Wednesday 27 July 2016

Beautyless Spring Wood Top



A beautiful view from the top of Spring Wood, and yet Beauty (the horse) was missing. Without the distractions, that Beauty can so often cause, half the team were able to finish our first gapping job, whilst the other half started a new section at the bottom of the field.
It was a great relief to know that there was no great (big) Beauty on site... ...that there would be nothing sneaking up to bite the unsuspecting waller.


THE NEW SECTON














Roderick and both Richards work on a new gap. Half their time was spent relieving the fence post of it's position in the ground, and steadying the run-away earth bank


 Progress by mid-day



How things looked at the end of the day


THE FIRST SECTION
 Barry, Catriona, Matthew and Graham we able to make good progress by mid morning, unencumbered by the presence of the 'lower-field' wallers.

 















The state of affairs at lunch




 
The wall by early afternoon

















Job done.





















Before and After comparison


Richard H.
Thanks to Graham for extra photos.
No. Wallers - 7
Grid Ref: SE 14735 68149

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Sweltering Spring Wood

It was a tad warm at Spring Wood top. Barry, Matthew and I glowed gently in the summer sun. There shall be no mention of the fact that my t-shirt was dripping wet by about 10 o'clock, nor of the fact that neither of the other two seemed to be as adversely affect by the heat.

The promised day long thunderstorms materialised in the afternoon for a 2 minute downpour and swiftly left again, not tarrying long enough to ease my parched throat, thankfully Barry let me have a swig from his water bottle so long as I swore I didn't have any infectious diseases.

Unperturbed by our admonishments Beauty the 'orse managed to pull our temporary fence barricade to pieces as we lunched. She could be seen later at the far corner of the field, wracked with guilt no doubt.

We were later informed, by the landlady of the Sportsman's Arms who was out walking her dogs, that Beauty was in the habit of, suddenly and without warning, biting the hands of those that stroke her. Valuable information for the weeks to come

We departed at 3.30 the other two in fine spirits, myself a dried up husk in need of gallons of water.



The situation just before lunch


 




 The back of the wall by mid-afternoon
















The front of the wall at the close of play



















The back of the wall at the close of play.


Richard H.
Grid Ref: SE 14735 68149

Wednesday 13 July 2016

Spring Wood Top and Beauty

On arriving at the site today we were met by Beauty the horse, still wanting to be part of the walling team.


With a team of six it was decided to split into two groups. Graham, Richard H, Richard P and Tony continued work on the track side wall, whilst Barry and Frank made a start on the wall with the fallen tree.








Having removed the fallen tree it was then possible to start rebuilding the wall

Steady progress is made within the cage




The completed "fallen tree" wall



A rather heavy through is lifted into place



Time to stand back and check on progress for the day

and say goodbye to Beauty

Team leader: Richard H

Tony

Wednesday 6 July 2016

Wasps and Horses at Spring Wood Top

A second week at Spring Top Wood saw Catriona, Graham, Matthew and a couple of Dicks make the horribly hike up the steep hill to do some walling.

Awaiting them was a very bored and curious horse and a small nest of wasps.

Despite the remote location the bridleway was a veritable highway with no fewer than 4 tractors, 2 motorbikes, a quad-bike, a post-van, a Land Rover, several walkers and a few mountain bikers passing by.  Add in a visit from James from the AONB office and a nice quiet job in central York might be required next.

Progress was O.K. despite the horse trying to chew through what ever it could get it's teeth to, including but not limited to; Catriona's shirt, Graham's Gloves, Richard's Bag, and the fence. 

Here are some pictures of the days events.






Stripping out the old collapsed wall with the help of dobbin. The back-face was not walled just a dump of stone thrown in.















Starting to Rebuild




 At the end of the day




Team Leader: Richard H.
Grid Ref: SE 14735 68149