This massive granite fountain,12ft in diameter, used to stand in the forecourt out side of ST JOHNS HALL but was moved to its present site ( ST ANTHONY GARDENS) in 1933.
The Fountain was, in 1853, to celebrate the new town rail link with Truro (opened 25th August 1852). The best granite is to be found at Lamorna, used in some of Britain’s finest buildings. John Freeman was given the contract to work out the massive stone block; hewn out of the bed rock and eventually dragged up the dusty road from the quarry by bare sweat and muscle. Freeman’s had a stoneworking yard in Penzance, and that was where it was headed. However geometry, mass and dimension had other ideas – 15 tons of granite (on a waggon) into 1 narrow road would not fit, and so off up the hill and through the fields it went. Now gravity took over, the wheels firmly bedded into the field. Imagine, if you will, bringing a fresh waggon to the side of a waggon up to the hub in mud. Then apply levers and elbow grease to the stone mass, edge it half on each waggon, men on each wheel, 50 horses or more, straining.
As if that was not enough, remember that then, it was no easy route through Newlyn over the river.
New Road and Newlyn Bridge were not yet; and so, the old bridge was the only crossing. The original plan of the area will be featured in another part of this section on water around Penzance. Jack Lane was the route to be taken. Dimensions became a problem again, so down came a cottage front.
Across the sea front and then to Wherrytown, I wonder why someone did not consider that sewage works may have had some effect on the ground? But, no, once again the wheels were well and truly bogged down. Eventually with a major effort and accompanied by an entourage of encouraging watchers the igneous mass reached the quay.
The effort required in shifting the work from Lamorna to Penzance was no less continued in the local political world. I doubt there was more friction than that between the protagonists and that the gravity generated friction between granite and ground was probably considerably less.
The Municipal Buildings, also troubled in its history of building, commonly known as St John’s Hall (properly this is the name of the large public hall the Building contains) were completed and then opened 10th September 1867, also built of Lamorna granite. The upper section of the fountain had been plumbed and fitted, set into a choicely designed rockery. It was not unto 1871 that the fountain was joined by the granite bowl, now weighing in at a mere six tons.
