Village Pump & Pumphouse - Shute Lane - Iwerne Minster, Dorset
Posted by: SMacB
N 50° 55.794 W 002° 11.463
30U E 556848 N 5642340
A wooden-cased lead pump at Iwerne Minster.
Waymark Code: WMWPZF
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/29/2017
Views: 3
A wooden-cased lead pump at Iwerne Minster. The village pump and pumphouse is dated 'W 1880'. An open timber pumphouse with a pitched and tiled roof. The pump is encased in a wooden housing. An important part of the street scene, probably built for Lord Wolverton. The Village Pump was used as a message board during WWI.
"James Hainsworth Ismay was the second son of Thomas Henry Ismay, a highly successful shipbroker, and he bought the Iwerne estate from Baron Wolverton in 1908.
The village could hardly have asked for a better person to lead them through the turbulence of World War 1. He was personally too old to be called up for active service, but he joined the 1/1st South-Western Mounted Brigade with an armoured car which he equipped himself; he was given a commission in the Hants Carabiniers and eventually transferred to the Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry. But he felt deeply for the Iwerne men who were sent away from the village to go to war, and also for the families they left behind. He therefore displayed newspapers every day at the village pump (which he referred to as ‘the War Office’) so that the local people could keep up to date with the war situation; later he had a shelter built by Giles Gilbert Scott complete with a carving on the gable depicting Mercury, the Winged Messenger – it is still used as the village notice board. "
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