Dry Stone walling or An encounter with a stoat

Today we had our first lesson in dry stone wall building. We were at Bushey Norwood volunteering with the National Trust, assisting to rebuild some of the wall that had come down.

Our very capable teacher was Kim Jordan, also a volunteer. He taught us that these walls can come down due to animals digging and undermining the wall, trees and large shrubs growing alongside the wall and eventually undermining the wall with their roots or pushing them over. But that these walls can last for centuries if built well, up to a few decades if not.

We learnt that a dry stone wall is basically two walls of facing stones that are locked together with smaller stones called hearting. Along with keeping the facing stones of the wall as close together as possible, the hearting helps to lock the wall together and provides its strength. We also learnt that the wall is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, called its batter. Therefore with every layer the two walls become slightly closer together.

Both Lucy and myself did quite well. Lucy got lots done. Still not being very well I didn't do as much as I wanted and took rests, including some sneaky ones 'looking for the right stone' which meant prolonged periods of looking at the floor. A more productive break was photographing the stoat (Mustela erminea), an inquisitive little fellow that was rushing around checking on our progress as we rebuilt around his home.

Here's the little fellow having a look around.  

A nice moment having a good look at each other.

Lots of stone to choose from.

 

The probably cause of the collapse. This section will have a metal fence installed to keep the cattle enclosed.

 

A future project.

The result of our endeavours. Well the top course anyway!