Turned on after a decade

25/10/2006

Five water workers have put the flow back into one of the region’s major tourist attractions.

Employees from Northumbrian Water have repaired the fountain which is at the main entrance to The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, County Durham.

The fountain, which is set in a pond built in the late 1800s and now proudly shoots water 20 feet in the air, has not worked for a decade.

Northumbrian Water’s ‘Just an Hour’ scheme gives employees, working within the company’s supply area from Berwick to North Yorkshire and across to the Pennines, the opportunity to spend at least 12 hours of paid work time a year improving local communities and the environment.

It took more than forty hours of hard work by Alan Thom from Aycliffe, Tony Walsh from Cramlington, Dave Lye from Darlington, Claire Burn from Newcastle and Paul Richardson from Tynemouth to restore the fountain to its former glory when it was installed in 1983.

The team of volunteers, who thoroughly enjoyed working in the beautifully manicured gardens of the museum which attracts 120,000 visitors a year, cleared two tonnes of gravel from the pond, repaired the fountain pumps, weeded the area around the dramatic feature and also cleaned windows and pressure washed footpaths!

Claire Burn, who works in Northumbrian Water’s information services department, enjoyed the break from her computer screen:  “It was a real pleasure working on the fountain at The Bowes Museum – it really brings the garden alive and I was very excited when we turned it on this week.  The ‘Just an Hour’ scheme, which gave me this unique opportunity, enables Northumbrian Water to give something back to and enhance communities.”

Matt Leng, Operations and Business Director for The Bowes Museum, said:  “Our thanks go to Northumbrian Water for helping in this way, the fountains are a delight to watch and will add to the pleasure of a day out at The Bowes Museum.  Half term week is a good time for the fountain to be switched back on as we are increasingly busy during school holidays as our programme of family friendly activities grows.”

For further information please contact Cara Hall on 0191 301 6720.