Contact Artefacts
please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.
Menu
HomeUpfront
Now Up
Books
Towns
Structures
People
Firms
Lexicon
Horse Drinking Fountain
Komani (Queenstown), Eastern Cape
 |  |  |  |  |
Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | Horse Drinking Fountain | | ||||||
| |||||||||
Click to view map Coordinates: | The successful completion - in 1908 - of the Bongolo Dam to the northwest of Queenstown, was celebrated the following year with the installation of a drinking fountain for horses on the Hexagon. The fountain was donated by Mr William Frame and cost the substantial sum of £372. The horse drinking fountain was located at the mid-point on the southern side of the hexagon. The Memorial to the Queenstown Rifle Volunteers had been erected on the centre-point of the hexagon, a few years prior to this date. The fountain comprised a low circular water trough within which was placed a central neo-classical style sandstone structure with a square plan. The central sandstone structure comprises a base, a shaft and a capital in a finely dressed local sandstone. The sandstone base is mounted on a square concrete block and has the same plan dimensions, but of separate dressed sandstone blocks. The base is capped with a projecting moulded cornice, elaborated on each centre line with a segmental arch of the same moulding. Each of the four faces was originally provided with a water spout - presumably in bronze - mounted centrally just above the water level but these have sadly all been removed. It also appears from historical photographs that drinking cups were mounted on chains adjacent to the water spouts. The sculptor of the fountain, G Gibson, recorded his details on one of the corners of the base. Although affected by delamination of the adjacent sandstone surface, the following wording is fortunately still visible: G Gibson The shaft of the drinking fountain comprises a square-plan block of sandstone with an elegant sandstone column attached to each of the four corners. Each tapered column has a moulded base and a free interpretation of a neo-classical capital based on the composite Corinthian Order. Early photographs confirm that a bronze 'flower' was mounted above each column attached to the corner of the frieze directly above. These are no longer extant. One of the four faces of the shaft of the fountain has the carved coat of arms of the Town of Queenstown. A 'pseudo-heraldic' coat of arms, it was adopted in October 1902. The shield was quartered, and depicted the Union Jack, a landscape with the Hangklip mountain in the background, a landscape with a mimosa tree in the foreground, and a portrait of King Edward VII. The crest was a demi-antelope, and the motto was UNITY IS STRENGTH. A pair of decorative maces was placed in a crossed position behind the shield. A commemorative inscription is carved in a v-cut font below the coat of arms and it reads: THIS DRINKING FOUNTAIN The shaft of the fountain is surmounted with a decorative capital comprising a plain frieze, a dentilated moulding and a moulded projecting cornice interrupted at each midpoint with a triangular pediment. The top of the shaft is dealt with as a hipped and ridged surface which in turn is capped with a segmented and ribbed dome. The dome was in turn capped with a simple 'flower' but this feature is no longer extant. The circular drinking trough that held the standing water was an interesting composite structure. The low wall of the trough was sub-divided into four separate segments separated from each other by a low stub column with rounded top . The upper surface of the low wall had a gently curving upper surface and the four portions of the low trough wall were supported at each mid-point with a minor curved buttress. A shallow water trough - suitable for dogs to drink - was formed by a secondary, slightly larger diameter ring at the base of the main trough. It is presumed that the original drinking trough structure was made from sandstone, but presumably had been damaged by exposure to water and in its current site has been reconstructed as a simple low ring wall of hammer dressed local stone. When horse transport gave way to the motor-car in later years the horse drinking fountain was moved, first to Cathcart Square and then to the grounds of the Queenstown Museum. William Martinson, June 2023 Reference: Greaves, Alan Tell Me of Komani - A history of Queenstown for The Queenstown and Frontier Historical Society, June 1987. Books that reference Horse Drinking Fountain
|
|
