Dewn Notes and Queries. 81 58. Exeter Water Sellers. — With a photographic copy of an excellent portrait in oils of Billy Wotton (one of the last retailers of water, at per bucket, in the City of Exeter, even after the Water Company was established by Mr, Goldsworthy), I enclose some bits of information gathered from various friends. W. H. D. writes:— The water carriers in Exeter sixty years ago were quite an institution Many aged and crippled men and some women got their living by selling wal^. They got a pair of shafts, very second hand, and wheels discarded from a coach or cart, often not pairs or near it, and a cask pitched all over to make it hold water. The pony, horse or ass was as ancient as the carriage, certainly it would now attract the attention of an officer of the R.S.P.CJL at the present day.
- When a poor fellow was down on his luck a collection was made,
and 403. would set him up as a respectable water carrier. The trade certainly cheated the dogs of their food. " The principal place for dipping the wacer was the opening to the river just below Exe Bridge by Bradbeer's brush factoiy. Here several of them could be seen at a time filling their barrels ; they drove into the river to the belly of the beast ; they ^ised a long pole with a tin can fixed to the end. In winter the ice had to be broken before tiiey could fill their casks, which soon got covered with ice. When the river was in flood they coold not go into the river, although some did so at their cost. The water, too, was dirty. To get the cart up the steep incline of Exe Bridge was painful work ; if the man had a family, wife and children had to work at it, and the blows on the beast were neither light or few.
- ' The water was soft and used for washing ; it was sold for a half-
penny a bucket or three buckets a penny. The receipts for one turn might range from 6d. to 8d., and four turns a day would be a good day^s work. I remember the cry, * Wathur, wathur^ three buckets a penny.^ They also dipped water put of the leate at the bottom of Exe Street •* When the new Water Company supplied water at 3d. per week the sun of the water carriers set. The horse or ass died, the cart and cask were burnt, and the man retired to the mansion on the hill, on his road to even a better one than that, we trust*' Mr. Vickers, of Topsham, an aged gentleman, says : — Billy lived on Broadstones" (this is now West Street, the con- Unaation of Coombe Street to West Quarter, and looks directly across unimpeded to Haldon). "He was by trade a mason, and his son likewise." "Brooksman lived in Exe Lane, and fetched his water in a barrel from the Exe at Exe Bridge triangle and sold it at ^d. per bucket." "Naughty boys used to play him tricks and puil the plug out of the barrel while he wsis away delivering his sold bucketfuls." G /
