Legless Hermione

The Great Wall of Stainley. 

The garden has matured nicely although the rockery proved too much of a maintenance burden so it’s now just another area of rock and gravel.  The big news is that Hermione is no longer guardian of the wall!  It may have something to do with one of her legs rotting off, but she now resides in the bushes at the end of the right hand wall, looking faintly miffed (see below)

The rest of the wall is much as we left it back in the day.  Occasionally, a cope or two gets dislodged by youthful hi-jinks but otherwise it is as solid as …. 50 tons of Ainley Top rock. (more photos below).  Check out that cheek-end and recall the joy of cutting 200-odd coping stones!  Ah! them were the days!

Chris G.

The smile says it all!

'Tis done!  And as if you haven't all suffered enough, here's a shot of your steamed chairman looking more than a little relieved.  Please note all PPE in place!

Thanks to the Richards (who have become worryingly inseparable), Phillip, Graham, Paul and Roger for another (and final) grand day's work.

We resisted the temptation to start throwing copes on straight away and instead warmed up by clearing the odd tonne or two of spare stone from the site.  I've since photographed what I'll misleadingly call our 'residue' and sent it off to a local stone merchant in the hope that he might come and take it away.  Holding my breath?  I don't think so.

I have to compliment the Richards on their quantity surveying because, in the end, we were only a few copes short of the  length we needed.  They, of course, set to with muscular fervour and knocked up the required number in no time.

And then suddenly we could step back from the wall and ... it was finished!  Quite emotional really just to stand back and see what we've achieved (and on time!).

I'd just like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has contributed to the North Stainley project.  It's been challenging new territory for most of us but we've worked our way through the 'opportunities', learned from our experiences, and arrived at an end product that we can all be more than a bit proud of.  Thanks and well done everybody.

Oh ... I nearly forgot ... here are some snaps.

Looks great, dunnit?  So, what next?  The Great Wall of China has some embarrassing gaps; Hadrian could do with a hand in repelling the Scots, or we could .. just go back to gapping.  Watch out on Wally Nidderdale for next week's venue.

Nearly there ...

Were one to be the excitable type, one could hardly contain it this week after another excellent turnout and yet another great effort from all concerned.  Thanks to Catriona, Phillip, Richard, Richard, Graham, Ian, David and Barry for all their hard work.

What did we get up to today?  Well, two bolsters were finally condemned after the Richards had beaten them into metal pulp while finishing off the required coping stones.  Both, I thought, rathered showed off by knocking up several 6" numbers as well as the remaining 3" stones which have evidently become a bit easy-peasy for our muscular duo.  In recognition of their tremendous labours, I append a photographic record of the raising of the first cope.  Brilliant job guys!

There's a clue as to our second achievement in the phrase 'raising the first cope' and you'll have guessed that we also finished the two 2" courses to bring the wall up to full height.

The more perspicacious among you may have noticed that we've also had a bit of a tidy up.  Barrow loads of walling and rockery stone now await new owners in neat piles nearer to the road.  No decision as yet as to what we do with our leftovers - suggestions welcome.  Overall we probably have about 20 tons available which says nothing for my quantity surveying and probably confirms the old adage that wallers are never satisfied with the stone at hand!

 I just threw that one in for the hell of it.  By the way, the only suggestion I've had for a collective noun for wallers was from Richard the Younger, who came up with ' a retirement'.  Just shows that the yoof of today have no respect for their elders.

Prompted by Barry, I've been thinking - always a dangerous tendency of mine.  Next week, we should have all the copes on and be well on with site clearance.  But Wednesday 7th is also the date for our next AONB taster day which means Emma I, Elaine and David can't be there.  Catriona is also away and  I recall someone else saying they couldn't make it. 

My proposal is therefore that we skip next week and invite everyone who can make it to a topping out ceremony on 14th September with cake and fizz provided.  Although I know the Trust is planning to celebrate our achievement at some stage, it seems a more fitting end to the project if as many folk as possible can make the final work day even if it ends by lunchtime.  I'll probably do some tidying up in the meantime and, if anyone particularly wants to work next week, we can get some of the copes on and make progress on site clearance.  Let me know what you think, especially if you still want to turn up next week.  Unless there's a barrage of objections, we'll put completion off for a week.

Nearly there people, nearly there!

On we go and up she comes ...

Another week, another blog.  Two sorries to start this week.  First to anyone who didn't show up on Wednesday because I forgot to e-mail and second for the slight delay in blogging.  There can't be many takers for the first apology since we had up to ten people on the wall this week - Roger, Phillip, Catriona, Graham, Ian, David, a brace of Richards, Andrea from the village and, of course, your illustrious chairman.

