A few months back, I was a willing volunteer at a beginner’s weekend course learning to re-build a dry stone wall.
Why did I do it? Well, I suppose I just wanted to do something a different. A couple of days out of the office in beautiful Wye Valley countryside, learning a new skill, and making something bad…well, look good.
I’d encourage anyone to have a go. It doesn’t have to be walling, it could be hedge laying or thatching, rural skills that are fast disappearing.
Trying something new opened a whole new world of ‘things I didn’t know’. I’ve made new business contacts and gained a real sense of achievement.
From my weekend of walling, I’ve uncovered the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain www.dswa.org.uk, that you can gain a Level 1, 2 and 3 vocational qualification www.lantra-awards.co.uk, and that dry stone walling is an ancient craft with the earliest walls located at Skara Brae in the Orkney’s built 3,500 years ago. No-one is sure which month.
I’m told that in the 14th century, waste ground was increasingly reclaimed and enclosed with stone walls to create fields. These had a beautiful reverse ‘S’ configuration within the boundary walls as they followed the old strip farming system that was ploughed by four pairs of oxen. Apparently the animals could not turn in a straight line and so each ‘strip’ formed a reverse ‘S’ at each end.
Most of the walls you see today were built following the Enclosure Act in the 1740s. They were built in straight lines and the fields were more square than oblong.
Dry stone walls don’t only keep animals from wandering all over the countryside they also provide a home for lots of smaller animals, birds and insects.
They’re also important habitats for mosses, lichens, ferns, ivy and other plants. 
I’m hooked, though my kids don’t quite get my enthusiasm. Their eyes roll when I mention Sheep Creeps, Badger Smoots and Pinfolds. I know…I need to get out more. But there’s the rub, I’m beginning to and I now look at walls in a very different way! A fresh perspective if you like. In business, it’s a good thing.
Check out the National Stone Centre too, www.nationalstonecentre.org.uk and thanks also to my weekend instructor Chris Hodges. If ever there was an enthusiast for dry stone walls, it’s Chris www.drystonewaller.co.uk
So what next for this blogger? Well, this weekend I begin my Level 1 course and I’m counting down the stones.
Back to the day job in the meantime.
PS I do think the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain needs to up its PR!
