Course at Nabs Wood 14th-15th June 2008

The second dry stone walling course of the year in Nabs Wood, Silkstone Common took place on 14^th and 15^th June.

The course comprised of Beginners and Improvers returning to hone their skills.

After the initial theory session in The Station Inn and copious amounts of tea and coffee served up by landlords Mark and Julie, we travelled the short distance to Nabs Wood.

David Compton from Westfield Equestrian Centre and myself had moved 10 tonnes of stone (kindly donated by Stuart Olney of T S Booker) to the walling site for the students to build with. I suppose it was a bit of a coincidence that Stuart was doing an Improvers Course using stone which he had donated!

We achieved another first this weekend! We had our first Australian on the course – Lisa, and a lovely lady she is too!

Barry soon got into his stride trying out all kinds of resting places until he found the most comfortable tree in the wood to perform his Yogi Bear impression!

Doug had travelled from Norfolk to take part in the Improvers Course staying at Wentworth Castle, and very nice it was to see him again.

We retired to the Station Inn after a hard days walling and we were joined by several students from previous courses. After some re-hydration we wended our way to the Chilli Lodge for a smashing meal, great company and a good laugh!

Several of the students were suffering from aches and pains as we started the second day. That didn’t stop them from getting stuck in with their walling

Barry even found time to teach Chris his method of performing horizontal walling!

Another great course with smashing people and even the rain held off until we were safely installed in the Station Inn for a course debrief!

Grant and Stuart with their cheek end

Doug with his cheek end

Beginners for L to R: Paul, Chris, Mark, Paul and Lisa

The whole course, back L to R Chris, Mark, Paul, Lisa, Stuart and Grant

Front L to R: Doug, Paul and Barry

Thanks to all the students for making it a great weekend. To Barry for his assistance, to Stuart and David for their stone donations and my wife for mowing the lawn while I was enjoying myself!

Dry Stone Walling Course Dates and Venues for 2008

Here are the remaining dates and locations for our Dry Stone Walling Courses during 2008. There will be other courses scheduled to cope with demand so please keep your eye on this site and also at www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk/courses/index.php.

Here we go then:


14/15 June 2008 Beginners and Improvers at Nabs Wood, Silkstone Common

12/13 July 2008 Beginners and Improvers at Nabs Wood, Silkstone Common

21/25 July 2008 Special Features at the Pennine Camphill Community, Wakefield

9/10 August 2008 Beginnersand Improvers at Colden near Hebden Bridge

13/14 September 2008 Beginners and Improvers at Nabs Wood, Silkstone Common

11/12 October 2008 Beginners and Improvers at Nabs Wood, Silkstone Common



For further details please see our web site or better still call Les Young on +44 (0)7952 551025.

Dry Stone Walling Course at Hebden Bridge 10th & 11th May 2008

We’ve just had a cracking weekend at Colden near Hebden Bridge! The weather was hot, the scenery stunning and the students a great set of lads.

Stripping out the wall was hot work and once I got the stove working, several cups of tea were drunk while I watched the course hard at work!

Louis was the first American to attend one of our courses (and hopefully he won’t be the last!), and a very nice man he is too! We’re hoping to welcome Louis and his grandsons back on a course in the future.

We ended day one as the thunder rumbled away in the distance, threatening a downpour to spoil a beautiful day.

Day two was even hotter than the Saturday. As an instructor I try to ensure that I don’t break into a sweat – I like my students to do the sweating, but there was no way of avoiding it! Good job most of us had sun cream on. In fact Alan looked decidedly anaemic with his factor 50 plastic skin in a bottle! A very sensible precaution.

Pete, who is shortly to retire from the Army (The Rifles), kept a watchful eye on young Matt to make sure he wasn’t slacking as the wall progressed, and in return, Matt gave back as good as he got!

Martin found the transition from Dentist to weekend waller a tiring one! I was tired watching him break stone after stone for heartings! (Heartings are the little stones which go into the middle of a dry stone wall).

L to R: Pete, Rob, Louis, Martin, Alan and Matt

All in all they did a smashing job which was difficult for beginners due to the large, heavy and lumpy stone. I was pleased with the standard of the job they had made, as were Helen and Phil on whose walls we were training. So well done to one and all and I look forward to your company on one of our Improvers Courses!

