I have foundry what I'm looking for

Last weekend when @BikerBabe and I cycled through Dalkeith, we paused at the Burns Memorial Drinking Fountain, admiring its neat cast iron fretwork and crocodiles and its cherub atop the fountain part.  I went down a rabbit hole today and learned that it was originally in the middle of the High Street, and latterly became part of a bus stop and a flowerbed.  The crocodiles or alligators apparently represent evil, and are "a reminder of the mortality of humanity".  At some point in the past, someone stole the cherub boy statue, and someone vandalised the lamp, which then had to be removed.  The drinking fountain was also changed for a different type.  By the 1960s it was a traffic hazard, because cars, and the canopy was relocated to Kings Park where it sat in a garden for 35 years.  Then in 2003 it was sort of rediscovered, repainted, and moved to near the library, but still fairly unloved.  In 2016 Midlothian finally got its act together and fully restored it, referencing an almost identical and complete drinking fountain in Govan to reproduce the cherub, and re-erected it further east along the High Street.

Yet, the whole thing seemed familiar, somehow, because I was sure that Newcraighall had a similar memorial, and gosh darn it, the castings reminded me of all those Lion and Saracen Foundry bandstands.

Today I cycled over to Dalkeith again and examined every inch of the memorial.  Sadly, I couldn't see a maker's mark on it.  If there is one, well, I couldn't find it.  So, I cycled to Newcraighall.  Dr Andrew Balfour kept a keen interest in the village, including helping trapped miners during a fire at the nearby Niddrie pit, and in 1907 they erected a memorial to him.  If you look very carefully at the bottom of one of the columns, you find – hurrah! – a Lion Foundry marking.  The fountain itself has its own marking, and was made by the Glenfield & Kennedy foundry in Kilmarnock.

But – it's not a Lion Foundry original, it's a copy!  Sort of.  The one in Dalkeith is a "Drinking Fountain Model no.3" and according to Memorial Drinking Fountains it was made by George Smith & Co.'s Sun Foundry, of Townhead in Glasgow, where Fresh Student Living is now.  When the Sun Foundry closed in 1899, the Lion Foundry came to the rescue and acquired its designs.  So Newcraighall's memorial fountain is Lion's iron, but Sun's pattern.  And it has dolphins inside, not crocodiles: dolphins being the guardians of water.  Well, they say they're dolphins but y'know, I don't know about all that: they look a bit too reptilian to me.  Unfortunately, two of them are missing and the other two, and indeed the rest of the memorial, are all very shabby these days with bits broken off and rust and moss and peeling paint, and deserves restoration.

Since the day was young and the sun was beautifully warm, I cycled into town to visit a certain three red telephone boxes on the High Street.  I can now reveal for BikerBabe (and @OutdoorEd, and anyone else reading) that the two outermost bear the manufacturer plate of the Carron Company Stirlingshire (boo hiss), while the central one was indeed made by our beloved Lion Foundry.

Fortifed by a doughnut and a nice sit down in the Meadows, I went to The Bike Station for another rummage, and got a pair of pedals and two bottlecages, again all for about the price of a cup of coffee.  A nice day was rounded out by bumping into my friend L while I was there.  She's an expert with Sturmey Archer hubs and owns more bikes than there are days in a month.  And with that, I pedalled home for some much needed hot chocolate.