After working up on the Moors with heavy lumps of granite, we came back down to the slopes of the South Hams to work rebuilding a section of soft, slatey, dry stone wall.
We painstakingly dismantled the teetering wall stone by stone, carefully stacking them to avoid breakages and then began the slow, careful rebuild. Because the stones are so small and thin it is very slow work. We decided to make a gap in the wall, with a couple of steps and a gate, which would give us a little more stone to chose from and allow us to discard some of the more slushy ones.
It’s always a pleasure to work for a client who appreciates the amount of work that goes into such a wall, and we were also blessed by frequent encouragement from the neighbours.
I made the cleft chestnut gate with a couple of trainees from the Devon Rural Skills Trust.
We’ll be returning in May to repair another section farther along the road…
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