Creating a traditional dry stone wall with local stone

It appears that the dry stone wall is making a bit of a comeback as clients move to more sustainable materials.

Imitation or reconstituted paving and walling can take its toll on the environment both in terms of manufacture and haulage of materials to the manufacturing base.

Environmental cost is increased when materials are delivered onto the various stockists around the country before moving to its final destination and place of construction.

As you travel from place to place in the UK (or the world) there is much historical evidence of localised material production and use.

In areas such as Wales, Scotland and Cornwall, local stone, often only hauled across a field from a quarry adjacent to its final resting place, has been used for whole villages, including boundary walls and even roofs.

Wood was cut in the local woodland with straw and mud taken from neighbouring farmland. Often, clay pits would be opened up and the clay fired to produce bricks and tiles.

On land that has high flint content, the flint was knapped and used in conjunction with brick and stone to build houses - all in all, a sensible way to utilise natural resources as close as possible to the building site.

I think that garden designers and landscapers (and house builders) are faced with an increased challenge of sourcing and using local materials in new gardens or additional features in existing schemes.

In this You Tube video produced by Kathryn Wilkins, Cornwall Landscaping demonstrates how local stone is used to build strong but, aesthetically pleasing, boundary walls.

Comments

[rob (OurFrenchGarden)]

Philip you're a star.

I have some walls to build once the season is over so cheers for this.

[Philip Voice]

I look forward to seeing the piccy's Rob.

[Penny]

Sorry, I am not impressed. I live in the Pennines and our walls have to be substantially better built than this.
I recommend anyone who wants to build a dry stone wall gets a copy of BTCV's Dry Stone Wall Handbook. This shows how you need to set your foundations out and string lines to get level even courses, and our walls batter inwards from a minimum 500 mm base to a min top width of 300mm. Using bits of half rotten timber to 'level up' isn't recommended - you need the proper kit. Our free standing walls are built with a front back and middle, with largest blocks used for front and back and small stone and rubble for the central hearting. Most important and not obvious on this video is that the vertical joints must be broken as in any masonry wall. Dry stone walling is a craft that must be learnt through practice, it is a wonderful and sustainable way of forming boundaries and every region has different styles depending on the rock type available. Done properly it will last for hundreds of years.

[Pip Howard]

This wall had to be vertical; as such each and every stone is binded in across the width. This technique is common across France and parts of the UK. It allows for much more flexibility in design and position and allows for a full guarantee also. The standardisation of walling, (or hedging), has seen the demise of many of the unique styles that can vary from village to village. In order to keep the industry alive it is essential to allow any client the full range of such possibilities. The film was a snippet of the work done, (not a demostration) - and the finished product can be easily viewed by anyone as it runs alongside a public road. Come and see it before you criticise.

[Dave Perry]

Mmmmm!! I'm not too sure many British Drystone Wallers would view this as instructional, given it's not level the stones are traced and their several vertical joints of many levels of stone.

[Theo Schmidt]

Nice, video, but it seems from it that too many stones are placed as "runners", i.e. lengthwise, and not as "binders", i.e. into the wall. There also seem to be too many "running joints", i.e. vertical faults over several layers of stone. So the wall will probably not be as stable or long-lived as one built "by the rulebook".