Drinking Trough

This Grade II Listed granite drinking trough was given to the village in 1937 by Mrs A Severn-Smith after the nearby village pond was filled in and a stream was re-routed. Cattle passing through the village on the way to market had nowhere to drink, so Mrs Severn-Smith provided the trough for their benefit. Nowadays cattle are no longer walked through Great Bowden, so the trough is used as a planting box. The inscription on the front reads "The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association" which was an organization set up in London in 1859 in order to provide free drinking water throughout the country in response to increasing pollution of public water due to industrialisation.