Dry Stone Walling Beginners Course at Colden, Hebden Bridge, W Yorks

Today I had the pleasure of doing a reconnaissance trip to the Colden walling site prior to our course on the 12th and 13th May2007.

I popped into Hebden Bridge before I wended my way up the hill to Colden to thank the ladies in the Tourist Information Office for displaying our brochures and being so positive about our courses. A big thank you to Patricia and her team.





Hebden Bridge was basking in spring sunshine with folk sitting outside the cafes and pub's chatting with friends while the street musicians entertained them with classical guitar music. Wonderful! What made the experience even better was a pint of my favourite ale, Deuchars IPA in the Shoulder of Mutton! Just look at these photographs - how idyllic is this?


























































Onto Colden (approx 3 miles north west of Hebden Bridge) and meeting up with the lovely John and Ann at Riverdene House. It's always a pleasure to meet up with them to catch up with their news. The course will meet at Riverdene House where we will hold the introductions and theory session before we move off and start our walling course.

If the weather is as good as this we'd better pack the sun block!







This is the actual wall which we will be repairing









Two very important places as seen from the walling site - Riverdene House, where we stay and where the course convenes on Saturday morning, and the New Delight Inn, where we gather at any opportunity and talk walls (and other things!).








If you would to come with us on this course and work in these beautiful surroundings there are two spare places available - a completed application form and the course fee books your place!! You can book on line at http://www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk/colden.htm or by calling Les on 07952 551025.

I am so looking forward to this course! Hope to see you there!

Beginners Course at Silkstone Common 21st and 22nd April 2007

I'm glad that despite the more pessimistic of the weather reports Saturday turned out to be a fine day; warm, a slight breeze and not too much sun. I chose a site away from our previous course site as David warned me that there was an equestrian event happening right next to the wall which would have made it quite a fun time for the horses and riders! As it happened the event didn't take place but the site I chose was just as much of a challenge and just off the main path through Nabs Wood. This meant our activities were very visible to the good folk of Silkstone Common who chose to wander through the woods.

The woods themselves were adorned in their spring time splendour with the bluebells in full flower against the vivid green background of the ferns and grasses emerging from the woodland floor. The woodpeckers were tapping away and the cock pheasants calling out, gathering in their hareem of hen birds.

Our introductions and theory session took place in the Station Inn in the village due to repairs being carried out at the Equestrian Centre. Mark and Julie, landlords of the Station, made us very welcome with tea and coffee while I presented the theoretical part of the course.

Theory over, we made the short trip down the road and through the woods to the walling site where we (or should I say the students!) stripped back 10 metres of existing wall which not only was in a state of disrepair but was also too small to retain any livestock (a wire fence had been erected on the field side of the wall to keep livestock from wandering. When we are finished walling round the woods there will be no need for the fence). We stripped back more of the existing wall than necessary as we needed the stone to build the wall higher and stronger than it had previously been.

Let me introduce you to the course. From L to R: Mark, Paul, Hugo, Geoff and Lee

It wasn't too long until it was time for lunch with the students all chatting about walls and why they were attending the course. It was great to see a group of strangers getting on so well with each other after only a couple of hours in each others company, which just goes to show that our walling courses can be a great way of team building!

Everyone was very attentive to my instruction and transferred this to the wall which they were building. I could tell that there was going to be a few aching muscles on Sunday morning! At the end of day 1 we had put up about a foot of the wall and after standing back and admiring it we headed of to the Station Inn for a few well earned pints and a meal at the Chilli Lodge located in the Equestrian Centre. A great meal with great company!










































































Day 2 dawned with grey skies and a hint that rain maybe on it's way. I had the kettle boiling as everyone arrived full of enthusiasm for the day ahead. Unfortunately Hugo couldn't attend on the Sunday as he had a family 'do' to attend so we look forward to him completing his course at our next session at Silkstone Common on 19th and 20th May.






It wasn't too long until we were at throughstone height. We struggled to find stones long enough to traverse the wall and I thought that we may have to use other methods to build the intrinsic strength which throughstone give us.




Fortunately we found a couple of suitable stones and a few more which were just a tad short. I decided to use two levels of throughs to ensure that our wall would be as strong and durable as possible. This also gave the students the chance to have two chances of laying throughstones which is a very important part of any DSWA examination.










It's amazing how quickly a wall goes up once the first lift is completed! By mid afternoon the wall was at it's height ready for the copestones to be placed on it.
















I think the students did a smashing job for their first wall, which was also echoed by several passers by including Teresa who is our lovely neighbour and Danny Clarke, the internationally renowned artist who lives in the village, to name a few. Thank you all for your kind comments.

Just as we were clearing the site it started to rain. Luckily there was a very nice pub waiting for us at the top of the Lane to which we retreated for the after course discussions and certificate presentation. As usual, I really enjoyed the course and meeting the people attending it. Walling never fails to attract nice folk. Thank you to Geoff, Lee, Paul, Mark and Hugo for coming on the course and we look forward to meeting you on an Improvers Course soon.

