A beautiful calm Spring morning at Markenfield and dry underfoot for the walk across the field to stile. Rob, Rod, Duncan & Barry added some courses, serenaded by an insistent chiffchaff in the adjacent trees: a gang of jackdaws were less tuneful. The pleasant aroma of wild garlic teased our nostrils as we worked, and we completed the fill for a 2.45pm departure, having made satisfactory progress in the warm sunshine.
Barry S.
No. wallers: 4
A brief but busy ‘bits and pieces’ sort of day for Barry, Andy, Val and Chris. We finished at lunchtime (a pre-emptive strike before the rains arrived!) having brought the wall end by the gate up by a hefty course, having added some copes to the stint after the stile, having levelled up a course on the front of the wall and having revisited the barn to sort out a 100 or so copes to get us eventually as far as the gate.
Chris G.
No Wallers:4
Roderick and I arrived to find that Clive had kindly moved the topping stones that we’d sorted out to the stile and wall.
The four of us gathered at M as planned. After some discussion we added
a couple of thinish courses and laid on such coverbands as we could lay hands
on. Barry left us at lunchtime and we started on finding and adding
copes. We agreed amongst ourselves that it was best to stop after the
first 10 so that we could get a view from others. Somewhat weary anyway,
we packed in at 2:30 having made a bit of progress on the next stretch.
There are a couple of issues. First of all, doubling the copes doesn’t
match the rest of the wall (Barry made the very valid point that this is the
stretch most walkers will notice as they approach the stile) but given the
width of the wall we don’t have any alternative that I can think of.
Secondly, we don’t have much of anything left in the way of coverbands to
complete the rest of this stretch let alone enough river rock to complete the
copes. This might mean that, by the time we reach the gateway, we’ll be
walling in a different style. The width is an issue as it tends to point
towards heftier walling stone which is now in short supply (no problem at all
with fill!). I guess there’s little alternative but to bash on and complete
the copes on the stretch that already has coverbands, leaving the ‘what next?’
solution until we get the remainder of the wall to full height. Any
alternative suggestions would be welcome before next week.
Chris G.
No Wallers:4
Unbeknown to Duncan, Roderick arrived early and started work on the Fogfield wall next to the style. Duncan waited in the farmyard at Fogfield for Roderick to arrive and eventually wandered over to the wall and found Roderick hard at work. Three courses were laid each ranging from 1” to 5” to account for the height differences between the field wall and the wall by the roadside. Stone that was by the wall and suitable as toppers was laid, leaving about 5 meters of toppers required. We then sorted out some toppers from the pile in the farmyard, ready for Clive to transport to the wall.
No. Wallers:2
There were only the two of us, guess that Rob - wise man - looked out of
the window and opted on staying in the dry as it was a pretty dismal day. We
decided that Chris was quite right about the footings by the gate being
decidedly narrow so relaid them with much larger stone at over 750mm / 30ins +
wide. It isn’t as wide as the surviving bits of wall but seems to be tapering
in all right. Some of the joints particularly on the cheek end by the gate
look pretty rough, but they are stable.
We pressed on till 2.30 by which time we were both pretty sodden I was
blending into the muddy landscape and Andy had come in his all weather - as in
all weather in the cab - Land Rover and we felt it was time to head for the
warm and dry.
Roddrick L.
No. Wallers: 2
First task of the day was to gather stone from the supply pile & shift
into the tractor loader for transport to the stile.
Deft handling by Clive placed the first load on the path, and later a second
load was delivered, giving us a generous amount to bring the field wall up to
height.
Finishing at lunch as planned, Duncan & Barry had handled a good weight of
stone and placed some of it on the wall in wet and increasingly muddy &
slippery conditions.
Welcome birdsong in the trees and curlews & oyster catchers overhead.
Swathes of snowdrops en route herald better weather to come.
Barry S.
No. Wallers: 2
