Answer February 2020

The clue is a picture of Glover’s Pant, which is situated down Gilesgate at its junction with Tanner’s Row. It is  on the end of the Holy Island House. If you want to see it in Google Street view click here (opens in a new tab in your browser).

A pant is a Northumberland term for a public drinking fountain (as well as a word meaning a short, quick breath, as hinted at in the clue :-). Situated as it was in the old leather industry area of Hexham, its name clearly associates the pant with the glove industry.

According to The Report to the General Board of Health by Robert Rawlinson, 1853 (reference below):

Mr. Joseph Ridley having made a personal application to this Board to erect a new Pant or Fountain in Gilligate and to bring water into the same from the Seal Well at his own expense.  Resolved that the application be entertained […].

(Hexham Local Board of Health minutes, 5.7.1858) Resolved that a vote of thanks be given to Mr. Ridley and recorded upon the Minutes of this Board thanking him for the very liberal spirited and handsome conduct in having at his sole expense erected and also conveyed a considerable distance by Pipes the water to this Fountain and presenting it to this Board for the use of the Public.

Want to know more about the unsanitary conditions in Hexham in the 1850s? You can read the full report in the HLHS publication: A Dirty Town.