Dry Stone Walling Course at Hawick, 10th and 11th March 2007

It was a dull and windy start to the mixed Beginners and Improvers Course in the beautiful surroundings of the Scottish Borders. We were here to assist Colin Purvis of Border Stonecraft (www.borderstonecraft.co.uk) to deliver the course.

Anne and Dylan (and later Jack) formed the beginners contingent, while Aaron, Grant, John, Ron, June and Alastair were returning for further training




It wasn't long before the poor weather was forgotten and everyone was concentrating hard on the task in hand.

Here we can see two smashing lads, Grant and Ron, pondering about their cheek end and their choice of stone. Not an easy selection where the availability of good stone for building a cheek end is limited. Grant's standard ofwalling amazes me as he only has one hand. He must enjoy it too as he has told Colin he'll be returning on the week long course in July. So if you want a place on the week long Improvers Course in Hawick (16th-20th July) you'd better call 'tout de suite' to Colin or Jacqui on 01450 370290 or Les on 07952 551025!



As I've explained before, the stone around Hawick is much different to the flat bedded sedimentary stone found in South Yorkshire. It's much smaller and harder making construction much like doing a 3D jigsaw. Experts like Colin make walling with this stone look easy and the end result (when it's built properly) looks wonderful. A good waller should be able to wall with all types of stone as the basic techniques are the same but local methods are essential to construct a wall in the traditional style of the area.



After playing rugby on Saturday morning, Colin's 9 year old son Jack had pleaded with his Dad to let him come and lend a hand. From what I saw of his work he's going to be a better dyker than his Dad someday! (Thats after he's finished his Scotland rugby career!)







Here we are at the end of day one. Thankfully the rain had held off and we get to thoughstone height (the first lift) before calling it a day. Because of the shortage of long stones to act as throughstones, we used a technique of using two of the longest stones available and overlapping them in consecutive layers to give the wall the strength it needs to support several tonnes of stone.



Ron and Anne can be seen here discussing the day, or maybe his last dinner at Annes beautiful hotel at Kelso which is about 30 minutes from the Hawick walling sites. Anne originates from Paris and after admiring the miles of walls around her home, she decided to learn how they are built. She made an excellent job and has a very good eye for stone choice. You can find out more about Annes family run hotel at www.ednamhouse.com. I'm hoping to stay there sometime - so you're forewarned Anne!


After a long day, taking in the last 30 minutes of the Italy v Wales game at the Balmoral in Hawick, it was off to Colin's house for some more wonderful hospitality. Jacqui cooked another wonderful meal and I had a splendid evening in their company. Colin you're a lucky man!

I eventually left the Purvis household in peace and headed back to the best B&B I've ever stayed in. It's called Lynnwood Cottage and more details can be found at http://www.lynnwoodcottage.co.uk/

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Lynnwood before


on this site, but there's not many B&B's where you have your own suite to relax in and, in the morning, take your breakfast. So thank you to Maggie and David for another lovely stay.





Day two began with rain threatening. June and Alastair had completed their cheek end so they helped out on the main wall.










Here's Alastair tidying up their walling site. I think you'll agree they did a grand job on this cheekend. Colin says that this and the other cheekends we rebuit this weekend have been in ruin for 20 years that he can remember, so Willie, who's land we wall on, must be a happy man that his walls are made whole again!





Here's man mountain (Colin) himself humping large pieces of stone around to give the students some decent copestones on which to practice their skills.










The rain started not long after we did and persisted until we stopped! How's that for an uncanny coincidence!!








We suspected that Aaron and John had formed their own Knitting Circle as they spent a lot of time chatting! Joking aside, it was nice to see two students get on so well together, and help each other out.







June and Alastair wasted no time and got stuck into building the wall in the driving rain.








The knitting circle continued!










Nearly time for the copestones. There was a lot of hammering going on at this stage making small heartings to fill the gaps in the centre of the wall and form a good bed on which to lay the copestones.








Knitting Circle over, John decides to hold up the wall while Aaron looks for a suitable stone!






And here's one young man who's destined for a very long bath when he gets home!









The completed article! There's a few minor faults in the wall but that's to be expected. On the whole a very good job considering the experience of the wallers.





