Residential 15th- 18th June ; Buckden, Upper Wharfedale, Dry Stone Walling
Quite a climb to our work site this year, and we set about the task of repairing three gaps knowing that this wasn’t landscape walling, but a critical job to create stock proof wall to guard an area that will be planted with trees in the next couple of tree planting seasons.
Big, medium and small; the gaps had to be stripped back to find a sensible place to start the repair – it always feels like it’s better to go further to correct other fluctuations, but we need to be realistic in what we can achieve. The stayed an extra night this year and it feel like we were not under so much time pressure, even though Saturday afternoon was abandoned to the rain, and the chance to sample the gala. It was a nice surprise to spot a BEES waller from resi a few years ago in the fell race. A few steep, very wet fell race. Well done all.
We were a bit bemused by the cavities and hearting that filled the spaces we would expect to see solid foundation stone. By digging and man handling we managed to get the big stone in the bottom of the wall. The largest gap was extremely tall, towering above Sue’s head. An excellent repair. The middling repair felt solid by the end, though casual inspection may struggle to spot obvious courses of stone! The small gap progressed further than we first thought possible, reaching the coping stones in the most part, and with a nicely ordered selection of stone ready for the next volunteers.