Dry stone walls that mark boundaries and heritage (From Gazette & Herald)

Dry stone walls that mark boundaries and heritage

WHILE out and about in the dales and moors during the snow, I realised just how prominent and remarkable are our miles of dry stone walls. Appearing black against the pure whiteness of the snow when viewed from a distance, they looked like a web of reassuring strength, linking fields and fells, forming well-defined boundaries and even providing shelter for a variety of creatures and plants.

Even though the walls are man-made, they are so much a part of our landscape that they appear to be part of nature's handiwork. This is probably because they are fashioned by hand from materials found in the ground, ranging from the slate of the Lake District to the limestone of the Yorkshire Dales. They are to be found in 21 counties in England, with Yorkshire boasting the greatest total length, something in the region of 21,000 metres. Half of those are within North Yorkshire alone, which is not surprising. After all, North Yorkshire is England's largest county and much of it comprises open moorland and vast swathes of countryside, but other counties with large amounts of dry stone walls include Durham, Cumbria, Cornwall, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, each bearing the distinctive characteristics of their own locality because local stone is used. It is almost possible to know which county one is passing through by the appearance and characteristics of its dry stone walls.

I am not sure when the first dry stone wall is thought to have been constructed in this country, but I believe examples dating to 600BC have been identified in Swaledale. Experts believe the skill was perfected in Neolithic times, and there is evidence the Britons were constructing dry stone walls long before the Romans arrived. This means that some walls may be over 2,000 years old. Many of our ruined monasteries, some dating from Norman times, have also revealed evidence of dry stone walls within their grounds, and in the countryside nearby, so there is good reason for believing that many Yorkshire and Durham examples are more than 1,000 years old. It makes those which date to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries look positively modern.

Quite a lot of existing walls were built in the era of enclosure, when large open spaces of land were split into smaller units and enclosed, either by hedgerows or dry stone walls. This dates many of them to between 1780 and 1830, which in turn means that many walls we now admire have been standing for a couple of centuries. There could be no finer tribute to those who built them.

What is surprising, or even amazing, is that all these walls were hand-built, without the use of cement. Their construction relies entirely on the correct placing of the stones, so that their own weight and shape secures them, and this is where the skill comes in. I have seen mile after mile of wall clinging to rock faces, skirting around lofty cliffs, climbing high into mountains and fells, and always apparently part of the ground upon which they stand, following its curves, rises and dips. Many have stiles to permit landowners and others to climb over them, and an equally large number have smout holes, these being small holes constructed especially to allow passage from field to field by small animals, like rabbits, or larger animals, like sheep, while preventing horses and cattle from straying.

The successful building of a dry stone wall is not for amateurs or DIY fanatics, although the craft can be taught by a skilled tutor. The strength of the wall depends upon a firm base, and also on pieces of stone known as throughs. In early times, the base was made by digging down to the firm subsoil and tightly packing the trench with stones, although, in some modern instances, the base is now made of concrete. A through is a larger piece of stone which pierces the entire width of the wall, at intervals of about one yard or metre, being placed at every 18 inches (45cm) in height. These have the effect of binding together the parts below and around them, their weight, shape and length contributing towards this.

In construction, a dry stone wall is virtually two walls in one. The builder starts by making two parallel lines along the site, at least 18 inches (45cm) apart. These identify the outer extremities of the wall, which can be as much as four feet (1m 30cm) wide in some cases, but it gets narrower as it rises. When finished, the top will be about a foot (30cm) wide. During construction, the two outer walls are filled with rubble and smaller stones, which act as a binding, while at every 18 inches or so (45cm), one of the throughs will be included. All surfaces facing the sky or weather will be sloping downwards, because if water gets into the interior of the walls, it can freeze or cause internal damage.

Sadly, a high percentage of our dry stone walls are in need of maintenance and repair, often being damaged by ramblers climbing over them without using stiles, or people stealing the stones for urban gardens. But a good one will last a long, long time. As one builder said when he'd finished a stretch: "If thoo has onny trouble wiv it in t'next 200 years, let me know."

Updated: 11:49 Friday, April 23, 2004