Once again it was with mixed emotions that I headed back down the A7 away from the land of my father. I was looking forward to seeing my family after being away for the weekend but I was sorry to be leaving behind the folk I met on the course and of course Colin, Jacqui and family. However, what was left behind were walls which had been properly stripped down and repaired, and they'll be standing there for another 200 years before they're in need of any more maintenence - and that gives me a nice warm feeling!

Postcript:

I received a very nice email from Anne on completetion of the course. It's nice to know that the course has been good and appreciated:

Dear Les,

Thank you for the great week-end; I was on a high after we finished on Sunday- What an achievment. So on Monday morning, I headed straight for the house to look at one bit of wall that needs fixing - Well, the stone is really different, no small stone there- mainly big chunky boulder type- So I think I will look at that wall for a while and think before I actually do anything-

In any case the course was really well worth it and I am hoping I can come along to a few others-

The blog is looking fab and I have emailed my friends so they can have a look -

See you soon I hope

Anne

Beginners and Improvers Course at Hawick 10th and 11th March 2007

Our next course dates are 10th and 11th March at Hawick, in the beautiful Scottish Borders, where we will be holding a Beginners Course and an Improvers Course in parallel.



The course costs £90 + VAT (£105.75). For more information call Colin or Jacqui on 01450 370290 or check Border Stonecraft's web site at:

http://www.borderstonecraft.co.uk/training.htm

or our own at:

http://www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk/training.htm

We look forward to seeing you there!

Oh! A quick reminder that there are places available on our Conserving Natural Boundaries Course which is being held at Silkstone Common (just off Junc 37 of the M1) on 24th and 25th March 2007. The CNB Course comprises of Dry Stone Walling and Hedge Laying during the same weekend. A unique opportunity to learn the basics of two ancient crafts.

Beginners Course, Westfield Park, Silkstone Common

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"

Dry Stone Walling Course 17 and 18th Feb at Silkstone Common

Due to cancellations two places on this course have become available. It is being held at Westfield Park Equestrian Centre, Silkstone Common which is about a 5 minute drive from Junction 37 of the M1 (Barnsley / Manchester turn off) . The course costs £115.75 (£90 + VAT) and starts at 09:30 on both the Saturday and Sunday. (See the posting below for more information on the history of the site). For course bookings please go to http://www.hadriansdrystonewalls.com or call Les on 07952 551025

Dry Stone Wallinga nd Conserving Natural Boundaries Courses 2007

You can see more details about our courses at www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk/ or call for details.

Our Conserving Natural Boundaries Courses are a combination of Dry Stone Walling and Hedge Laying over a weekend. A brilliant opportunity to learn the basics of two ancient crafts!

Course Dates 2007

Colden, W Yorks

12/13 May Beginners £90+VAT

20/24 Aug Improvers £249+VAT

The Comb, Northumberland

9/10 Jun Beginners £90+VAT

Hawick, Scottish Borders

27/28 Jan Conserving Natural Boundaries £110+VAT

10/11 Mar Beginners £90+VAT

Silkstone Common, S Yorks

17/18 Feb Beginners £90+VAT

24/25 Mar CNB £110+VAT

21/22 Apr Beginners £90+VAT

06/10 Aug Improvers £249+VAT

We will be adding additional courses during 2007. Please call 07952 551025 for details or check our web site www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk

Article for the Woodland Trusts Web Site

Today I submitted this article to the Woodland Trust for publishing on their web site. I have worked with the Woodalnd Trust for a number of years to see my dream of refurbishing the walls of Nabs (or Knabs as it's known locally) Wood, who's story follows........................

Terrible Tragedy at Nabs Wood

On a bleak day in June 1838 Nabs Wood was about to be written into history books as a tragic chain of events unfolded. In the village of nearby Silkstone Common black smoke rose from the engine powering the winch to the Huskar Pit where many of the local men, women and children worked at least 12 hour stints in the hot, damp and acrid coal seams which ran below the village. Early in the afternoon a storm broke out starting with a rainstorm making a hissing sound as it landed on the engine and then turning into a torrent of rain and hail up to 4 ½ inches in diameter.

The deluge caused havoc flattening crops, smashing windows and dousing the fire fuelling the engine to the winch. Disquiet broke out underground when the miners found that they were without a winch to haul their corves of coal to the surface in exchange for a token from the mine owner which could be converted to goods in the mine owners ‘Tommy shop’. Panic started setting in, especially in the children when they found out that their main way out of the mine via the winch was closed to them.

