John Le Maistre says he is investigating why the fountain on Grouville Hill has stopped working and has asked Infrastructure Minister Eddie Noel to help him solve the problem.
While everyone assumes that the parish owns the fountain, Mr Le Maistre says he has no idea who the owner is.
‘I am disappointed that the water does not appear to be coming out of the fountain and I am looking into it,’ he said.
‘We are fairly confident that the water has never dried up before.
‘We don’t know who owns it but I have always assumed that the fountain was owned by the public.
‘I have been researching it and I have asked Infrastructure to look into it.’
Before the development of an Islandwide water supply to homes and businesses, Jersey was dotted with hundreds of public water pumps and fountains where people with no access to private wells could get drinking water.
And in the Great Drought of 1976, when water supplies in the Island were rationed, Islanders queued to fill up during the times when their home supplies were cut off.
During his research, Mr Le Maistre has discovered that in 1972 a States proposition was lodged to give Grouville Fountain to the parish but it was withdrawn before a decision was made.
He believes the fountain, which is fed by an underground pipe from a well higher up on the other side of the road, was built during road-building works by General Sir George Don, who was Lieutenant-Governor from 1806 to 1814.
As part of fortifying the Island against the threat of French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars he oversaw an extensive infrastructure programme that included constructing 19 main roads so troops could easily move between coastal fortifications.
The first was Rue à Don, which connected town with Gorey, via Longueville, with the rise out of St Saviour to Grouville Church colloquially known as Grouville Hill.
