For the past couple of weeks Dale has been overseas attending workshops, telling stories, teaching, and eating some delicious looking foods, but still has managed to spot folklore treasures for me on the other side of the pond. Dale spotted this repurposed horse watering trough on the harbour in Stromness, Orkney, which now serves as a lamppost/ plant holder with fabulous feet! A close up of the hooves:
Watering troughs made specifically for horses are something you can find in Canada as well as overseas - in fact, there's one in Bowring Park that used to be on Water Street, which was featured as a folklore photo back in July. Having accessible public water was important for people and animals alike, especially considering horses would have been working hard downtown as transportation for both people and goods. Having a (separate, of course) place for workhorses to grab a drink was an important element to the downtown scene. This one, however, is especially great looking; tailor made with hooves to handsomely hydrate horses. I'm in love with this!
Have a water folklore photo to share? Please email me at Sarah@heritagefoundation.ca - I would love to see it!
Sarah
2 comments:
The fountain had little water spouts that could be used by humans - a small tin cup was attached by a chain to the fountain for this purpose!
Hi Fran! Thank you so much for sharing that - I have heard of the communal tin cup before, but I didn't realize the horse fountain downtown had been also rigged for people to use as well! That's very neat!
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