A group of the children had a bright idea. They would head through the mine for the day hole, a drift entrance to the mine in Nabs Wood. They hurried through the pitch-blackness relying on their base instincts and local knowledge to navigate their way through the rough passages. They went through doors in the passages, usually operated by the escaping children which provided ventilation to the mine. They passed through the final door on their escape, catching a glimpse of light from the entrance ahead of them. At their feet a stream of water flowed past them. They hurried on. They looked up to see a wall of water rushing down the shaft caused by a storm ditch next to the drift entrance bursting its banks due to the sheer volume of rainwater gushing down it. The children turned and ran back down the drift but as they ran they were swept away by the torrent and slammed against the ventilation door the sheer volume of water pinning them to it.

Twenty-six children aged seven to seventeen drowned. The villagers were distraught and in an age when mining accidents were common, this tragedy made the London broadsheets. The newly enthroned Queen Victoria was shocked and the government of the day set up an enquiry, not specifically into the Huskar Pit Disaster but to working conditions in Britain’s factories and mines. This enquiry was chaired by Lord Ashley (later to become Lord Shaftsbury), well known for his emancipated views. In 1842 this enquiry led to the 1842 Factory Act which was the first piece of legislation relating to working conditions in Britain.

Nabs Wood today is owned by the Woodland Trust. The only visible sign of the terrible disaster which took place under its leafy mantle is a monument erected by Silkstone Parish on the 150^th anniversary of the disaster. Much of the woods are as they were 168 years ago – except that the dry stone walls which form the boundary to the woods are in a serious state of disrepair.

Local dry stone waller Les Young volunteered his services to the Trust to repair or rebuild the boundary walls as a tribute to the children who died and to return the walls to their former glory as a living memorial to their memory. After surveys and risk assessments it became apparent that not only would it take an awful lot of time and manpower to complete the project, but it would also be expensive due to the amount of stone needed to rebuild the walls.

Les approached the local landowners who have a vested interest in renovating the perimeter walls to keep their livestock enclosed. He proposed that he hold dry stone walling courses to rebuild the walls thereby speeding up the rebuilding and teaching novices an ancient craft at the same time. The owner of Westfield Park which shares part of the perimeter walls of Nabs Wood embraced this project, and in fact has kindly promised to donate stone to rebuild part of the walls.

The dry stone walling courses will be run from Westfield Park using it’s excellent facilities. The courses are graded as Beginners or Improvers courses and are either a weekend or a week long in duration. If you would like to be part of one of Les’s courses and have the opportunity to rebuild the walls surrounding one of the Trusts woods, help preserve a piece of Britain’s history and learn an ancient craft at the same time then please contact Les at Hadrian’s Dry Stone Walls, whose contact details can be found at or the bottom of this article or at www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk where more details about the course can be found.

For further reading on the Huskar Pit Disaster read The Children of the Dark by Allan Gallop, ISBN 0-7509-3094-2 which is an excellent book.

Post Script by Les Young

Today I have witnessed how this disaster occurred. Over the past week we have had fierce storms with high winds and lashing rain culminating in a corker of a storm last night. This morning Nabs wood resembled a swamp with fallen trees and streams filled to bursting. After climbing over two fallen trees I eventually reached the day hole. The day hole was filled in many years ago and earth piled some 6 metres away from the entrance to form a dyke to protect the day hole from the stream. Normally the stream is a trickle and does not encroach on the dyke. Today there was a foot of water in the ‘crater’ at the entrance to the day hole and on the other side of the protective dyke the water was about 3 foot deep. I now have a clear picture of this volume of water breaching the dyke and crashing down on the day hole. Devastating.

Contact details:

Les Young

07952 551025

email: les@hadriansdrystonewalls.com

Web site: www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk

NEW WEB SITE ON LINE NOW!!!!

Our new web site is now on line. It's still in development so if you spot any mistakes then please let me know (les@hadriansdrystonewalls.com)

www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk

The first frosts.............

At last the long warm autumn turns cold. This morning was the first time this autumn that the smell of cold frost burnt my nostrils. The brown and yellow leaves blanketing the woodland floor had taken on an opaque appearance where Jack Frost had touched their ribbed surfaces during the long moonlit night. The cry of the male pheasant travelled far on the wings of the cold air making the dogs stop in their tracks to look and sniff at where the bird was hiding. My breath made small clouds as it condensed in the chilly air, disappearing quickly in the beautiful sunlight of the new day. What a joy to be alive on a day like this!

