Fountain, Ropner Park, Stockton-on-Tees

Summary

Ornamental Fountain, 1893, by Walter Macfarlane and Company of Saracen Foundry, Glasgow.

Reasons for Designation

Architectural interest:

* its well-proportioned composition with richly-detailed decoration and crisp moulding that survives well; * its unashamed brashness is highly representative of late-Victorian design and tastes; * a very good example of the work of Walter Macfarlane and Company, one of the best-known suppliers of cast-iron structures in the world.

Group value:

* its strong spatial, functional and visual relationship with the registered landscape and the other nearby park structures, in particular the cast-iron bandstand by the same manufacturer.

History

In 1890, Stockton-on-Tees Town Council bought 36 acres and 26 perches (about 14.6 hectares) of land known as Hartburn Fields for the sum of £8,250, to create a new park on the southern edge of the town. Concerns were expressed about the financial burden this would place upon the council and shortly afterwards, the council received an offer from Major (later Sir) Robert Ropner of Preston Hall, a highly successful local businessman and shipowner, to pay the cost of the ground. The offer was accepted, and in recognition of the gift, Ropner was made the first Freeman of the Borough and although he was not a Councillor, he accepted the office of Mayor in November 1892. A competition was established to attract designs for the park and the Borough Surveyor, Mr K F Campbell, was then instructed to prepare a final plan on the basis of the three best designs. The laying out of the park began on 25 July 1891, with the cutting of the first sod by Mrs Ropner, with a ceremonial silver spade. Sufficient work had been completed by June 1893 for visitors to enter, and four months later, a grand official opening by the Duke and Duchess of York took place on 4 October 1893, when it was named Ropner Park. The cast-iron, three-tier fountain was erected in 1893 as a focal point of the two main cross-axial paths within the park; it was produced by Walter Macfarlane and Company of Glasgow. Although different in detail, the fountain contains several elements found in other listed examples of fountains produced by Macfarlane, including examples at Lytham St Anne's, Vivary Park, and Ward Jackson's Park (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entries: 1463337, 1276258, and 1250392 respectively). The Ropner Fountain was chosen from the Macfarlane catalogue, where illustrated (see sources).

The fountain forms part of the Grade II* Registered Park and Garden (NHLE entry: 1001628). A £2.65m refurbishment of the park took place between 2004 and 2006, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This included the conservation of surviving original features, the sympathetic restoration of others, including the bandstand, which was also by Macfarlane, and the fountain.

Walter Macfarlane and Company of Glasgow were one of the most prolific suppliers of architectural cast-iron in the world. Operating from 1851 to 1967 out of ‘Saracen Foundry’, in 1875 the foundry covered 80 acres and employed over 1,400 people. Over 80 cast-iron structures in England which are now listed buildings are attributed to Macfarlane's, including telephone kiosks, sewage ventilator shafts, lamp posts, drinking fountains, urinals and bandstands. More listed examples of their work are known but unattributed, and the true number is probably several hundred.

Details

Ornamental Fountain, 1893, by Walter Macfarlane and Company of Saracen Foundry, Glasgow.

MATERIALS: cast iron.

DESCRIPTION: a three-tiered spray fountain. The octofoil lower basin is set into a concrete base. The outer rim of the basin has a repeating pattern of passion-flower rosettes separated by scrolled features with a central daisy flower motif. Small projecting pipes feed an outer basin enclosed by a circular concrete wall. A central cylindrical shaft is mounted on a square concrete base at the centre of the lower basin; it is decorated with an ivy-leaf upper frieze and four reliefs of two alternate scenes: one a squirrel on an oak branch holding an acorn and accompanied by a bird and a dragonfly; the other a putto wearing a campanula flower as a hat and sailing a boat crafted from a leaf. Around this shaft are four columns with chamfered and stopped octagonal bases and foliated shafts and capitals. One of the column bases bears in relief, the maker’s name: MACFARLANE'S / GLASGOW. Above is a large circular bowl with a leafy outer rim and bulrush-and-lotus-leaf detail on the underside. Above this, a slender moulded central shaft is surrounded by four herons with outstretched wings that are standing on a base of rushes, lily pads and lily flowers that act as spouts. The base is carried on an octagonal plinth with canted and rippled sides. Daffodil flowers project out over the heads of the herons rising from the central shaft. Atop the central shaft is a smaller ribbed and beaded leafy bowl and seated on a mushroom in the centre of the bowl is a putto, holding aloft a lily pad by its stem that forms a small conical bowl with a water spout within.

Sources

Websites
Friends of Ropner Park - History of Ropner Park, accessed 16 August 2021 from https://www.forp.org.uk/history
Macfarlane’s castings: ornamental fountains, park and garden seats, &c catalogue, 1885, p23, Walter Macfarlane and Company, accessed 31 January 2022 from https://archive.org/details/macfarlanescasti00walt/page/18/mode/2up?q=macfarlane%5C%27s+castings
Other
Ropner Park, Northern Echo, 05 October 1895, Page 4
Ropner Park, Northern Echo, 09 June 1893, Pages 2 to 3
Ropner Park, Northern Echo, 19 June 1893, Page 3 to 4
Whiteside, T, A Short History of Ropner Park, (date unknown)

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