Over at the Geograph site, I have contributed 393 images in which the principal subject is tagged as "wall" or "walls". Mostly, the walls in question are drystone walls which are an integral feature of upland landscapes in England and Wales.
Historically, wherever stones were easily available, our forbears would build walls - rather than planting hedges. The walls were to delineate ownership and to enclose animals or crops. It is estimated that there are over 170,000 miles of drystone wall in Britain - enough to circle the globe seven times over.
I am a sucker for these walls. Many are hundreds of years old and if you pause to look closely at them you find a certain rustic beauty. I suspect that the wall builders of yore never imagined for one minute that they were producing a kind of accidental art that would endure through the centuries as testament to their hard labour and craftsmanship.
On YouTube a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the ramblings of a young Yorkshireman called Jack Roscoe. His vlogging name is "Northern Introvert". He is a very pleasant guide to follow on his various jaunts. His most recent video sees him learning about drystone walling from a group of enthusiasts who are busy repairing a couple of walls on a North Yorkshire farm.
The video is over 23 minutes long so you might not have time to watch it all. Mind you, I suspect there will be some visitors who are already thinking, "A video about building drystone walls? I would rather watch grass growing!" Each to their own.
I love rustic and these walls are amazing. I admire the craftsmanship involved to create such lasting beauty. It also reminds me of my forebears and how hard they worked the land.
ReplyDeleteGreat that someone is taking responsibility for the up keep of walls. as we say about many things. they don't make them anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe video was interesting. If I hadn't seen it, I would have assumed that they made bored children build the wall. It would be a good way to keep them busy. The walls are beautiful and obviously Yorkshire has a lot of stone.
ReplyDeleteThey really are works of art.
ReplyDeleteIn the Smithsonian publication I just received today, there is a whole section on dry stone walls, featuring delightful pictures of those in Wales and Scotland as well as other places around the world. I learned Scotland's walls date back 4,000 years. There are Mayan ones in Belize built in the 8th and 9th century, and some in Zimbabwe built in the13th and 14th century.
ReplyDeleteI don't have time for the video but I do REALLY LOVE Britain's dry stone walls. If I had property I'd have a few of those myself to mark out fields for growing different things, fruit orchard, vegetables, playground for kids.
ReplyDeleteI am a sucker for drystone walls, too. Your photos are beautiful, and I am wondering now whether I should make walls the theme for my next calendar.
ReplyDeleteI know you are not a fan of crime mysteries in book or film, but there is a character in a series set in Yorkshire (Inspector Banks, I think) who has a drystone wall in his garden and uses drystone walling as a kind of meditative activity, both to wind down after a difficult day and to let his mind explore the current case at its own pace.
We have a drystone wall surrounding the graveyard section of our garden. It was very neglected when we moved in, with parts tumbled and fallen. P has spent many hours repairing it in between other jobs. I think he finds it calming.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photographs, especially the last one. I spent a lot of time in my teens drawing pictures of sweeping moors and dry stone walls.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and I have not long come back to our home, Melbourne, Australia after walking the 163 kilometres of the Cotswold Way. It was so beautiful, and along with being so stunned by your old and huge and magnificent trees, I was also really taken by these walls. I took many photos of them as we followed many kilometres of them. Thanks for your statistics as I was wondering how many k’s of them abounded. Marie, Melbourne, Australia
ReplyDeleteGrass would be faster.
ReplyDeleteEnglish and Irish immigrants built drystone walls in Kentucky. In recent decades there have been several trainings, often with stone builders from Britain as instructors, to train the next generation of masons to maintain the walls. Like Yorkshire, stone was plentiful and crops precious.
ReplyDeleteI too admire the art of dry stone walling. What baffles me is stonewalling (figuratively speaking) as applied by you. Credit where it's due. At least you let my comments stand even if, apparently, you have nothing to say in reply.
ReplyDeleteI'd have loved you as teacher. I mean it. What a challenge. Still, as I once learnt to my cost, teachers have the advantage of that law of physics; namely the longer lever. Some [teachers] use it, some don't.
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I just asked the all-knowing Google if we have drystone walls here in N. America and it would appear that we do. Mostly in New England where stones are abundant but in other places too.
ReplyDeleteI always like it when you have photos of stone walls and always mention it in my comments!
ReplyDeleteThere's a real skill and art in building those walls, isn't there!
ReplyDeleteI always LOVED the Drystone Walls of Wales and England. My Mom is Welsh and when my Welsh Uncle would come for visits to America, he'd try to Teach me how to do Drystone, it's quite an Art Form that is being Lost if it isn't passed along to the Future Generations. We had a Historic Property when my Uncle was still Living and able to visit and he did many a Drystone for me there and it will likely stand as long as that Old House will stand, Modern structures never will, built too shoddy.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems of comments disappearing into your computer until you've decided to release them is that people like me have no idea where we are at. I formulated a reply but the buzzer went off to say that the breadmaker had done its stuff. Some while later I returned to the computer which had gone to sleep. When I opened it there was no comment so I assumed that I had finished and sent it before I attended to the bread. However I then became convinced that I hadn't finished the comment so it probably hadn't been sent.
ReplyDeleteWhat upsets me is the fact that drystane dykes have been a love of mine since my childhood times in Wales and The Lake District and that causes me sadness at the dearth of them on this side of Lewis (there's no or very few loose stones to be harvested). Oddly I have a friend here from Devon who was a dry stone waller at one time in his life.
the work of Andy Goldsworthy (plenty on show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park) often features dry stone walling..... the idea that even after it falls down... spreads about .... disappears.... it still leaves lumps, bumps, earth shadows behind for people to ponder..... he's my most favourite artist, and i heartily recommend everyone to go there and visit the "outclosure", the sheepfold with shadow stone, and the hanging trees....... if only i could get there.....
ReplyDeleteWalled kitchen gardens are my favorite YP. Creating a unique microclimate and no sight of the big dung heaps from the big house. Here where I live there are herring bone or basket and weave style pattern of drystone wall construction. I believe this is the stone finger print of Cornish miners who worked down the mines on our peninsula in West Cork. Great post👍.
ReplyDeleteThose walls are so impressive. I'd be photographing them too. In London I don't get to see structures quite like that! And even out in the countryside around the city I think we have more hedgerows than walls. (Correct me if I'm wrong about that, anyone!)
ReplyDeleteVery narrow roads with dry stone walls on both sides is one of the many things I remember as "typically British" from our family travels in Britain back in my youth - and have been reminded of again lately as I've been watching a number of British Antiques Roadtrip shows on TV... (I also watched the whole of your video here and found it quite mesmerising.) In Sweden, where we have a lot of forests, I think we probably had more wooden fences than stone walls; but it probably varied (and still varies) between different areas. As I don't have a car I usually don't see all that much of the countryside these days, though!
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