There's a mouse on my nuts........

Well, the dry stone walling exams have been and gone and left several budding Wallers disappointed. The day was perfect with some sun and a chilly breeze to keep the entrants cool. The people doing their initial certificate were required to strip down and rebuild a straight forward section of wall of an area of 2.5 metres. This has to be completed in 7 hours. The intermediate entrants were required to strip down and rebuild a section of wall no less than 1m high and totalling at least 2.5 square metres in 7 hours. They also had to build a cheek-end (the end of a wall which would be butted up to a field gate post perhaps).

It doesn’t sound like a great deal of work at first sight, but I can assure you that it’s a tough challenge. All the DSWA building specifications have to be met while constructing the wall and sometimes quality can be overlooked when trying to achieve the speed to finish in time.

A combination of a lack of time and not meeting the required skill levels took their toll on the eight entrants with only two passing, one from each level. I wasn’t present at the end of the exam but I bet there were some very disappointed and tired Wallers – and two very jubilant ones! I feel sorry for those who did not pass, but the standards have been set and they must be achieved to gain certification. It also shows how good those Wallers who have achieved DSWA certification are. So there’s a tip for those of you who are thinking of having some walling done, ask for the Wallers certification and if they have a DSWA certificate, it means that they have passed a rigorous exam and that you will get a good job done.

Thank you to the examiners Paul and Sean for giving up their time to help us run the exam day. Much appreciated. Also, a big thank you to our Chairman, Alan Davenport who spent a lot of his time in setting up the exam, organising training days and being there for those who entered for their certification.

In the village of Silkstone Common a terrible disaster occurred on 4th July 1838. A torrential downpour caused havoc to the locality. Crops were flattened and the streams filled up rapidly with floodwater and burst their banks. It was due to the bursting of a steam flowing through Nabs Wood that 26 children aged between 7 and 17 were drowned; pinned against a ventilation door as a huge deluge of water hit them as they tried to escape from Huskar pit in which they were working. Had these poor children done as they were told and stayed at the bottom of the main shaft at nearby Moorend, they would have survived. Their tragic story is very well told in Alan Gallops book ‘Children of the Dark’.

There was widespread condemnation following the disaster, including that of the newly enthroned Queen Victoria, which lead to an enquiry being set up, headed by the future Earl of Shaftsbury. This enquiry into the working conditions of children and women in various industries eventually resulted in the 1842 Factory Reform Act which made it illegal for children and women to work in certain industries. In a cashed strapped mining family this Act was largely ignored for many years.

In Nabs Wood today there is a memorial erected by the local villagers to the 26 children a few hundred yards from the day hole entrance where they were so tragically killed. I quite often walk the dogs around the woods which is held in trust and made open to the public by the Woodland Trust http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/. I contacted the Woodland Trust to volunteer my walling services to patch up or rebuild the walls surrounding the wood to make it a fitting memorial to the children. They were very receptive to the idea restoring the walls and asked me to conduct a survey and give them my recommendations. I have completed the survey but I’ve been very naughty and not finished the report for the Trust. I will do very soon (honest Mark!!). I won’t go into too much detail as the report is not yet complete, but a lot of walling is required which will mean that a lot of stone will be needed to build walls where they have all but disappeared. So if you fancy making a donation to the re-walling of Nabs Wood in memory of the lives of those children who’s sacrifice helped make the working environment a lot better for the following generations, then I’m sure the Woodland Trust would be delighted to hear from you!

Well I couldn’t get my breath the other day. I’d been out with the dogs out was enjoying my second cuppa of the day when I spotted this mouse eyeing up my nuts! Now I’m used to others doing this but not a mouse. It was looking upwards figuring out how it was going to be able to get to them then all of a sudden it just ran up the rod which the nuts hang from and launched itself onto the nut holder and proceeded to gorge itself on my nuts. The cheeky thing! Nothing phased it – me, the dogs, or birds landing on the nearby seed dispenser. It must have been there for 10 minutes before it silently dropped from the holder onto the soil below and scurried away, no doubt for a well earned rest after all its acrobatics! No wonder the nuts have been getting replenished more often than usual!

Wee sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an chase thee,

Wi murdering pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion

Has broken Nature's social union,

An justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion.

An fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve:

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen icker in a thrave'S a sma request;

I'll get a blessin wi the lave,

An never miss't!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!

Its silly wa's the win's are strewin!

An naething, now, to big a new ane,

O foggage green!

An bleak December's win's ensuin.

Baith snell an keen!T

hou saw the fields laid bare an waste,

An weary winter comin fast.

An cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

Out thro thy cell.

That wee bit heap o leaves an stibble,

Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!

Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble.

But house or hald,

To thole the winter's sleety dribble,

An cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid schemes o mice an men

Gang aft agley,

An lea'e us nought but grief an pain,

For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But och! I backward cast my e'e,

On prospects drear!

An forward, tho I canna see,

I guess an fear!

By the bard, Rabbie Burns

Next week Hadrians DSW are on tour at the annual Army v Navy rugby game at Twickenham. So any ex Royal Signals or Queens Gurkha Signals who want to meet up with myself or Andy Suttie, we'll see you at the Signals bar before the game.

P.S. If you have any questions about dry stone walling or anything else which appears on this site, please leave your question in the comments section below each article and I'll do my best to answer them. Cheers, Les Young