Wall Arch On Pitsmoor Road

[Cody's Granddad]

Ok good find but the horse trough doesn't explain the arch   

[vmam]

5 hours ago, Cody's Granddad said:

Ok good find but the horse trough doesn't explain the arch   

I'm afraid it does, it's shelter for the horses head while it's drinking.

[Slighty batty]

1 hour ago, vmam said:

I'm afraid it does, it's shelter for the horses head while it's drinking.

Not sure how that would work. If you look at the drawing which mad-dad posted, the horse trough wasn’t in a recess. The horses head wasn’t under the arch?

[Slighty batty]

Or did you mean that it was a strengthening arch so that the wall would be less likely to tumble down at that point?

[mad-dad]

1 minute ago, Slighty batty said:

Or did you mean that it was a strengthening arch so that the wall would be less likely to tumble down at that point?

Couldn't it just be a decorative feature? 

Or maybe originally some way of getting water into the trough?

After all, we are talking Victorian

[Cody's Granddad]

6 minutes ago, mad-dad said:

Couldn't it just be a decorative feature? 

Or maybe originally some way of getting water into the trough?

After all, we are talking Victorian

I think the horse theory is flawed, maybe the road was much lower in Victorian days and its the top of an old entrance

 

[TedW]

The area had not long since been fields. Troughs would have been placed at the edge of the road / edge of the field. When the land was built on and the builder decided to wall off the surrounding garden, the highway surveyor possibly made clear that the trough had to be retained. So to avoid losing any area of garden, the trough had to stay on the line of the wall. That decided, an arch was the most ecomomical structure to support the wall over the trough. Plus if it could be accessed from the garden side, any animals or gardener from the house could be satisfied.

Thoughts?

[mad-dad]

Pinched this photo off of Sheffield History Chat forum. As can be seen, the stonework at each end of the arch appears to terminate at the lower course of the wall stonework. Surely it would carry on downwards with the wall butting up against it if it was originally a pedestrian access arch to the property prior to street level being raised

 

I'll stick with the horse trough theory for now

[mad-dad]

Tezden's earlier post also shows this feature

[vmam]

3 hours ago, Slighty batty said:

Or did you mean that it was a strengthening arch so that the wall would be less likely to tumble down at that point?

I can't decide what the Victorian builders had in mind but it was given an arch for a reason.