Tucked down a minor rural road, the Stroan Fountain, County Kilkenny was for a long time thought to date from the third quarter of the 18th century: a damaged inscription carries the numerals 66, leading to speculation that these were preceded by 17. However, the rest of the legible text notes that the fountain had been ‘erected by subscription by permission of the Landlord Gervase Bushe. Designed and arranged by Thomas Seigne.’ Bushe was resident at the nearby Kilfane estate, where Seigne acted as land agent from c.1830 to c.1870. The structure comprises a limestone basin covered with a dome on top of which sits an obelisk; by means of a buried pipe, the fountain is fed from a cistern approximately 40 metres to the north-west. The cistern is in turn fed by a natural spring. Three stone steps provide access to the fountain and its two outlets, one for filling barrels placed on a donkey and cart and the other for buckets placed on a pair of stones. By the start of the present century, the fountain and its surroundings had fallen into disrepair but thanks to a number of organisations including a local heritage society, the county council and the Follies Trust, it was underwent restoration in 2010.
So this was erected during the famine. No doubt it was a welcome resource for local people.
The Famine ended in 1852, 14 years before the date on the fountain.
The Great Famine had ended in the early 1850s and in fact by this date Ireland was enjoying something of an agricultural boom (altho’ a depression then followed in the 1870s, leading to the Land Wars and so forth…)
In the 18th century an architect such as Richard Cassels was expected to be a hydrologist as well with the skills necessary to construct fountains, reservoirs and waterfalls.
Indeed, it is interesting how many architects from the earlier period (Davis Duckart also springs to mind) were engineers who turned to designing buildings…