Comiston Springs Development

It being Sunday, when there is no building work at the old Hunter's Tryst school site, we joined Miss Flum* to see what progress has been made, especially regarding the safety of the two Peewit spring heads, which we hope are being treated with the respect any C17 historical building deserves.

Call it progress of a sort: the nearest to the road has been transformed from this, to this, to the present, exposing the depth of the piping. The original hollow-log pipes have been removed (they lie on the left of the spring) and been substituted with a modern plastic pipe (seen draining down towards the trench) which, no doubt, conforms to recent standards and is compatible with installations for the new development. Clearly there is masonry work to be completed, to repair damage caused by ingress of roots during the many years of neglect and to reattach the ball finial that had fallen off.

But who approved the construction of a wall so close to it and how high will this be? Who considers this and its counterpart little gems of local history so unworthy of sight or admiration that it be overshadowed in this way? Is this the reason that the scheme is hidden so well behind hoarding? Will the other spring head on the same site be disregarded in the same manner?

We had hoped for better, but, I fear, the desire to pack as many residences in unit space as is possible precludes any aesthetic or respect of those who would advocate restraint.

*This is from Miss Flum's photos, being rather better than mine.