Finished at Heathfield Taster Wall

Today we welcomed Shirelle to our short session to finish at Heathfield. Shirelle was on holiday from London and had recently been on a taster walling day with the Yorkshire Dry Stone Walling Guild at Leyburn.  On Tuesday she had been out with the NAONB Conservation Volunteers at How Stean Beck.

Other members of the team today were Graham, Matthew, Roderick and Tony.

Rain showers did not deter Matthew and Roderick from placing the last toppers on the taster wall

Meanwhile further down the wall Graham and Shirelle tackle the gap repair




The Taster wall is completed by mid morning

All hands move to complete the gap repair

The finished walls at close of play at 1.30pm 

We hope we might see Shirelle again in the future when she next visits Yorkshire. In the meantime we wish her well in her new job with the London Wildlife Trust at the Walthamstow Wetlands.

Tony
No of wallers 5

Nearly finished at the Taster Wall

Oh what a lovely day for walling. Nearly there on the main section, with just a few toppers to complete and tidy up the remaining surplus stone. The opportunity was also taken to partly fill in the repaired wall further down.  The team for the day was Alistair, Barry, Catriona, Graham, Matthew and Roderick.

At close of play

The repaired wall over the newly installed drainage pipe

Next week looks like a few hours to finish.

Graham
No of wallers 6

Back at the Taster Wall

Was this going to be the day we completed the rebuild of the taster wall. Sorry to say it was not to be, but we did add at least three courses and a number of through stones.  Also we did have a dry day at last.

Today we were joined by Alistair a local lad from a farm at Fellbeck.  He has previous experience of repairing their farm walls, but wanted further guidance. The rest of the team was Barry, Graham, Roderick and Tony.

Just before the lunch break

Back after lunch 

At close of play at 3.30pm 

A couple more courses and the toppers to complete next week

Tony
No of wallers 5

Taster Wall

Unfortunately we had to postpone last week's session on the Taster wall due to the heavy rain.  So it was with a high expectation that we would complete the rebuild of the wall today.  Having made a good start in dry conditions, regrettable we had to retire shortly after lunchtime when the rain arrived again to dampen our spirits.  Let us hope the weather will be dry and sunny next Wednesday.

The team for the half day was Barry, Catriona, Matthew, Richard & Tony.

At coffee break time and still dry

Time to make a hasty retreat from the rain 

No of wallers 5
Tony

Heritage Skills - Dry Stone Walling Taster Day

A return to the wall at the Heathfield Caravan Park for this year's taster event with 8 participants. The NAWG team in support were Catriona, Graham, Matthew, Richard and Tony (with a brief visit from Paul).

Before heading out to the wall a short presentation was given in the old Heathfield Smelt Mill (now used as the sports hall and for indoor events at the caravan park).

Inside the sports hall

Making sure the site was ready for the arrival of the group

Following a health and safety briefing the participants were spilt in to three groups to work on different levels of the wall.

The position at lunchtime before returning to the sports hall for a buffet lunch 

Later in the afternoon

Near to finishing time

Admiring the completed work 

A job well done by everyone (and thanks to Paul for taking this picture)

After the group had left

Thanks go to Andrew Harker for allowing the NAWG once again to demolish another stretch of his wall and hopefully we will be back to finish the rebuild next Wednesday. Also thanks to James Searle for providing the buffet lunch, refreshments and supporting equipment.

Tony
No of wallers 13

Preparation for Taster Event

A return to Heathfield Caravan Park on a much drier but not very sunny day. Further progress was made in preparing the wall for the AONB Heritage Skills Dry Stone Walling Event to be held on 19th July.

The team today was Barry, Matthew, Richard, Roderick and Tony.

Cleared down to foundation level by mid morning

Ready to start placing the foundation stones

The first course is completed by mid morning

Lunch break on two big tyres

A second course is completed

A third course completed at close of play

No shortage of filler 

Tony H

No of wallers 5

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