DUNSFOLD ROAD FOUNTAIN
This is another in the series of caches started by Merstham Mafia placed close to or associated with drinking fountains or animal troughs. The cache is located on the Dunsfold Road between Cranleigh and Dunsfold.
There is room for a few vehicles to park on waste ground at the junction N 51° 08.245 W 000° 31.974 but please pick your time as this can be a popular stop-off for white van man at lunchtimes. Please hold tight to mini-geocachers and geodogs as this is a very busy road junction.
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.
This fountain in inscribed “This fountain for the refreshment of wayfarers was placed by Edward Lee Rowcliffe AD 1893.” Sadly it is no longer in use but was restored a few years ago. There is still some undergrowth in front of fountain but fairly easy to approach from the south-west.
Evidently Mr Rowcliffe lived at Hall Place, Cranleigh which is just off the Stovolds Hill entrance to Dunsfold Park (formerly Dunsfold Aerodrome). At the time the fountain was built this would have been on the main road from Horsham to Guildford as the A281 was of course diverted when the Aerodrome was built in 1942.
In 1877 he also built the fountain in the neighbouring village of Hascombe as a memorial to his brother Henry Rowcliffe. The village fountain in Hascombe in Surrey is popular with residents and tourists alike as it is famous for its pure spring water that can be collected for free from the fountain. That fountain is inscribed with the words “Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely”. On weekends the village is busy with people filling their bottles with the water so why bother going to the supermarket for it!? See also my cache GC2Y90H.
You are looking for a small cache slightly larger than the usual 35mm container which has a log book only at time of placing but sorry no room for swaps. Please bring your own pen or pencil.
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If any body would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Merstham Mafia know first so they can keep track of the cache numbers and names to avoid duplication.
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Congratulations to snowfish on FTF!