We completed the dry stone wall in the orchard last year. Now that the builders have gone, it is time to start extending the wall (or rather re-building the wall) along the edge of the top field. Not only will this tidy things up a bit, but it will also help us get rid of some of the “spare” stone that we have in the top field. The “spare” stone made up part of the old toilet block and barn that we demolished to make way for the new extension.
The first job is to clear away all of the undergrowth in this part of the field. This is where a petrol strimmer comes in handy! Then it is a case of taking the old wall down to a level where we get on to something solid that we can build off. There are a number of large trees along this wall line and this makes life a little harder. There is no point in trying to dig the roots out – we would be there forever and we would probably end up damaging the tree. You have to work with what is there and this can mean that the line of the wall is not as straight as you might like. You have to work with the trees and their roots.
It has taken us about three days to clear and re-build a 20ft section of the wall. As always, it looks terrible until you are just about to put the topping stones on (and then it looks OK).
This section of wall bends around from the orchard to from the edge of the wall in the top field. You can’t use string to line up the wall here, so it is all done by eye. The roots from the trees also mean that digging the foundations can be difficult. In some places, we have had to follow the line of the old wall – even when it wasn’t straight!
Now this corner of field has been cleared, we can get on with rebuilding the dry stone wall along the edge of the top field.