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Bull Ring Old Cock Pump

Dennis Williams

Gone but not forgotten
St Martins Church...Bull Ring....Just found this clip from Showell's Dictionary whilst searching for summat else.....and I have never heard of the Old Cock Pump before, and there is nowt in any refs I have......but there was an Old Pump Tavern in the Bull Ring....at No. 8 and a half Bull Ring .... I think this map confirms it? ...wonder if the Old Cock Pump was ever near the old Tavern...and that's how it got it's name..??

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There is a letter to the Birmingham Daily Post in June 1864 from CL of Dudley, telling of the story behind the blacksmith half-inching the pump handle...

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This 1875 image that Mike(jee) posted on the Bull Ring thread intrigues me as it seems to show a fountain next to Nelson’s statue. When the pump was located ‘in the middle of the street’ as per newspaper extract #3, was this where it was ? Maybe a drinking fountain was eventually installed next to Nelson when the old pump was removed from St Martin’s church wall. Viv.

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Well the date of the drawing being the 18th Century is contemporary with what Dennis has written and it looks very similar to the second drawing posted by Vivienne so I assume this is also a drawing of the pump in question.

City Bull Ring 18th Century  .jpg
 
I've just been looking at this website http://mappingbirmingham.blogspot.com/2012/10/pratchetts-bull-ring.html which has a good piece about Pratchett's Folly or the pump that was converted by Hollins into an Egyptian Conduit. From Hollins' sketches and the descriptions, it looks as if the white pyramid structure pump in front of Nelsons statue is Pratchett's Folly. That would be in line with Piggott Smith's map, showing the old cock pump on the opposite side of the church wall to the statue.
 

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The old pump seems to have been neglected by 1843. Viv.
Great poem. Surprised to see the word 'caput' in there. I presume it means broken as it does now, but I thought it was a word brought back from the trenches in WW1 (German Kaput) and not in common use in 1843.
 

Did you know?​


Kaput originated with a card game called piquet that has been popular in France for centuries. French players originally used the term capot to describe both big winners and big losers in piquet. To win all twelve tricks in a hand was called "faire capot" ("to make capot"), but to lose them all was known as "être capot" ("to be capot"). German speakers adopted capot, but respelled it kaputt, and used it only for losers. When English speakers borrowed the word from German, they started using kaput for things that were broken, useless, or destroyed.
 
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