Drinking Trough, London Road, Morden, Surrey UK - Historic Upping Stones, Hitching Posts, and Carriage Blocks on Waymarking.com

All the text below was shamelessly taken from Wikipedia and the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough websites with a few words from myself at the end.

The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was set up by Samuel Gurney - philanthropist and Edward Thomas Wakefield - barrister in 1859 to provide free drinking water. Originally called the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association it changed its name to include cattle troughs in 1867.
Water provision in the nineteenth century was from nine private water companies each with a geographic monopoly, which provided inadequate quantities of water which was often contaminated, as was famously discovered by John Snow during the 1854 cholera epidemic. Population growth in London had been very rapid (more than doubling between 1800 and 1850) without an increase in infrastructure investment.
Legislation in the mid nineteenth century gradually improved the situation; the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was formed, water filtration was made compulsory, and water intakes on the Thames were forced to be moved above the sewage outlets.
In this environment the public drinking fountain movement began, initially in Liverpool where the local government was granted the ability to buy out the private water companies in 1847. It built the first public baths and then encouraged philanthropic public drinking water fountains.
This was taken up by Samuel Gurney.
The surviving cattle troughs are mainly large granite ones, in many cases planted with flowers. Earlier designs were of cast iron or zinc lined timber, but both were too easily damaged.

The trough has this inscription on each East side Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association
On the West side is a memorial inscription In memory of all the horses who suffered in the South African Wars
A nice touch.
Erected in the late 19th century it must have been revisited and the Boer War inscription added in the early 20th century.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/30/2013 Master Mariner visited it