There is a rather splendid old dry stone wall that marks the border between the road and Shorefield. I have no idea how old it is - but like most of these old wall it represents an enormous investment in time and effort and materials for someone at some point in the past. I know very little about dry stone walls, but you can tell that this is essentially two separate walls, locked together at intervals with stones that tie the two together. The 'space' in between is filled with rubble. This one then has an attactive run of capping stones along the top.
Sadly, the wall has been knocked down at a number of points along its course, almost always through being hit by cars, which usually go right through it. Rebuilding the wall is a long-term ambition, but it takes ages, requires a highly skilled craftsman, and therefore costs a lot of money. In the short term we need to make it stock proof so we have blocked up the gaps using stobs and rails - avoiding wire if at all possible.
We had a good afternoon - James did most of the hard work, Dolly provided the expertise and I fetched and carried a bit and generally got in the way. We just have one gap left to fill now - but James has an old gate that he reckons will do the job perfectly. We are another step along the way to introducing the beasts onto the ground...
The picture above is from a Guardian article and shows the two walls that comprise the finished article quite clearly.
Thanks for sharing, it looks interesting!
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