County, the Town/Village, a precise location wherever possible, the make of pump where known, and the source of the information. Practically, of course, the Register can never be 100% complete. At the moment, although growing - thanks to some faithful reporters - records for Scotland are still less comprehensive than those for England and Wales. Northern Ireland is particularly difficult to research, and I've established that an official but unfortunately only partial survey took place there over the period 1994-2006. Luckily, there are some very enthusiastic folk in Northern Ireland who have been doing a great job in making up for the lack of a more complete official record. The authorities on Guernsey and Jersey have been particularly helpful, and I've personally carried out 3 mini-surveys on Guernsey and 2 on Jersey. I've also checked out Sark, Herm, the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Bute and Anglesey, but despite 6 or 7 visits to the Isle of Mull I've yet to find a single pump there. A week on the Isle of Skye in 2017 failed to discover a single pump.
	It's a difficult decision whether or not to include privately-owned pumps, and there are many such pumps tucked away in the kitchens, sculleries, back yards or gardens of houses, inns, hospitals, etc. Whereas these were not originally prime candidates for the Register, I include them when I can, although confirmation of their existence isn't as easy as driving up to a village green and taking a look. Modern pumps which are currently available for purchase, typically from garden centres, are no longer included.
	At some stage I'll lodge the Register with a central authority, as I want it to be useful for others' research. In the meantime, as it grows, so it becomes more useful in examining the distribution of pumps around the UK. Take a look at the UK Distribution Map, and note how uneven this distribution is. I'm still exploring the reasons for this.

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