Village Pump

The Rev. Hayes, an ex officio member of the Permanent Parish Pump Committee from 1887 was instrumental in getting the pump constructed as a commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.   In 1889 the Public Water Supply pump was opened by the chairman of the Port Sanitary Committee on 5th December – it had been financed by public subscription and a grant from the City of London for 50 guineas (¹).

The bore was 312 feet  (²), at the junction of Canvey and Hole Haven Roads.  The well-head’ thatched mock-Dutch roof was of a type unique in Essex and had been designed by Clement Skilbeck; the structure housed wooden slatted seats; and an inscription read: ‘Whosoever drinketh  of  this  water shall  thirst again,  but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst’.