Sterling work again from all members.  The Richards will persist in making perfect copes and who are we to discourage them?  The rest of us now have all the 3" courses in place and have even begun to put the final 2" courses on. 

David and I have agreed that the wall end is in need of some remediation.  It seems to have slipped (we can't possibly have built it like that!) so we'll tackle it next week while the rest move on with the top courses.

In an idle moment, someone asked what the collective noun for a group of wallers ought to be.  We offered 'batter' (already used for fish fryers) and 'course' (or maybe coarse) but we should be able to do better than that.  Suggestions please with 'a prize' for the best suggestion.

Project North Stainley ought now to be finished on schedule (given precisely as September-October-ish) but there is a lot of clearing up to do.  All the spare stone above 2" thickness needs to be cleared back to the garden entrance for disposal so that we can get the ground prepared for autumn planting.  We made a start but there's lots more barrowing to do.  Just think how good it will look after we've tidied up!

See you next week!

Walling on 17th August

Determined not to get behind again so here's todays' summary.

A select band of five on the wall today - Tony, Paul, Catriona, Chris and Ian. 

A warm and sometimes sunny day which gave us a great opportunity to give the wall more altitude.  We finished the 4" course and first 3" course and are about half way round the bend with the second 3" course. 

And, yes, we did produce some more copes and Richard the Elder has promised to crack on with more next week.  Meantime, here's a couple of photos for the record.

This blogging lark is easy enough once you get started ... innit?

Hmmm ... no posting on the blog since May 18th eh?  Still not much has happened really has it?  I mean we only started about here ...

well, all right ... here ...

and now we're ... here. 

 

  

Wall 1 is finished, done and dusted and awaits the arrival of Lady Camilla who will allegedly take her seat as queen of the garden sometime this month.

We finally concluded that, in true walling style, we weren't going to have enough stone or that, if we did, it wasn't the right kind (whenever is it?) for making coping stones.  So we threw ourselves on the mercy of our suppliers and asked for some nice 3" to 4" lumps for the purpose. 

What arrived was near double that size and, shall we say, tricky to work into copes.  So we got another lot which this time resembled a heap of broken paving slabs but at least had the advantage of being more workable. 

We ( OK, I) suspect that the stone we would have liked, was delivered instead to a team of professionals who, in four weeks, built several impressive stretches of new wall on the A59 road between Harrogate and Skipton.  Nice job guys, but can we have our stone back please?

We've since learned how to break the big stuff into useful building stone and Wall 2 has been gaining altitude encouragingly as a result.  We 're up to about 24" so far, and if the gang turns out in the same kind of numbers we've been achieving lately, we should meet our completion deadline of Septemberish, although at this stage we're not prepared to specify a year.

We've found the project quite challenging but we're feeling quietly pleased with the end result.  Keeping a good line and batter on a curved wall takes some getting used to but we've all been prepared to admit when something has gone astray and accept a bit of remediation.

By the way ... here's our wildlife monitoring crew hard at work (Attenborough, for a change, is just out of shot)



and here's the result of minutes of painstaking and patient study ...



Awwww!

And finally in the spirit of globalisation and understanding among nations, here's how they build dry stone walls in Turkey ... the whitewash gives me an idea for finishing the North Stainley wall ...  I wonder what colour Farrow & Ball would recommend ... ?

Walling at North Stainley 18th May

Greetings from the now sunny Pateley Bridge!  Finally I have been back walling again this week after my prolonged absence it was good to get back and feel the stone on my fingers, grit in my hair, rain down my neck etc etc.

Despite the dire look of the clouds above the rain held off at North Stainley and the promised sun did finally put in an appearance at the end of the day.

We had another good turnout again this week, the willing volunteers being:
Emma W, Richard (younger), Graham B, Graham D, Paul, David, Emma WP and Chris.  Oh and Martin (sorry Martin!)

We split up into teams with M n M tackling the first lunky and curve, Martin and Richard shoring up the seat for Camilla, Graham and Graham working up to the stile, Paul working 2nd lunky and final curve and David allocating and moving the first course of the semi circle wall.
Chris spread his talents amongst us all helping where needed and Richard from the village arrived just before lunch time to help split the monster stones ready for Davids first course next week.

Everyone got stuck in today and made good progress, especially Paul who raised his section of wall by 3 courses today, no small accomplishment!  Whatever he had for breakfast today we all want some!

