{"id":2229,"date":"2015-04-02T14:13:25","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T14:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=2229"},"modified":"2025-10-29T11:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T11:59:16","slug":"water-fountains-in-naas-in-bygone-days-recalled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/water-fountains-in-naas-in-bygone-days-recalled\/","title":{"rendered":"WATER FOUNTAINS IN NAAS IN BYGONE DAYS RECALLED"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER\u00a0 LEADER<\/em>\u00a0 16 JANUARY 1982<\/b><\/p>\n

UP TO twenty years ago the water fountains on streets and byways of Naas were a familiar sight in the town \u2013 so familiar that not too many noticed their gradual disappearance as the water supply improved.\u00a0 They were not missed because they had been taken for granted \u2013 like the water troughs at Popular Square and the Fairgreen \u2013 for so many years.<\/p>\n

In fact, no one is quite sure when the fountains, worked by twisting a handle, with water coming through the distinctive lion\u2019s mouth, exactly disappeared.\u00a0 The town was minus what is now called \u201cstreet furniture\u201d in Tidy Towns adjudicator\u2019s reports.\u00a0 The handsome pumps would have been an additional earner of marks for the town in the competition if even a few of the twenty or so had remained.<\/p>\n

Recently, I went on the trail of the vanished \u201cwatering places\u201d of Naas, with local historian and raconteur John Mahon.\u00a0 We succeeded in locating a number of them, and the former horse trough which was located at Popular Square.\u00a0 We found the remnants of one pump still remaining in Naas \u2013 at Millbrook.\u00a0 But shortly after our photograph was taken it had mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace of a former age of water supply to be seen in the town.<\/p>\n

Up to recent decades the water supply for Naas population then about 3,500 came from the \u201cSeven Springs\u201d on the Tipper Road.\u00a0 These flowed into \u201cSunday\u2019s Well\u201d, off the Blessington Road on the site where house-building is taking place.\u00a0 It was once a \u201cblessed well\u201d at which there were days of devotion at certain times of the year \u2013 but the exactitude of its history is vague as apparently no one living remembers those religious observances.<\/p>\n

Well Remains<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Well has now been \u201ccapped\u201d and all that remains to sow its former use as a local water installation are the twisted remains of the ornate wrought-iron railings which once surrounded it.\u00a0 The water flowed by gravity to the pump house located in part to Millhouse to Millbrook.\u00a0 From there it was pumped to the old water tower on the Fairgreen.<\/p>\n

After being obsolete for some years, the tower was practically demolished in 1973 and the ground floor area converted into the town\u2019s fire station.\u00a0 The tower had a chequered history, (being the location of the first technical school in Naas).\u00a0 Even though the town had a comparatively small population a few decades ago compared with to-day\u2019s rapidly increasing number of inhabitants, the tank was not sufficient to supply all the town\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

The water, John Mahon recalls, was turned off from midnight to 8 o\u2019clock in the morning to allow the tank to refill after the day\u2019s supply had been used up.\u00a0 Indeed, John remembers when there were very few bathrooms and flush toilets in the town.\u00a0 Sewage was collected weekly, and disinfected containers distributed at the same time to each household which had not got a W.C.<\/p>\n

The water fountains were installed in the last century at strategic points along the main streets, sidestreets, backlanes, and housing areas which then existed.\u00a0 The citizens drew water from them for all their daily needs.\u00a0 Gradually they went out of use as water on tap was installed in older houses and of course, in all Council housing schemes over the past fifty years.<\/p>\n

But up to their removal the fountains were used in locations near schools and in some of the older housing schemes.<\/p>\n

Locations<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Their old locations as far can be ascertained were: one at St. Brigid\u2019s Tce., near the Caragh road (Ploopluck) bridge; two in New Row; one up Rathasker road at Callan\u2019s (where a tap has since been installed); at the water tower in the Fairgreen; at the old mart site; at St. John\u2019s Hall on the Kilcullen road (a former boys primary school taught by secular teachers).<\/p>\n

They were also located at St. Corban\u2019s Lane at the backlane to the business premises in South Main St; at the former Lawlor\u2019s ballroom; where the agricultural offices now stand at Friary road; in\u00a0 Popular Square where the phone boxes now are; at Mrs. Brennan\u2019s shop on Dublin road; between Smith\u2019s garage and the Protestant school; at Bladder\u2019s Lane; on the Sallins road near the parochial house; on John\u2019s Lane at the rear of Hayden\u2019s pub; at the back gate to De Burgh\u2019s; in Abbey street (then housing a number of families); in the Convent grounds; outside the Moat Hall the former CBS school, and at St. Corban\u2019s Cemetery and Gleann na Greine.\u00a0 There was, as far as can be recalled, only one fountain on Main Street itself as its citizens obviously had their own tap water supply. The location was the old weigh-house in the square in South Main St.<\/p>\n

Working order<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Two of the pumps are now located in Sallins \u2013 one in good working order and the other emits a mere dribble of water.\u00a0 One is beside Simon Hughes\u2019s shop and the other is on the opposite side of the canal beyond Fanning\u2019s pub.<\/p>\n

Two were rescued by Mr. Mahon from the Town Hall yard and erected as handsome ornaments in the garden of his former home at Osberstown.\u00a0 There were similar water fountains in Kilcullen and Ballymore, but they are assumed to have been erected long before the Naas ones were removed.\u00a0 It is thought most of the Naas pumps were sold for scrap by the Urban Council. The fountains were cast by the Glenfield foundry in Kilmarnock, Scotland.<\/p>\n

The decline of horse-drawn traffic in the \u2018fifties meant that the days of the horse troughs in Naas were numbered. The original cast-iron trough at Popular Square had to be replaced when it was damaged by a lorry backing into it about 40 years ago.\u00a0 It was replaced by a reinforced concrete structure \u2018made by Cretestone of Dublin.\u00a0 It is one of the early examples of the use of that process.\u00a0 No one is sure when it was removed, but it occurred within the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

The trough was bought by local farmer Mr. Willie Bradley of Rathasker road, and is now in use on his farm at Clownings, near Newbridge.\u00a0 The cast-iron trough on the Fairgreen was removed about the same time and is thought to have been sold for scrap.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that the fountains and troughs were an adornment to the town \u2013 even as an echo of bygone days.\u00a0 But aesthetically the fountains, at least, were quite beautifully designed, and unlike the merely functional pumps which existed in most other provincial towns.<\/p>\n

The value of these relics of the past was recognised in Dublin about 20 years ago when an energetic committee led by the indefatigable \u201cQuidnunc\u201d of the \u201cIrish Times\u201d, the late Seamus Kelly prevented Dublin Corporation from removing some troughs and fountains in the centre of the city, and managed to have some restored.\u00a0 Perhaps it is not too late to see something similar done in Naas, even if to enhance the town\u2019s architecture, regarded by leading experts as fairly impressive.<\/p>\n

Story: <\/i><\/b>JOHN\u00a0 LYNCH<\/b><\/p>\n

Research: <\/i><\/b>JOHN MAHON<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Retyped: Mary Murphy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER\u00a0 LEADER\u00a0 16 JANUARY 1982 UP TO twenty years ago the water fountains on streets and byways of Naas were a familiar sight in the town \u2013 so familiar that not too many noticed their gradual disappearance as the water supply improved.\u00a0 They were not missed because they had been taken for granted \u2013 like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-built-heritage"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8016,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229\/revisions\/8016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}