History Of Dry Stone
Walling
Dry stone walling is an
ancient craft, using
only stone with no
mortar to build them.
Dry stone walls are a
culturally important
human contribution to
the landscape. The
craftsmanship used to
build dry stone walls
and structures has
developed over thousands
of years since the
Neolithic period.
Examples include the
Neolithic village of
Skara Brae on Orkney,
built in 3000 BC, the
buildings of Newgrange
in Ireland, the Brochs
of the Celts and around
the world from Egypt,
Japan and South America,
to the turf walls of
Iceland. What is so
impressive is the high
level of craftsmanship
attained by these
ancient civilisations.
It is not uncommon for
the joints in between
stones to be made so
tight and with such
pressure that you can’t
even fit a razor blade
in the joint.
In the UK, field walls
or boundary walls were
used by the Celts, as
nomadic pastures and
hunting gave way to
settled farming, as a
way of stock-proofing
animals or marking out
crop fields. Stone
circles, and a
surrounding irregular
patchwork of ditches and
dykes, were a trademark
of the Celtic field
system. During the Roman
invasions, fairly
cohesive tribal
federations developed,
capable of erecting
extensive fortifications
and defensive stonework.
The next main period of
wall building began in
the early Middle Ages,
from Anglo Saxon to
Viking times, and in
this period the field
system really developed.
Walls still standing now
near Hawes have been
dated back to Viking
times. Many of those
field walls are only
noticeable by the
footings left in the
ground where the old
boundaries originally
were. The next definable
walling period started
from the 14th and 15th
centuries and continued
till the 18th century.
Construction was at its
height in the
Elizabethan period, when
land enclosure acts were
being enforced.
Today there are 69,926
miles of dry stone wall
in England alone. Of
that, 12% is derelict
and 17% consists of
remnants, while only 13%
is stock-proof and 38%
is showing major signs
of deterioration. So
there is potentially a
lot of work to be done. |
Landscaping And Garden
Walls
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The craft is now being
utilised in sculpture
and modern buildings,
where its character and
strong visual impact is
reaching a new audience.
There has been a
noticeable increase of
stonework in the form of
garden walls, functional
or purely decorative,
landscaping the stone to
apply creative pattern
into our gardens. Dry
stone walls come into
their own functionally
when retaining the
higher ground by letting
the water through,
acting as a sieve
system, releasing the
potential pressure that
water build-up can
create. Dry stone steps,
butts, flower-beds,
rockeries, arches,
cairns, pine-cone
cairns, spheres, domes,
water features and the
sculpting of stone
features are all
nowadays playing a more
common role in the rural
building blocks of
garden design. |
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