One of the most obvious and dominant features of Yorkshiredale is the dry stone wall. It is built without mortar and is stable due to its own structure, so Dale alone has a dry stone wall of more than 5,000 miles. In fact, if you have too many time in your hand between Cobid, if you last at the end of measuring all dry stone walls in Yorkshiredale National Park and arriving in Australia at the end.
If you guide visitors around Yorkshiredale, I would like to provide a little insight into how many miles of the walls are the topic of conversation and how they have become. The purpose of the wall building is simple, usually to mark the movement of home (or wild) animals to mark physical boundaries.
The first question I ask is how old they are. This is an interesting question without a decisive answer. Most of the dry stone walls of Yorkshiredale go back to the enclosure movements in the late 1700s to the early 1800s, which will be explained in detail later.
The oldest wall is actually derived from the Bronze Age, around 2500 BC. This is the oldest example of Yorkshiredale, located in Burban Moore at the bottom of Wens Reidale. The technology behind the construction is not new because there are 14 enclosure of about 50 x 40m and several circular stones huts.
Use the style of the structure of the dry stone wall to fully estimate the age. There was a style that was widespread in the era of the monastery in the Norman conquest and the late 1500s, the walls were built on one side, and the other side had continuous overhangs along one side. 。 This was to actually protect the sheep from wolves. Fortunately, it's no longer a dale problem.
Most of these walls require a little repair, but still stands. If you go to Marham Cob and walk along a dry valley surrounded by walls, it's a good example to be called Watroz Valley. During the monastery era, this was the boundary of the land owned by Bolton Priority and the Fountain Monastery.
Other examples of waring in this era include many drover roads crossing fels such as mastillen. In addition to giving a name on the arm of the drawover, which became famous for James Heliott's book, the lane on the walls of these walls operates livestock to transport livestock with winter and summer pastures, and animal market. Was used to transport.
Interestingly, it wasn't just sheep or cows. Dale's gangsters are taken along the green lane to the annual goosfure in Nottingham. Before their journey, they passed through a shallow bath with a warm tar, and a small grit bed made a cat with a cat on a long whole! Many old blacksmiths in Dale still have old stone tar buses.
The later walls are until the era of various enclosures. This was a place that changed between the late 1700s and the 1800s agricultural practices. The open -field system, which had a general land used by farmers to graze by the lord of the mansion, was deprived of people by wealthy land owners, and tenant farmers helped farms for centuries. I was expelled from.
These walls tend to be very straight and use a more modern structure.
The construction of the wall tends to reflect the following designs. The walls are composed of two skins, and there are large stones that are known as bass footing as a basic course. The two aspects gradually become tapered ahead. In order to give the wall additional stability, a small stone called Infill or heart is buried in the cavity.
Both walls are locked to the predetermined position by coping stones or top stones, which are sometimes known as cam. Further stability during construction is caused by adding stones and through. This is a long stone that passes on both sides of the skin of the wall. Different wallers use a variety of through. Some are randomly used as random and part of the design. Also, some Wallers will make us a flat stone on two faces and skins when we meet before adding a countermeasure.
All dry stone walls tend to be 1.6m in height (based on old measurements in the 7th quarter). This is in front of the action. The wall is tapered from 0.75 on the base to 0.4m at the top.
The question I often ask is how long it took to build all the walls of Dale. Well, Rome was certainly not built a day. Today, more and more people have the skills of dry stone walls, so returning to the 1700s and 1800s, the demand is high, and the walls can be made into walls according to the good wages of land owners. 。 Most of the walls you see you running around have been built for 100 years.
Excellent drystone wallers can build a 6-7 meter wall a day. They have enough experience to build with their eyes, which is said to be a good waller that “do not pick up the same stone twice.” All meters on the wall use about 2 tons of stones, so you need to lift it by hand and the Waller must fit considerably.
There are several functions that can still be seen today, such as holes and smooth holes with disabilities, small holes that can be used to pass through the field when the sheep is drought, and small holes that can be used to find a pasture during the snow. 。 In FOUNTAINS ABBEY, you can see the bee balls are built into the wall.
A few years ago, on the Wenzlydale Swinisweight, a dried stone wall built by a French soldier who was taken prisoner during the Napoleon War was seen, so the humble stone that was originally noticeable. There are much more on the walls.
These walls are located in a land, part of the Swinis Wait Estate, where we operate a wonderful small company called Wensley Dale Experience. You can experience farms and try dry stone walls directly. I took a group a few years ago, and after a short training session by Tim Darram, they were released. It was surprising how they entered it. At the end of the time we put aside for this activity, the walls were still unfinished, and it was very difficult to praise the group!
If you are interested, you will find more information about the dry stone wall. A good starting point is the website of Drystone Waring Association- https://www.dswa.org.uk
There is also a great exhibition in Halifax's Sibden Hall, and there are many agricultural shows held in Dale for several months in summer. But I hope you have the basics right now, and I have blown out your WHI on some of the backgrounds behind these symbolic Yorkshire structure.
