Stone Wall Regeneration

One of the really great aspects of our Higher Level Stewardship agreement is the additional help and funding to repair some of our worst stone walls.  Many of the walls were erected in the 1920's during the great depression, where labour was cheap and the raw materials were available within the fields or dug up from the on farm quarries.  Now after nearly 100 years of rain, snow, frost and sunshine damage some are really starting to show their age and in need of repair. The frost damage really causes the damage where the walls sag and can't shed the water allowing it to seep into the centre of the wall where is freezes and thaws, gradually causing the stones to crumble and the wall to collapse.

Stone walling is a very skilled and papainstakingly slow operation hence the large costs involved in restoration.  A typical wall, if you are using a proportion of new stone will cost somewhere in the region of £100/meter.  This would include the toppers and the top wire used to try and keep the deer from leaping over the wall knocking it down.  Our walls are being repaired by Matthew Fergyson who is based at Guiting Power.  This is Nathan, who works with Matthew, who has stripped down a section of wall and is now rebuilding it.  The almost final result is shown below, (minus the top wires)

For those of yo who regularly walk on Bredon Hill this wall is located near Sundial barn, shown above.   The wall is about 450m long and runs along side a public footpath, so you are welcome to go and see the progress for yourselves.  You might even give Matthew and Nathan some encouragement as they are there is all weathers!

All Weather Wallers

The annual purge on farm maintenance begins again, this year, with Andrew off sick (who usually maintains the stone walls), Matthew and Steve have been employed to continue all the good work. This scene was this morning, when half of the country couldn't get to work because of the snow fall, Matthew and Steve were already hard at work, with Jed, Matthew's dog. Here they are at Lalu, straightening up a collapsed wall before starting the re-building process. Most of the stone can be re-used but we will have to get some extra supplies to finish the job. We think there is about 3 weeks work this winter for the two of them. The walls fall down when animals try to jump over them, or because of frosty or wet weather degrading the wall. Other winter maintenance jobs include willow coppicing or pollarding depending on where you were brought up. This is Derek and Gordon pollarding the willow on Manor Farm on the main road from Conderton to Beckford. The tree limbs that were cut down were used to make 'Scotch' Fencing further down the road where a car went off the road straight through a hedge! This year we have had 4 cars drive through various hedges causing lots of damage. Most of the time the car drivers manage to get out and escape but with the fields being so wet we have managed to catch the last one before they could escape!

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.