Rising Universe
Coordinates: 51°03′48″N 0°19′56″W / 51.06333°N 0.33222°W
The Rising Universe, more commonly known locally as the Shelley Fountain, was a large kinetic water sculpture in Horsham, West Sussex, England. It was created by sculptor Angela Conner and installed in 1996 to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was born near Horsham. The fountain was dismantled and removed from its town centre location in June 2016 after District Councillors voted that it had "reached the end of its serviceable life."
The fountain consisted of a large globe mounted on a pillar. The globe was designed to fill with water pumped from below: as the sphere filled it would descend slowly (over a period of about five minutes) after which a torrent of six and a half tons of water was released into the basin below; it then quickly rose and the cycle started over again. It was 45 ft across at its base, standing 28 ft high.
An extract from Shelley's 1817 poem 'Mont Blanc' appeared on a plaque on the sculpture:
The everlasting universe of things
Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves,
Now dark – now glittering – now reflecting gloom –
Now lending splendour, where from secret springs
The source of human thought its tribute brings
Of waters, – with a sound but half its own,
Such as a feeble brook will oft assume
In the wild woods, among the mountains lone,
Where waterfalls around it leap for ever,
Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river
The fountain was switched off in the spring of 2006 to conserve water due to water shortages in the south of England. Although the water was recycled, it lost 180 gallons of water a day to filtration and evaporation. It was switched on again in November 2006. In May 2008 the fountain was turned off again due to the failure of its main hydraulic cylinder. On 19 January 2009 the fountain was fenced off for repairs.
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