The evidence of our hard work is below, it's really taking shape at North Stainley now and the features are starting to look part of the wall.

See you next week, Em

A seat fit for a Queen!

Walling at North Stainley - 11th May 2011

Now here's a first!  A tentative toe in the blogospheric water by your frankly-we-were-better-off-with-carrier-pigeons chairman.  Having listened while Emma patiently explained how one bloggeth, I promptly forgot and had to ask for a refresher this morning.  Suitably refreshed, here goes (before another senior moment kicks in)!

Thanks to Catriona, Em II, Richard, Paul, Graham, Phillip and Roger (and Jenny from the village) for another sterling day's work.  Commiserations to Em I who had managed to contract one of those rater nasty there's-a-lot-of-it-about bugs and wasn't able to join us in completing the foundation for the curved wall.

    It didn't seem that far when we set off ...

The rest of the gang pressed on with the main wall from the stile through to the final wiggle.  We're getting some height on now and the features are beginning to look the part with each of the lunky holes having a 'roof'.

Next week we can start using up the remaining 'big stuff' in the first course of the new wall and then that's about it really ... um, well perhaps not!  A plea to everyone - we're still short of coping stones; please keep pulling them out as you go and don't wall them all in just 'cos it's nice to cover 12" with one stone.

The question that keeps arising is ... will we have enough stone?  The only clever answer I've had so far is 'yes, but not necessarily of the right sort!' 

See you next week.

Walling at North Stainley 4th May

My triumphant return to walling appears to have been cut short by illness again this week - GRRR!

But we had another good turnout this week with the brave attendees allocated stone sorting to get the site tidied up.

The intrepid few were:
Chris, Catriona, Emma W, Graham B, Graham D, Paul and Richard.

There is never much to report from a good sorting but it's important work and will ensure that next week we find it easier to find stone and crack ahead with the fun stuff.

See you next week, Em

Walling at North Stainley 27th April 2011

Now (most of) the Bank Holidays are over I am back to walling again this week - hooray!

This week we had another great turnout from our dedicated team plus the additional bonus of extra help from the wonderful people at Byzac who were giving back by assisting with the North Stainley Community Garden Project.
This week we were joined by:

Chris, Paul, Emma, Emma (II), Tony, Graham, Phillip and Richard H.

The day was fraught with activity, we split into three teams, tackling the foundations of the semi circle wall, the wall end and the straight section with the stile and lunky hole.

With the extra help we made some good progress getting the height of the wall up by a couple of courses and some clearance work on Lavender Lane, another part of the North Stainley Project.

See you next week, Em

Coffee Break!

Byzac Volunteers

Beautiful Foundations

Byzac Volunteers get stuck in

Cracking Curves!

Walling at North Stainley 20th April 2011

Still no walling for me this week :-(  but I have it on good authority that a fine team turned out for the remarkably warm spring weather.

This week North Stainley was graced by Chris, Catriona, Elaine, David, Emma W, Richard, Richard H, Robert, Graham and Philip.

Walling North Stainley 13th April 2011

Well, I'm pleased to say I made a speedy recovery from the lurgy but the dreaded school hols are here which means I must take a break from walling and become a Mummy again for a couple of weeks!

I was however, not idle and spent the day at a Forest Schools taster event run by the AONB with my offspring.  I am pleased to report we had a thoroughly excellent day, running about and hiding in the woods, building shelters and drinking hot chocolate.  I can definitely recommend it to those with young children/grandchildren and I'll be booking onto the August taster as well.

Well it seems that the holidays and the change in the weather dampened the teams spirit this week and we had a smaller turnout than we've been used to on this project.

Big thanks to Chris, Catriona, Philip, Graham and Young Richard for braving the damp and putting in a days work to keep the project moving!

Photos are below, Em

Catriona walking the plank (I think you had to be there)

Walling at North Stainley 6th April 2011

Cough, Cough, Sniff

I have been struck down by the lurgy this week so unfortunately I cannot give accurate details of how the team fared, only to say that I was peeping enviously out the window at the glorious spring day that had sprung up to greet this weeks team.

Another sterling turnout this week with 11 bods on site:

Thanks to Chris, David, Graham B, Graham D, Richard, Richard (the younger!), Catriona, Elaine, Tony, Paul and Barry.

Chris is happy to report that we have created a seat for Camilla to grace, started the foundations of the second wall and generally raised the height of the wall throughout! 

Thanks to Tony for the photos below

Em