Walling at North Stainley 23rd March

Week 3 at North Stainley.

Another week with a bumper turnout in glorious weather, everyone put in a lot of hard work under the blazing sun and cake was provided to reward effort and celebrate the return of Tony to active walling.

This weeks motley crew were:
Emma W
Richard
Richard
Catriona
Robert
Barry
Martin
Emma WP
Philip
Graham D
Tony

We quickly took an executive decision to leave the rest of the foundations for this week and work on building up a couple of courses along the completed sections.  We split into 3 teams and got on with the job!

Graham & Emma ponder the curve

Hastily improvised curve lines

lovely bit of straight wall!

Progress at the wall end

Progress was slow in the heat but end result was worth it.  About 2 to 3 courses completed by each team, thanks to Tony for the pictures below!

Back to work again next week, hopefully we get more of the same weather.

Cheers, Em

Walling at North Stainley 16th March

Well week two at North Stainley proved to have many firsts for all or some of us!

Firstly we had two new mu.... ur volunteers join us.  Welcome to Emma and Richard - both too good for first time wallers!

Next we had an unprecedented turnout, 13 on site!  The intrepid band this week were:

Emma W(new)
Richard (new)
Graham B
Graham D
Ian K
Philip
Paul
Barry
Catriona
Richard
Emma WP
Chris
Robert

Thanks to all of you for turning out and slogging away at a full days foundations, it may be my favourite part of walling but it isn't for everyone!



Catriona shifting stone

Looking at it won't improve it!

Plenty of room for Hermione

Prepared for the unexpected we tackled our 'raised' foundations (not as easy as they look) and after a few false starts ended with a stunning cheekend and fabulous sinuous curved wall, with ready prepared recess to house Hermione and two Lunkies!



Not bad for a days work

Looking forward to laying the first course next week, Em

Dry Stone Walling Courses at Craven College

For anyone looking to improve their skills or to learn some more about the wider aspects of walling Craven College are running Dry Stone walling Association (DSWA) accredited courses.

I have attended the DSWA Initial course at Craven College and can recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fast paced and thorough introduction to walling. 

In addition to the standard walling qualifications they are offering three interesting sounding courses at Winksill Farm in Settle, they start from 12th April with "Introduction to the Ecology of Dry Stone Walls"  and cost £25 per session.  See the link below for the full list of the courses available.

Cheers, Emma

http://www.craven-college.ac.uk/index.php/professional/dry-stone-walling/

Walling at North Stainley 9th March 2011

Welcome to our first Blog!

Here is the weeks activity from North Stainley.

The residents of North Stainley were rudely awakened on Monday morning by the sound of 20 tonnes of beautiful sandstone being ceremoniously dumped into their community garden.

And that is what 20 tonnes of walling stone looks like!

Well it isn't much use sitting in a large pile so the main focus on Wednesday was to get it closer to the foundations that have been kindly predug for us and to sort it by size so we know exactly what it is we've got.

Wednesday started out with changeable weather (hale in some parts) but by the time the team was assembled in North Stainly we were treated to a pleasant breeze and blue cloudy skies.  We had a good turnout this week, seven of us in all with the added bonus of Richard from the village committee who proved to be spritely and willing (a valuable trait considering the task ahead).  The team of hardy workhorses were:
Catriona
Chris
Barry
Martin
Emma
Philip
Paul
Richard

We got on with the task at hand, shifting and sorting as we went until our tea break when one bright spark suggested a more ordered approach of designating roles into shifters and sorters (she'll remain nameless).  We slogged on through the next 20 tonnes finally finishing just before 2pm and were rewarded with a field of neatly stacked stone and two piles of cheekend stones and throughs.  The evidence of our hard work can be seen below.

All in all a rewarding if back breaking day!  The rain managed to hold off until the last minute as well!

See you next week

Em