As reported in Grimsby Telegraph Tuesday October 25th GCDC’s 10-year investigation into the whereabouts of the town’s 150yr old Albert Fountain has at last come to some fruition.
We are very excited about this outcome!
Questions had been raised with various people about its whereabouts from at least 2013, but it was not until 2020 that the search gathered pace via Facebook and Kerry, a fairly recent member of GCDCS Executive Comm. took the reins to make a concerted effort to get it returned to its home town where we have long thought it should be.
The large, Victorian, ornate cast iron commemorative fountain and canopy was presented to the town in 1869 by Mayor Edward Bannister*. For many years it stood in Albert Gardens (hence its name ‘Albert Fountain’) near Grimsby Dock Offices until the late 1960s when the busy railway crossing necessitated the construction of the flyover into Cleethorpe Road. It remerged again in the late 1970s in St James Square for a short time before going back into ‘storage’. It is known that at some time it was damaged but not known why, how or when it disappeared from its hometown – and ended up literally ‘on the scrapheap’.
By teaming up with Dale Wells of Turntable Gallery in Victoria Street, Kerry has successfully bid for grant money from NEL Heritage Starter Fund to display the fountain and hopefully kick-start its renovation. After so many years, the general public will be able to see the Fountain again – but inside the gallery - from Saturday November 19 to December 15. It is hoped that this exhibition will raise interest towards its restoration and eventual final position somewhere in town. Alongside this long-missed Grimsby artifact will be an exhibition about Edward Bannister’s life as a philanthropist and driving force for art in the town.
GCDCS members are invited to the opening day of this exhibition on Saturday 19th November
*Edward Bannister’s donation was possibly influenced by the aims of The Drinking Fountain Association of 1859 as a means to provide clean, free drinking water to everyone at a time when cholera was much feared. By 1867 the Association’s name included ‘cattle troughs’ in an effort to provide the same for animals and one of these troughs can be seen today at Grimsby's Riverhead.