Wednesday 28 June 2017

Quagmires and Cairns

Barry, Graham and myself turned up to wall at Heathfield a little earlier than we would normally. We had hoped to at least have a dry start to the day. Our hopes were dashed by the wonderfully soggy squelch from  underfoot and the abundant and hearty bounty from above. Graham and I went to search out the owner of the site, Andrew, so he could show us the new section of wall. After a brief interaction with Andrews son through an upstairs window, Andrew, and consequently the wall, were located.
To say that we have some stone with which to remake this section is perhaps an understatement. Either side of a ramshackle wall were what some might call an informal cairn, but what others would, more accurately, call a great big pile of rock. To supplement this bounty there is a large trailer full of the debris we have rejected in previous years taster days.
Having described what greeted us at the start of the day, we are glad to inform our reader (at least I think we have a reader) that by the time we gave up, at midday, there were several rows of stone graded by thickness and a few piles or rubble for fill. To add to this, on one side of the wall at least, we have the beginnings of a rather fine quagmire.  Matthew popped along just before lunchtime to see that things were progressing properly and since he didn't say anything derogatory we presume everything is fine
We didn't take any photos of the day 'cause it was too blinkin' wet. You can all have a butchers next week. 

Richard H.
No. Wallers: 3.

Here are some pictures taken on 4 July showing the progress made by the team last Wednesday.  It is also a lot drier today.

Tony H.






In other news.
Following on from last weeks informal book cover review I found a link to someone who has actually read Andy Radford's book.
Here




Wednesday 21 June 2017

Soggy lunchtimes

Matthew, Graham Barry and I started a lovely days walling in the warm sunshine, the sky decided to spoil our day by raining on our picnic to which we responded by hiding under the largest tree we could find. Having eaten our soggy sandwiches the rain abated and we did a couple more hours in the afternoon and departed before it could rain on us again.



The wall at Mid day


The wall at the end of the day

On another note; As I was looking for stone merchants for the wall at Rossett school this image popped up. I have to say that I'm a little intrigued by it. That looks like bloody awful walling to me and yet he chose it as a picture for the front cover of his book. Am I being harsh? Have I misunderstood how one should build a drystone wall?


Richard H.
No of wallers:4.

Wednesday 14 June 2017

A spot of Gardening

No walling was done this week but Barry very kindly did a spot of gardening to clear the way for us to do a bit more next time.








Wednesday 7 June 2017

Inspection Day at Markenfield

Today we had a visit from Ian Curteis to inspect our work on the Park Pale wall and thank us for our time and effort. The team on duty was Catriona, Graham, Richard, Roderick and Tony.

Ready to be inspected

Graham's additional task today was to help a passing lady walker with a stuck jacket zip
  
At close of play after topping out one section and raising the next section by four courses
The view from the back of the wall
and along the top


Tony H
No of wallers - 5

Location: Markenfield Hall, Ripon HG4 3AD, UK

Finished at Dacre Top

Paul and I completed the repair to the east wall of the Burial Ground yesterday,


We enjoyed working at the site and the structure of the wall presented its own challenges, but we hope that it will be stronger for our work.

I am not sure that we feel stronger for our work, having lifted some very heavy top stones onto an unusually high wall.
 
Barry S.
No Wallers: 2