The Drinking Fountains of Torquay: Cary Park

The speaker at the Museum Society today was John Walters, on the wildlife highlights of 2021. John is a wildlife artist, film maker, photographer, and speaker, whose work has often featured on Springwatch and other wildlife programmes. It was marvellous. No use trying to get a photo of my own, so I went up the road to Cary Park, and carrying on from yesterday’s theme blipped another drinking fountain, one of the very few not built into a wall.This was a grand affair when it was erected.  It was made by the Royal Marble Works in Torquay, and inscribed ‘Erected in the memory of R.S.Cary of Tor Abbey, by his widow, AD 1903.’ However, the fountain has lost its crowning glory. Originally from the basin sprang… a column of Petitor  marble and red granite, supporting a bowl of Petitor marble with three carved lions’ heads, from each of which the water flows to the bowl below. Metal cups were provided to catch the water as it fell from the upper bowl into the basin.
R.S.S. Cary was born in 1828. When he inherited the abbey it was in dire financial straits and had to be closed up. When he returned to Torquay he was shunned by society as it was said he had taken a wife of lower status. He became  something of a recluse but still gave or sold on generous terms, many areas of land to the town, including Cary Park itself. You can’t please everybody though.
The Torquay Times commented ‘use without ornament is a frequent occurrence, use and ornament is better still, but ornament without use is no good at all.. This  is a fair description of the Fountain in Cary Park. It’s too high for anyone to get a drink from in comfort, and it splashes the passers-by continually. Most people give it the cold shoulder and pass by on the other side. Drinking fountains… to be continued.