Tate reports that “In the olden time there was a well within an arched recess of the wall of Clayport Tower; but a new pant was built for this well in 1752, at a cost of more than £10—carter’s charges being then 1s. 6d. per day, and a master mason’s daily wages only 1s. 4d. The tower was pulled down in 1804.
Tate lists both a “Clayport High Pant (formerly Kidland’s Well)”, and a “Clayport Low Pant”. We believe that the pant he calls “Clayport High Pant” is the one outside Westgate House. We cannot be certian, but the implication seems to be that the pant referred to by Tate as “Clayport Low Pant” may have been the one built in 1752, in this location, at the end of Tower Lane.
Pants in this location have been particularly accident prone. There was an accident in 1871 when a carriage and horse knocked the top off the pant, and killed a child. At the time the pant was described a being “of some antiquity”. Subsequently plans were submitted to rebuild the pant, and the structure is shown in old photographs.This pant no longer exists. It was destroyed again, by a runaway bus, in 1948, when the driver used the pant to arrest its descent down Clayport Bank after the brakes had failed.
No sign can be seen now on the ground, except for a manhole covering the point where the water supply emerged.