The Morgan Memorial Fountain, Warminster.
Words and photographs by Danny Howell.
First published in Warminster & District Archive magazine,
Spring 1989.
Older Archive readers will remember the days when the junction of Station Road and Market Place, Warminster, outside the Post Office, was graced by the presence of a drinking fountain. Known as the Morgan Memorial Fountain, it was erected by William Frank Morgan in 1892, in memory of his wife, Catherine, who died during August the previous year.
William Frank Morgan was born at Warminster on 7th May 1835. One of ten children (six daughters and four sons), he was the eldest son of William Morgan (died at Silver Street, Warminster, on 7th May 1875, aged 75 years), who founded a brewery at Silver Street, near the rear of the Ship And Punchbowl inn (a site now occupied by the houses of Obelisk Terrace). The family disposed of the brewery and some adjoining property to Thomas Bladworth who eventually sold it to Messrs. Bartlett & Co.
William Frank Morgan was educated at Lord Weymouth’s Grammar School, Warminster, c1843-50. His father wanted him to be a doctor and he left Warminster to reside with a relative in the medical profession, but he was unable to stand the sight of surgery. He returned to the town and established a successful malting business – at the time when Warminster was one of the greatest malting centres in England. Mr. Morgan’s malting business passed to his brother-in-law, Mr. Edwin Sloper Beaven, about 1902/03.
William Frank Morgan also played a leading role in Warminster’s public life, acting as “civic head of the town” for 18 years. His first great work was with the supply of water to the town – this was from a pumping station at Crockerton and Mr. Morgan’s proposals were supported by the Marquis of Bath and John Wallis Titt. One of his more memorable moments was when he proclaimed Edward VII as King, in Warminster. Mr. Morgan was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire in 1897, and was for several years the Chairman of the Urban District Council (until 1904). He was elected to the Wiltshire County Council in 1904. He was made President of the Wiltshire and East Somerset Congegational Union in 1888, and was a deacon at Warminster Congregational Church for 30 years. He was instrumental in founding Warminster’s Athenaeum, of which he was the Honorary Secretary for nearly 20 years. He acted as a trustee of the Almshouses at Portway, and was also an Income Tax Commissioner. Mr. Morgan contributed £400 to make the roadway at the Close, and he gave another £400 towards the cost of the Fire Station in the Close (built 1905). He was also instrumental in the transfer of the Town Hall from Lord Bath to the Urban District Council in 1904. In politics he was a Liberal and was Chairman of the Executive of the West Wiltshire Liberal Association. Mr. Morgan passed away on 25th March 1907; he left £34,000.
William Frank Morgan’s marriage to Catherine, the widow of Edward Wansey, of Church Farm, Sutton Veny, took place at Little Portland Street Chapel, London, on 31st March 1870, and was officiated by the Rev. James Martineau. Catherine was the daughter of Peter Martineau Esq., of London, a cousin of Dr. James and Miss Harriet Martineau, whose literary reputation was known throughout Europe. The Martineau family were descendants of an old Huguenot family who came over from France and settled at Norwich. Catherine’s mother was a sister of Sir Francis Ronalds, the inventor of the electric telegraph.
Mr. and Mrs. Morgan had a house built for themselves on the north side of Boreham Road, Warminster – a site previously occupied by the Rising Sun inn. Building of the house began in 1874 and the builder responsible for it was William Scamell of George Street, Warminster. Catherine named it Highbury after the part of London where her late father, Peter Martineau, had lived. Highbury House was later the home of the Teichman family, and in more recent years was used as offices by West Wiltshire Water. Now extended, it is currently used as offices by Numark Chemists, and the former grounds are now occupied by the Highbury Park housing estate (built in the 1960s).
Catherine Morgan died on the morning of Wednesday 5th August 1891 and was laid to rest at the Non-Conformist Cemetery, Boreham Road, Warminster. Her obituary described her as “a slender and graceful figure,” and referred to her as an admirer of the works of Wordsworth and Shakespeare. During the winter months she had held readings at Highbury House for her literary-minded friends. Of her past good deeds it was noted that soon after settling at Sutton Veny, following her marriage to Edward Wansey, she took an interest in the school connected with the Independent Chapel in the village. She had laid the foundation stone of the building on 9th September 1869. She also took an interest in education in Warminster, after becoming Mrs. William Frank Morgan, helping to establish a girl’s branch of the British School at North Row. She also visited the Warminster Workhouse every Sunday afternoon, attending to the comfort of those less fortunate than herself.
