CUSTOMERS of this page have proved a font of knowledge in following up the theme of public drinking fountains to be found dotted around the area up to the early 1980s.

Billinge reader Alan Warren first turned on the tap by asking if anyone could name any sites of these now vanished thirst-quenchers, in addition to three locations he himself could bring to mind - Victoria, Taylor and Sutton parks. He also vaguely remembered one standing near the St Helens Parish Church.

Since then, I've been buttonholed by a number of nostalgia wallowers who managed to add three more - Gaskell Park, Parr (up to at least the 1970s) King George playing fields, Haydock, and Mesnes Park, Newton-le-Willows.

Though he couldn't expand this list, reader Ted Docherty wrote in to say: "I remember drinking from the public fountains in Taylor Park and Victoria Park. The earlier ones were made of iron with cast-iron cups attached by steel chain to the main structure. The cup was pressed against a button and became filled with water.

"Later models produced a little upward column of water when a thumb-button was pressed", he recalls. "These were more hygienic, since your mouth didn't touch the water nozzle".

Ted confesses that the fountains were often playfully abused by the kids. "You could soak your friends by squeezing a thumb over the nozzle and producing a jet of water at pressure".

AYE, Ted, there must be countless kids, now wobbling into the upper-age bracket, who can remember joining in that little lark!