A Huntingdon man is looking to solve the mystery of the missing fountain.

Anthony Alldis was bought a picture dated 1964 of the Sandwich Memorial Fountain, which stood outside the old County Hospital – now Millfield Park – in Brampton Road, Huntingdon.

He said: “I assumed it was still there but my wife said it wasn’t so I went to check it out and it’s missing.

“I have been to the archives office and Huntingdonshire District Council but no-one seems to know where it went.

“Huntingdon County Hospital means a lot to me, for family reasons, so I don’t want it to be lying in a ditch somewhere. Someone must know what has happened to it.”

Richard Meredith, of Huntingdon and Godmanchester Civic Society, said: “The fate of the fountain is a mystery.

“Where the remains are is now lost to record. It may have been crushed and thrown away or, again rumour has it, it lies in someone’s garage or garden.

“We know it was removed for ‘path widening’ or some similar reason in the early 60s by the-then borough council.

“I spoke to local historian David Hufford and he says that at the time – neither of us can remember exactly when but before 1974 – the-then borough council said it had become unsafe and was in state of disrepair.

“We have been told the stone work was shifted to Godmanchester Railway Station, which was being used as a council depot, and may have ended up in a house on Houghton Hill.

“One intriguing theory, and this can be deduced from the Montagu Archive, is that in the late 50s and early 60s Victor Montagu was appalled when he found out that the-then borough council was ­‘misappropriating’ overspill housing land.

“In particular, if memory serves me, Stukeley Meadows, originally bought by compulsory purchase, was sold on.

“He says at one point he was going to send back all the memorial ­trowels, presentations and articles the borough council had given his family because he was furious with what was going on.

“Whatever the dispute was, when the family had to give up the estate and left Huntingdon, the demolition men moved in.”

Do you know the whereabouts of the Sandwich Memorial Fountain? Email editor@huntspost.co.uk.