Fountain Scrub Down
Brushes, brooms and a historical conscience came out of the closet when three Badsey women decided to smarten up a local landmark.
The 73-year-old High Street fountain had got into such a bad state in recent years that the conscientious locals decided to get down on their hands and knees to restore it to its former glory.
“It was so bad that you could hardly see it was there,” said Mrs Josie Dudfield, who scrubbed away her evening hours with Mrs Sue Goldstraw and her sister-in-law Mrs Pat Goldstraw. “You could walk by and not notice it.”
“It was all very overgrown, and the fountain basins were full of rubbish,” she said. “It seemed a shame that it had been left to overgrow.”
“We got a whole pick-up of rubbish from the fountain so you can see how bad it was,” she said.
However, the ladies efforts uncovered more than just a mountain of junk – they also revealed some intriguing mosaic stonework on the path leading to the fountain, previously hidden by grass and weeds.
This exciting discovery has inspired the three workers to put in some more spurts of work on the fountain.
“We thought we could plant some bulbs by the surrounding trees,” said Mrs Dudfield.
With thanks to Josie Dudfield for providing a copy of this article. Josie points out that it was not mosaic stonework that they found but squared paving stones, and that it was Pat's aunt who paid for the plants for them to plant.