Geoff, Mark, Paul and Lee

Participants comments:

"Extremely enjoyable at a pace suited to the individual"

"Opened your eyes up to the whole thing about Dry Stone Walling. Enjoyed it! Hard graft!"

"Wonderful weekend. Nice to meet some nice people and learn the basics. See you for another course soon!"

2008 Special Project

The special project for 2008 will be to build an Apiary using dry stone walling techniques.

The project will extend and test the skills of those who have previously attended our Beginners Course and preferably those who have attended at least one Improvers Course.


I keep my bees at the Pennine Camphill Community (http://www.pennine.org.uk/) near Wakefield which is a residential college for young people with special needs. These young people improve their lives by learning crafts, caring for the gardens and interacting with each other and the staff. The bees are an integral part of the community pollentating the flowers, fruit and vegtables grown by the students. Two members of staff, Alice and Felix, help me take care of the bees and hopefully some of the students will be able to help too.

Alice and Felix

I am currently working to increase the number of colonies at the Community year on year so that eventually there is a constant flow of honey being produced. My aim is to provide a home for these colonies and to provide a focal point for the Community by building the dry stone apiary. Originally I was going to build it myself but because it will use several different walling techniques to build, it will suit those past dry stone walling students so that they can learn new skills.


The course will take place in July or August 2008 and will be a week long in duration. There will be a maximum of 6 students on the course and, as mentioned previously, applicants will have had to have completed at least a Beginners Course and preferrably an Improvers Course.

What links Kate Rusby and Andy Goldsworthy?

Well, what does link these two very talented artists?

Dry Stone Walls of course - what else!!

I was asked to make a guest appearance by my friends Barry and Chris Heeley of High Hoyland Dry Stone Walling to help them with a wall they had been commissioned to repair at Kate Rusby's house. I willingly accepted the invitation as Barry and Chris are great lads who will do anything for you (well almost!) and that combined with the chance of having a chat to the wonderful Kate Rusby was too much temptation. When I got to site, Barry, Chris and Ben had erected about half the height of the repair using stone stripped from the wall and some stone provided by Kate's Dad, Steve, who makes a smashing cup of tea! Walling was a bit awkward as one side of the wall was mostly retained, and on the other side, there was a huge horse trough right in front of the wall which the lads had spanned with a couple of scaffolding planks. Did these prevent me from taking an early bath? No! Contrary to what I preach at my courses, where I drum it into the students never to step backwards away from the wall in case they trip over on stone, I stepped backwards to look at a stone I had put into the wall and ended up to the knees in water! Of course this caused HUGE jocularity with Barry, Chris and Ben as they are p*** takers extraordinaire! So I thought that I'd announce my little faux pas here before they embellish the story to one and all. Goodness knows what ribbing I'm in for at the Cheery Tree Inn on my next visit! I can see the pub regulars now, sitting on their bar stools with huge grins on their faces eagerly awaiting my entrance to launch a volley of wit and repartee in my direction, which they'll have been no doubt rehearsing all weekend! I must admit I had to laugh myself at the time and no doubt the mickey taking when it inevitably happens will be as funny!

For those of you who have not heard Kate's music you are missing a treat. Not only is she a very bonny lass but she has the voice of an angel. I've seen Kate several times and she and her band were fantastic each time. I'd recommend you to go and see her on her latest tour. You can get her CD's and current tour dates at http://www.katerusby.com/





On Sunday I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park just off junction 38 of the M1. Again it's another place that is a must to visit.

It was originally an 18th century country mansion house and has 500 acres of parkland which is home to many stunning sculptures and works of art. Andy Goldsworthy has an exhibition of his art to mark the 30th anniversary of the YSP and some of this involves dry stone walling. Andy's walling is first class and combined with his artistry, the results are fantastic. I forgot to take my camera but I'll be back to YSP soon and I'll place more photo's of Andys work here. In the meantime details of Andy's exhibition and the YSP can be found here - http://www.ysp.co.uk/

Monday found me and my family on the tourist trail in the Derbyshire Dales and after negotiating the horendous traffic at Bakewell we reached our destination of Haddon Hall, the beautiful home of Lord and Lady Edward Manners. It's the first time that I've visited Haddon Hall and I was very impressed with the staff who were very pleasant and only too keen to help and inform - a big thank you to them for making our visit so pleasant. It was amazing to see the worn flags and thresholds where thousands of feet had trodden over the centuries leaving them bowed and indented. Who had graced these portals in days gone bye? What were their lives like? What were they doing? All these thoughts and more were spinning around in my head as I toured the Hall, amazed with it's splendour.

If you're in the Bakewell area then it's well worth a visit. You can find out more information at http://www.haddonhall.co.uk/