Ralph Warboys’ caption to this photograph was
Mains water did not come to the village until after 1938 and not every house was connected to the mains until after the [second world] War. When I lived at 71 Longstanton Road, for normal washing purposes we used rain water collected in tanks. However, for drinking purposes, water would be fetched from this pump, my father cycling to the pump with a pail on each handlebar of his bicycle. However, when rain water was exhausted, to supply livestock with water my brother or I would be sent to the pump with a water barrow and would fill it with water from the pump, my father cycling down 10 minutes or so later to pull it back as we were not strong enough. I would ride his bicycle home with my right leg underneath the bar, not a safe practice but there was very little road traffic in those days.
At this end of the village a ground water supply is not available as the subsoil is clay for a great depth This pump and the one at the junction of High Street and Water Lane were supplied with water from a well on Manor Farm. The 2 inch cast iron pipe came along the public footpath, part of which exists between numbers 4 and 6 Croft Lane. At some point along the route of the pipe, probably at the junction of the aforementioned pipe there was a syphon to remove air from the system. There are many mentions in the Parish Council Minutes of expenditure to repair this syphon, usually employing Messrs Lacks of Cottenham and various individuals were paid sums of money to regularly operate the syphon. It will be noticed that this pump has two spouts. By turning off the tap on the bottom spout, water would come out of the top spout and by means of a suitable trough, could fill a farm water cart. A trick we boys would play on unsuspecting town cousins would be to turn off the tap on the bottom spout and get them to look up the spout while we pumped with the handle and they would suddenly be deluged with water coming out of the top spout!
The notice on the pump states that the water from the pump was to be used for domestic purposes only by order of the Parish Council. The original photograph appears in the Cambridge Independent Press and Chronicle (September 7th 1934) because, despite this notice, people with livestock still continued to use the water despite the threat of prosecution. The man in the photograph is Mr Len Missen, now in his nineties [he subsequently died in 2000(?) aged 97], living at 2a The Drift, and myself then aged seven. He is filling his water barrow and when he had finished I would have filled my father’s. In the newspaper article there is a humorous account purported to be written by the pump describing the controversy surrounding him. It was apparently written by Mr H. C. Webb or his daughter of Oakington House.
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