Drinking trough and conduit head
Junction of Shaftesbury Road and New Road, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8QL
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1441806
- Date first listed:
- 09-Mar-2017
- List Entry Name:
- Drinking trough and conduit head
- Statutory Address:
- Junction of Shaftesbury Road and New Road, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8QL
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1441806
- Date first listed:
- 09-Mar-2017
- List Entry Name:
- Drinking trough and conduit head
- Location Description:
- Centred on ST 85931 23417
- Statutory Address 1:
- Junction of Shaftesbury Road and New Road, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8QL
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Junction of Shaftesbury Road and New Road, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8QL
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Dorset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Shaftesbury
- National Grid Reference:
- ST8593123417
Summary
Combined drinking trough and conduit head of 1844.
Reasons for Designation
The drinking trough and conduit head at the junction of Shaftesbury Road and New Road in Shaftesbury, which was erected in 1844, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a well-executed and substantially intact piece of Victorian street furniture that has distinctive design quality;
* Historic interest: it serves as a reminder of the now-vanished presence of animals in everyday life and is thus an evocative reminder of a lost way of life.
History
During the C19 special provision began to be made for drinking troughs for cattle, horses and dogs, and in 1844, a conduit head and drinking trough were erected on the Shaftesbury and New Road to Blandford Turnpike (now the B3081), at the junction of Shaftesbury Road and New Road. It is recorded (Grosvenor, see Sources) that it replaced a spring on the opposite side of the road that had previously provided water for the local population, and the water was conveyed by pipes under the road. The structure is depicted as ‘trough’ on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1887, 1901 and 1929, but is not marked on modern mapping.
Details
Combined drinking trough and conduit head of 1844.
MATERIALS: constructed of coursed and squared Greensand blocks and ashlar, and cast-iron fittings.
DESCRIPTION: the structure is positioned parallel to the road, orientated NW to SE, and has a dogleg plan. The right-hand section (NW) comprises a low masonry wall with stone capping, within which is a niche with chamfered jambs and a four-centred arched lintel that is inscribed ‘1844’. Within the niche is a cast-iron water spout in the form of a lion’s head, beneath which, and set into the niche, is a canted cast-iron trough with roll mouldings. Set back to the left (SE) is a further section of walling that is slightly higher than the former. It has a round-arched recess that contains a pipe; the spout is missing, and below this is a projecting funnel or brick or tile.
Sources
Books and journals
Lady Theodora Grosvenor, , Motcombe, Past and Present: being a slight sketch of some of the points of interest in its immediate neighbourhood, (1867), 48-49
Websites
Shaftesbury, in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 4, North (London, 1972), pp. 55-76. British History Online, accessed 21 November 2016 from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol4/pp55-76
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jun-2026 at 10:42:57.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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