Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough - Shaws Corner
Mar 2017 Update: I've adopted this cache and have kept the cache text below almost unchanged - such an interesting piece of local history! The multicache clues now relate to the trough itself. Final hide is as original. Thanks Rich_F
The Trough
This is the fifth in our series of caches placed close to or associated with drinking fountains or animal troughs. The cache is located near to Shaws Corner, Reigate near to an example of a Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association granite cattle troughs.
The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was an association set up in London by Samuel Gurney an MP and philanthropist and Edward Thomas Wakefield, a barrister in 1859 to provide free drinking water. Originally called the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association it changed its name to include cattle troughs in 1867, to also support animal welfare.
Water provision in the nineteenth century was from nine private water companies each with a geographic monopoly, which provided inadequate quantities of water which was often contaminated, as was famously discovered by John Snow during the 1854 cholera epidemic. Population growth in London had been very rapid (more than doubling between 1800 and 1850) without an increase in infrastructure investment. Legislation in the mid nineteenth century gradually improved the situation; the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was formed, water filtration was made compulsory, and water intakes on the Thames were forced to be moved above the sewage outlets.
In this environment the public drinking fountain movement began, initially in Liverpool where the local government was granted the ability to buy out the private water companies in 1847. It built the first public baths and then encouraged philanthropic public drinking water fountains. This was taken up by Samuel Gurney.
The surviving cattle troughs are mainly large granite ones, in many cases planted with flowers. Earlier designs were of cast iron or zinc lined timber, but both were too easily damaged.
The Cache
Start by admiring the trough itself, often planted with flowers.
You'll notice that some of the original ironwork remains. To find the cache coordinates you need to answer the following
A = the number of vertical metal dividers set in the trough (i.e. in the earth)
B = the number of metal eyes protruding from the top of the trough
C = the number of distinct notches cut into the stone on the inside of the trough, at the end nearest the church (they are obvious if you look)
The cache is located a short walk away at
N51 14.(B-A) ((3*C))+1)(A+B+C+1) W000 11.(B-A)((A+C))*3)(C*4)
Please use discretion at the final hide - it's a residential area so please explain what Geocaching is if challenged. Most people are really interested :)