At the time of Mrs. Morgan’s death, the Local Board (the forerunner of the Warminster Urban District Council) had been discussing proposals to erect a public drinking trough and fountain somewhere in the town centre. Some Local Board members had suggested the top of Town Hall Hill (High Street), where the old Town Hall used to stand, as a possible site, and a subscription fund had been started. The matter remained under discussion until the September 1891 meeting of the Local Board when the Clerk, Mr. H.J. Wakeman, read out the following letter he had received from the Chairman, Mr. Morgan:
“Glencassly, August 24th, 1891. Dear Mr. Wakeman, – My dear wife was greatly interested in the proposal to erect in Warminster a public drinking trough and fountain. If the Local Board will kindly allow me, it will give me much pleasure to place, at my own cost, in her memory, in front of the Savings Bank, a trough and fountain of Aberdeen granite. I will also venture to ask that this offer may be considered as some indication of my gratitude for the unbounded kindness and sympathy manifested towards me at this time by all classes of my friends and neighbours. The design shall of course be submitted for the approval of the Board. Perhaps you will kindly read this letter to the Board at its next meeting, and believe me to be, very faithfully yours, W. Frank Morgan.”
Mr. Wakeman’s reading of the letter was met with applause by the members of the Board. Mr. R.L. Willcox proposed the following resolution:
“That this Board accept with thanks the generous offer of the Chairman to erect, in memory of his late wife, a drinking trough and fountain of Aberdeen granite in front of the Warminster Savings Bank.”
The Rev. W. Hickman seconded the resolution, and it was unanimously carried, amid loud applause.
The Warminster & West Wilts Herald, issue dated Saturday 24th December 1892, carried the following report about the addition of the Morgan Memorial Fountain to the street scene:
“It was with no mere curiosity that a small knot gathered in the Market-place on Monday afternoon for the purpose of making some formal mark and token of the erection of the drinking fountain that bears the inscription – ‘Erected 1892. In Loving Memory of Catherine, Wife of William Frank Morgan.’ Although the fountain was not quite finished the time was deemed suitable, for more than one reason. The ‘ceremony’ was very simple. Various parts had been fixed during the morning, loose stones were placed to order, the large three-legged crane was removed, and the first glimpse of the beauty of the structure was seen. A short stay whilst this was done was all, and then the members of the Local Board, who were present, marched off to the Town-hall for their adjourned meeting. During the evening and also on the following day, the fountain was visited by a large number of people.”
The report continued:
“The drinking fountain, which is the gift of Mr. W.F. Morgan, of Warminster, is Italian in style, executed in Peterhead red granite. The pedestal substructure, about 4 feet 6 inches square and 3 feet high, having a battered plinth, stands on an octagonal platform raised 6 inches above the road. On two opposite faces there is a projecting bowl receiving a jet of water from a bronze spout, and the supply is to be constant; the other two faces are flat, and on the one fronting the main street or Market-place is the inscription. Dog troughs are recessed in the bases below. The upper portion of the structure consists of four-angle pilastered piers, open arches on each face, and entablature above, the blocking course of which is surmounted by a dome, the latter being relieved by diagonal bands and a circular conclave sinking vertically over each arched opening, the whole forming a groined canopy, under which, on the centre of the substructure, stands an urn resting on a raised base. Some variety in colour has been obtained by the urn being made of grey Aberdeen polished granite, and also by portions of the red granite work having been polished whilst the remainder is left fine axed. The total height from the road to the top of the dome is 12 feet 6 inches; on it will be fixed a cast iron post, terminating in a cap intended to carry a lantern enclosing an arc electric light. Alexander Macdonald & Co., Ltd., of Aberdeen, executed the granite work and fixing; the iron lamp post is being carried out by Messrs. Carson & Toone, of Warminster. Mr. E.H. Martineau, of London, was the architect from whose designs the whole work has been executed.”
The fountain, popular as it was, remained outside the Post Office until the summer of 1937, when it was removed, chiefly because of the obstruction it was causing to the increasing amount of traffic passing through Warminster’s town centre. The structure had begun also begun to subside. It was re-sited in the Lake Pleasure Grounds, Weymouth Street, where it still stands today, between the putting green and the old swimming baths. It is now without the all-important drinking facilities and minus Carson & Toone’s lamp post on top. The ironwork of the lamp was probably taken for scrap to aid the munitions efforts of the Second World War.