Stone Walls

This is Andrew mending a dry stone wall somewhere on the farm. Does anybody recognise where it is? There are a couple of give away clues. The farm has to maintain and repair over 19.5 km of dry stone walls, excluding those that divide woodland and surround property. Last year Andrew spent 11.2 weeks repairing these walls. It is a very skilled task, a little like doing a large jigsaw, making sure all of the bits of stone marry together to stand up for any other 70 years.

Why do they fall down? There are lots of reasons, deterioration of the stone, exposed to wind, rain and frost for so long is the main reason. They also get knocked down by sheep, deer and badgers all trying to get to the, obviously greener grass on the other side of the wall. Andrew tends to repair the walls during the winter months when most of the arable work is completed and the fields are too wet to work. Tod also helps Andrew on the larger jobs and when the walls are 'topped' i.e. putting the upright stones in place and concreting them in place.