During the past week I’ve been very busy. First off was a conference at Kendal arranged by the DSWA to discuss dry stone walling training and career paths for those who would like to join our craft. It was very interesting and many good points were raised which hopefully will result in a more structured approach to our craft. An added bonus was meeting up with the lovely Tereza who was the lady who helped me to arrange my hedge laying course. Tereza told me about her homeland, Slovakia, with such enthusiasm it has made me want to visit and explore it’s towns and beautiful countryside – before the western property developers get their hands on it! So thank you Tereza for spending the time with me, and may it not be too long before we meet again.

Then it was off to Northumberland to meet with Rory and his team at Reivers Development where we will be holding walling courses next year. It’s a long time since I have been to the Comb but it’s serene, peaceful atmosphere never ceases to move me. I don’t know what it is about the Borders but whenever I venture into it’s rolling hills something inside me tells me I’m home again. The Reivers hold one of the largest team events in the UK on the last weekend in September called the Kielder Challenge ( http://www.reiverschallenges.com/about_whatis_archive_business01.htm ). In this event teams of six are put through some amazing team tasks to score points which are totalled up on day two. At the end of day one the teams navigate themselves to their designated ‘bivvy’ site where they construct their home Ray Mears style out of a couple of pieces of wood and a sheet of polythene. Day two consists of an orienteering exercise through Kielder Forest and perhaps even making a journey across Kielder Water itself to find checkpoints to collect yet more points. The event cumulates on the Sunday afternoon with the prize giving, a massive bbq and party. It’s fantastic fun and a great weekend.

Scotland from Carter Bar

From Northumberland it was into the Scottish Borders to meet with Colin from Border Stonecraft. Colin is a DSWA certified professional waller and instructor of some 22 years experience which shows in the beautiful walls which he builds from the rough local stone. I’ve never walled with stone like this before and by gum it does take a different approach to make as good a wall as Colin produces. Needless to say it rained as we walled on Friday, but to be honest I didn’t even realise I was soaked through as listening to Colin’s witty and amusing antidotes kept me thoroughly entertained all day! On Saturday and Sunday I helped Colin with his walling course. Originally there were 6 students but 3 cancelled for genuine reason and 1 called off on Saturday because it was raining! (To re-iterate we wallers put our length in at all times of the year and in all weathers!). So it was probably one of the highest pupil to teacher ratio courses ever! Young Gary actually asked his parents for this course for his birthday! You don’t get many 16 year olds who are mature enough to request something as useful for their birthday! Nick and Gary went on to build a very nice wall – in fact excellent since it was the first time they’ve walled. I can’t speak highly enough of Colin and Jackie’s (and their children Jack and Rebecca) hospitality. Jackie made sure that I left their home each night with a stretched tum full of her lovely cooking – and the content of a few bottles of beer too! So a big thank you to the Purvis family for everything. You are indeed lovely people.

Other lovely people that I met were Maggie and David Brown the proprietors of Lynwood Cottage, the B&B I stayed at while in Hawick http://www.lynnwoodcottage.co.uk/ . I have stayed in 5 star hotels which are not a patch in this fantastic accommodation. It was an absolute pleasure to stay here. My fellow guest on Thursday night was Ian St John who was the after dinner speaker at the Borders Club on the Friday night! So a big thank you to Maggie and David and I’ll see you at the end of January.

Speaking (or writing) of the end of January leads me straight into telling you about the Conserving Natural Boundaries Course, a brainchild of Colin’s, which I will be assisting with. It runs on the 27^th and 28^th January 2007 in the stunning Borders countryside. On this course you can learn hedge laying or dry stone walling or try a day on both! Cost will be £110 for the two days. So come along and learn and enjoy our ancient crafts. More details can be gained from the new web sites of Border Stonecraft’s or ours (www.hadriansdrystonewalls.co.uk/) which should be on line very soon. Why not buy a gift voucher for this course (or any other we run in partnership with Border Stonecraft) for a Christmas present?

Well that all for now folks so as my Dad used to tell me, ‘if you can’t be good, be careful’!