Alverton Well, that for many years was one of Penzance’s sources of drinking water, was tidied up by three Penzance OCS members last Sunday. Although Cormac occasionally clear the base of the well, cutting back the overhanging vegetation and the accumulated dead leaves was long overdue.
In Reminiscences of Penzance, GC Boase notes that …a number of men and women get their living by bringing water in earthenware pots from shoots, pumps and wells at 2d a turn …the best known source is Alverton Well.
And one of the best-known water carriers was Phyllis Rowe who was often photographed with her pitchers at Alverton Well. The date of the below photo is unknown, but it shows very clearly water flowing from the spout. It is a natural spring that still flows when the water table is high.
The granite surround of Alverton Well has no date unlike the other spring fed shoot in Penzance, at Lescudjack, dated 1827. Around the town three other ‘shoots’ can still to be seen, these were fed from the old reservoir built in 1757. They are:
- the old sluice and shoot at the end of Clarence Terrace, dated 1829
- the one below St Mary’s Church -under Chapel Yard: 1832.
- the shoot at the end of South Parade, near Morrab Gardens: 1833.
There was leat, an open channel, supplying Penzance with water from at least 1655, and in 1750 in was joined by a new leat from Madron Well. In 1757 a reservoir was built at the top of Causewayhead to hold 11,331 gallons of water, and cost £132. It stood open to the elements until 1930 by which time it was no longer in use, then covered over for the Market extension. In the 1960s it became a car park, and now the site is occupied by the Pixel.
Robin Knight
Recorder, Penzance oCS