Dry Stone Walling DVD

Learn how to build a Dry Stone Wall from this DVD - "Dry Stone Walling - The Essential Guide"



The DVD takes you through the history of dry stone walls in Britain, how to build a dry stone wall, advanced features (some of them built by my fellow South Yorkshire DSWA Branch members), walls around Britain and much more. It's £12 plus P&P and you can purchase it on line from our shop

It's one of the best DVD or video that I've seen on dry stone walling!

Dry Stone Walling Course 14-15th June 2008

This course is now fully booked.

There are places still available at most of our other course dates and locations. Please go to http://www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk/courses/index.php and click on the location on the left side of the screen and available dates will be displayed.

Filming for the BBC's 'Escape to the Country'

Just to let you know that I did some filming on Good Friday which will be shown on ‘Escape to the Country’ on BBC TV.

The presenter was Alistair Appleton (pictured left) and the idea was to give Graham, who wishes to move house from St Albans to West Yorkshire, some tuition in dry stone walling.

It was a really wild windy day when we filmed it and hence the filming was so intense I didn’t even get the chance to take any photo’s of the occasion! The lack of time really affected the quality of the tuition and although Graham did admirably in the circumstances, if he wants to learn dry stone walling he should come back on a couple of my proper dry stone walling courses.

Anyway, it was nice to meet Graham, Bronwyn, Alistair and the production crew.

Thanks to Richard Elsworth for allowing us to film on his farm and to Barry Heeley for doing Richard a favour by ploughing up his field when he got his van stuck! (Oh! And for making the tea and generating sarcastic comments at regular intervals!)

The program will be shown sometime in the summer on BBC TV.

The First Dry Stone Walling Course of 2008

The first course of 2008 turned out to be a windy affair, not due to the traditional visit to the Chilli Lodge on the Saturday evening, but to the near gale like conditions which swept through Nabs Wood. The ten hardy souls gathered in the Station Inn to receive the theory and health & safety session; some hoping that Mark would serve them a pint of Tetley’s rather than tea and coffee! If I’d known what the wind was going to be like, I’d have asked Mark to fill my hip flask with his finest malt

It was great to meet our budding wallers, some of whom had travelled from afar as Norwich and Cambridge to join us. We had two ‘Improvers’, Ollie and John who wall professionally and were attending the course to hone their skills.

Barry Heeley from High Hoyland Dry Stone Walls kindly assisted me over the weekend although I noticed after making one round of tea and coffee he delegated that task to me!! Notice Barry trying to impress Jayne with his now famous 'Elephant Man' impression!

We were all so involved in our walling that we didn’t realise the time and take lunch until 14:30!

Saturdays walling ended about 16:30 with about a foot of wall built. As we retired to the pub for a well earned pint and the promise of a great curry at the Chilli Lodge there were smiles on tired faces, pleased with what they has built.

I was awake from 05:00 on the Sunday praying for the wind which was battering the back of my house to die down. It did – at about 13:00 that afternoon!! Boy, what a wind! It was really difficult to light the stove to brew the first cup of tea of the day! But as usual, rubbing two boy scouts together solved the problem and before long we were enjoying a nice cuppa.

The lads who stayed over at Wentworth Castle made us extremely jealous as they recounted the fabulous breakfast they had that morning.

As the winds receded the wall started shooting up and by 16:00 a tired but happy course surveyed their handiwork with pride.

All in all the course built about 10m of wall over the weekend. Ollie and John made a great cheekend and over all the standard of walling was very good. Well done to all involved!

From L to R: John, Barry, John, Ollie, Doug, Damian, Jayne, Stuart, John and Richard

Postscript: This was the scene at 06:45 on Monday 3rd March 2008. The high winds had been replaced with a sprinkling of snow and near zero temperatures. I don't know if I prefer the wind or the snow!!

Les Young on My Yorkshire (YTV) - The Huskar Pit Disaster and the Dry Stone Walls of Nabs Wood

Names of those who have helped with the walling in Nabs Wood are now in the wall!!

I promised that all who helped in the renovation of the dry stone walls around Nabs Wood would be mentioned in despatches - or, to be precise, on plaques which will be placed in the walls.

Today, I got round to placing the first batch of plaques in the walls. I can only get 5 plaques engraved at a time which means it's a while before I can credit everyone for their fine work and efforts.

The plaques will also name people or organisations who have helped in me realise my goal in rewalling the wood as a tribute to the children who died in the Huskar Pit Disaster.

Huskar 170

I hope that those of you who are named on the plaques below will be suitably proud of your efforts. I am.

For those of you who are in two minds, come along and join us and learn an ancient craft and build your piece of British heritage which your grandchildren will be able to show to their grandchildren!