Checking old stone piers at John Cooper's yard

This morning I had to adjust the press release which the town council will send out later today. I had to write a quote which I usually find difficult, so I end up speaking out loud to see what I have written sounds like. So that means I keep wanting to change it.

The reason for the press release is that we have had to remove the gateway from the High Street into Bank Gardens, which is managed by the council and leads to Lansdown Hall. We need to provide proper flat access for everyone including wheelchairs and buggies, as well as the Green Spaces team's equipment, and that required the old Cotswold limestone piers, which were in very poor condition, to be removed temporarily. The gateway needs to be widened, the drainage improved and a completely new tarmac surface to be laid.

There has been many 'discussions' with the District Council who own the site and their conservation officers about how much stone can be reinstated because of its poor condition. The piers were removed last week and taken to the builder's yard which is in a former quarry beside the road up Brimscombe Hill. Today we had to rendezvous there to discuss how much can be retained and how much new stonework will be needed to be carved.

The lumps of stone in the centre of the picture are from the two deconstructed piers. From the left are John the builder, Nick the architect, John's son, who is part of the building firm, Johnny, the stonemason, who will reinstate the whole thing, and Chris, a surveyor and our project manager. After much discussion we think we have a solution, which we hope will satisfy everyone and not be a bodge job.

As chair of the Lansdown Hall working Group I am overseeing this whole process because it will be essential to the next stages of improvements to the hall which will be starting in the summer. Hopefully the press release will explain to the public what we are doing and why.

NB:
This quarry is located about four hundred yards from the pond I blipped yesterday and is at approximately the same height.