Returning to the theme of looking at the lives of everyday Welsh people in the 19th century, here’s a photograph (again from John Thomas) which shows a group of women (and children) gathered around the village pump in Aberdyfi, Gwynedd.
What Was a Village Pump?
These types of water pumps were often termed “parish pumps” and, interestingly, aside from being a daily effort to collect water, they were viewed as being an area to gossip about local matters – “parish pump” continued to be used as a term for a local gossip space for quite some time after the pumps died out.
While an improvement on the older methods of collecting water, there was still no guarantee that the water provided by these pumps would be clean and this often led to cholera outbreaks. In Cymru, there were some big outbreaks in 1832, 1849, 1854, and 1866, respectively.
(Image Credits: Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru | The National Library of Wales)
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Niklas is the founder, owner, manager, editor, writer, video creator, voice over artist, and so forth, of Welsh Histories. He is passionate about the preservation of Welsh culture; the rejuvenation of the Welsh language and the promotion of Welsh history. Niklas currently resides in Pune, Maharashtra, with his beloved wife.