Diane's Wall

Now here's an interesting project which we were involved in this year. Diane wanted some ideas on what to do with this wall which was in need of repair.
Diane also wanted something a bit different as the gateway into her garden. Maybe something to train her Wisteria over to train it onto her lovely period house?

Here's the outcome of several visits to Diane's home with drawings to discuss ideas with her and husband John. After several hours of deliberation and discussions Diane and John decided on the design they liked best.

We rebuilt the wall to encompass a wrought iron gate, bringing the wall up to meet the top of the gate, which has the effect of concentrating the eye on the gateway and the garden beyond. It was difficult to build due to the monstrous trellis 6 inches behind the wall which the Wisteria was growing up. I had several run ins with that Wisteria which turned the air somewhat blue!!



Here's the lady of the house, Diane, with the finshed wall - a very happy lady!

Thanks to the building team of Jayne and Jake and to Diane and John for their support during the planning and building - and the endless cups of tea which kept us going!

Walling Course at Silkstone Common 11-12 October 2008

For being the middle of October is was surprisingly mild in Nabs Wood as we kicked this course off. After the usual theory session, tea & coffee in the Station Inn, Silkstone Common getting down to stripping down the wall began. As usual it didn't take long for the people on the course to start chatting with each other, and more importantly, work with each other.

We were very happy to welcome our second Australian lady, Lisa, onto this course (our first Aussy lady was called Lisa - are all Aussy ladies called Lisa??!!). As you can see from the photo above she was so keen that she was just a blur as she got stuck into the walling!! So where are all the Aussy blokes on our walling courses? Surely they all can't be in the bar!!



Jane (in the black hat above) is a lovely lady in her 60's. She's also very brave and determined as she's recently had both hips replaced and here she is on our course, which she managed very well indeed!

Richard and Steve are already DSWA Level 1 qualified wallers and they were on an Improvers Course to hone their walling techniques and learn how to build a cheek end (wall end) which is required to progress and pass Level 2 exams.

We brought day one to a close at about 16:30 after a good days work. As Mathew pointed out we all were due to a blood transfusion to replace lost blood because the midges were wicked towards late afternoon! A couple of beers and a super meal at the Chilli Lodge soon sorted that out though!

It rained overnight and when I did my initial survey of the site just after dawn on Sunday, it was still raining. By 09:30 when we were all gathered the rain had stopped and the sun was forcing it's way from behind the clouds to give us a lovely warm sunny day to complete our wall. Even the midges must have taken time off to sun bathe as we weren't bothered by them at all! How strange!

The chuckle brothers (Shaun and Mathew) provided some really funny banter and comments keeping us all laughing.

Peter was the 3rd member of the Improvers Course and he managed to learn how to build a cheekend and a retaining wall to help him with his first commission. Peter was on our Beginners Course at Hebden Bridge in May. In the photo above the Improvers are swapping notes or maybe bartering with each other for decent cheek end stone!

Quite a lot of story swapping on lots of different topics goes on during our courses! Here John and Rob are sorting out the Credit Crunch over a cuppa!
Pete prepared the very wet ground for his small retaining wall putting into practice some of the drill movements he learned many years ago.









L to R: Back - Craig, Barry, Rob, John, Dean, Mathew, Shaun, Richard

Front - Peter, Steve, Jane and Lisa

And here they are as one. As usual the course was full of nice and interesting people from all walks of life. It was a real pleasure to teach them and have their company for the weekend.