Conduit
The original conduit was a system built by the Greyfriars in around 1314. The underground lead pipes led from an intake house (said to have been demolished in 1979, but which is also recorded as being in ruins in 1987) which protected the spring three quarters of a mile west (1.2km). After the Dissolution, the conduit system was extended from the friary site to the Market Place, where the small, highly decorated conduit house building still stands. No trace remains of the original lead pipeline or the iron pipe which replaced it later on. It was the first public water supply to the town. It was a public water supply from 1597 until 1851, but continued in use as a drinking fountain possibly until the late nineteenth century.
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