Listed Building: Richard Henry Reeve Memorial (DSF18556)

Memorial to Richard Henry Reeve erected in 1890. The memorial fountain to Richard Henry Reeve was erected in 1890 by his cousin Mary Ethelind Franey. Reeve is listed in Harrod’s Directory of Norfolk (1877) as ‘solicitor; clerk to the justices for Mutford and Lothingland; clerk to the commissioners for income, land, and assessed taxes, clerk to the commissioners of sewers for the hundreds of Blything and Mutford, Lothingland and Wangford, superintendent registrar of the districts of Mutford and Lothingland, office, High Street.’ He purchased the title of Lord of the Manor of Ashby, a tiny village on the Waveney near Beccles. The year after his death the Borough of Lowestoft Council Minutes (8 October 1889) records a letter from Mr C T Turner asking permission for an ornamental fountain for the use of the public to be installed in front of the Royal Hotel, adding that if approved the donor would submit a plan and design. A sub-committee was appointed and their approval of the scheme was recorded on 29 October. The identity of the architect is unknown. The memorial fountain was installed on Royal Plain in a large circular basin but concerns about its safety led to the removal of the basin and its replacement by four smaller ones fixed to the base of the fountain. After the First World War the site was required for the town’s war memorial, and the Reeve memorial was moved, without the fountain basin, to its present site in Kensington Gardens in 1921. MATERIALS: the memorial has a granite base, a plinth and column of Portland stone, and a lion cast in bronze. PLAN: it is located in Kensington Gardens on the east side of the boating lake. EXTERIOR: the memorial is in the form of an Ionic column with a square plinth. Around the base of the plinth the following words are inscribed on four brass tablets: IN MEMORY OF/ RICHARD HENRY REEVE/ LORD OF THE/ MANOR OF LOWESTOFT/ WHO DIED OCTOBER/ 1888 THIS FOUNTAIN/ IS ERECTED BY/ MARY ETHELIND FRANEY. The lower third of the column, which is fluted, is surmounted by an Ionic capital. Above this is a small square section of entablature with a dentilled cornice upon which rests a bronze winged lion sejant on a boat. The column is supported by a moulded cruciform plinth which in turn rests upon a two-stepped concrete base.