A week before the course we had the worst snow storm of the winter so far. The snow was about six inches deep resulting a family meal at the Cherry Tree in High Hoyland to be postponed in favour of the Chilli Lodge at Westfield Park which is walking distance. I must say it was excellent - and so was walking through the snow, there and back!
Saturday arrived with a good forecast and no wind. Temperatures were good for this time of the year. The first part of the course is always spent in the classroom going through the theory and health and safety aspects. Westfield Park has excellent facilities to host these classroom sessions so a big thanks to David Crompton who owns Westfield Park Equestrian Centre (
http://www.westfieldpark.co.uk/) for all his help and support (and that of his family too!)
Classroom work over it was time to get down to the nitty gritty. Let me introduce the students. We have Lee Maxfield, Mark Simmonite and 'Mac' McNaughtan who used their
weekend to learn the ancient craft of dry stone walling. As with most courses, the students were excellent company and it wasn't long before the banter and laughs got going while getting down to the task in hand.
Firstly it was stripping out the existing wall which was seriously in need of repair. It is the first piece of the wall surrounding Knabbs Wood which we have restored - one of many to repair the complete perimeter of the wood!
Then onto the foundations and the first levels. Building went a little slower than I anticipated but that was due to the students being very diligent in what they were doing and taking a lot of care with their new found skills.
At the end of the day on Saturday, we were about ten inches to a foot off the foundations. The levels the lads had put in were good and a sound foundation on which to build on Sunday. As an aside, the more eagled eyed amongst you may have spotted the cup nestling on the A-frame which is nearly an antique! It's a circa 1992 Tele2 AB of Stockholm coffee cup for whom I was consulting to at that time with whom I found real contentment and job satisfaction.
Unfortunately we said good bye to Lee as he had important commitments on the Sunday but he
will return to complete his Beginners Course on a later date.
We headed off to the Station Inn in Silkstone Common for a resume of the day before we dispursed for a very welcome dinner.
Day two started with a chilly nip to the air. There was a horse show on at the equestrian centre which meant that we weren't the only occupants of Westfield Park! We were hard at it by 09:15 as the first of the horse boxes started filling the car park above where we were walling.
Before long we were at the first lift and throughstone level. Mac and Mark really made sure that their heartings were well packed under those throughs!
A hard earned cup of tea and bacon butty followed at the cafe in the Centre and very nice it was too. While we were there we were able to enjoy the skills of the show jumpers and their horses in the indoor arena.
Full of energy the work on the wall really got into full swing! I even raised enough body heat to get my hat off and help the lads out - in places!
Middle of February and here we are walling in t-shirts! Amazing! When the sun was shining it was lovely.
Just as the sun was setting over Knabbs Hall on the hillside above us at around 17:00 we had our section of work completed. I was very pleased with the standard of work. For the students first attempts at dry stone walling I think that they did a marvellous job.
Thank you Lee, Mark and Mac for your company and I hope you enjoyed the weekend as much as I did. See you on an improvers course soon!
Post Script: A big thank you to Steve Lavender and the staff of Lavender International NDT (www.lavender-ndt.co.uk) for their support and to Barry and Chris Heeley of High Hoyland Dry Stone Walls who gave up their time to visit us with the view to lending a hand if necessary - most appreciated.
Comments from the students
"Very enjoyable. A chance to meet a few nice people. Very thearaputic!"
"Everything that I would have expected was covered to my satisfaction. A very positive experience"
