Aislaby Side = an unusual wall.

This wall is quite unique, at least in North Yorkshire. The builder has placed many  of the stones on their edges or narrowest side.  Some people call them 'shiners'.  

Its quite an old wall and is built below the well know Aislaby quarries which supplied the stone for Whitby Abbey and London Bridge amongst other places.

Grid Ref  NZ 838 078 above Newbiggin High Farm, Aislaby 

 

Covid has reduced the amount of traffic so it gave me the chance to rebuild  this wall.

 

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I'd already removed the tops, although they were mostly triangular I was going to have to create some other tops from suitable stone.

(Above)  This is part way through the re-build.  Notice that there are few  gaps between stones which reducesthe amount of rubble fill you need.  (Below)  Over many years the fill erodes, becomes smaller and eventually falls down the inside of the wall leaving large 'cavities' or gaps into which the building stone gradually collapses into - as you can see in the photograph below.  Which I why this wall has partially collapsed.

😀 And here's the finished job (below)

A medieval deer park wall

 The deer park wall at Fylingthorpe in North Yorkshire, which is  about 5 miles SE of Whitby.  Much of the original wall still exists and some of it is likely to be in much the same condition as it is now and largely unchanged since KIng Henry VIII  dissolved the Abbey at Whitby immediately after 1536.  The deer park was a part of the Abbey property.  The wall is 3ft in thickness at the base and at the top around 2ft.  A distinguishing feature of this wall are the regularly spaced stones in the form of a cross.  These stones go right through the wall.  They must have been difficult to place in the days before machinery.  Some repairs have been carried out over the years.

Another feature of this wall is the top. For much of the top there is no evidence of how it was finished off.  However, where the wall descends into the beck the character of the wall changes and the tops/copes are large flat slabs of stone.

Another wall close by has unusual large upright stones, all of which are the full width of the wall, and this wall is also likely to have been built at the same time.

This is the same wall, but in another field:- http://wallsandhedges.blogspot.com/2010/10/park-wall-historic-wall.html

Above and below - A medieval wall.

I repaired/rebuilt some of the lower part of this wall in the winter of 2020/2021

 

Near Whitby Abbey

In the walls near Whitby abbey there's plenty of evidence of old, worked abbey stone.  After the dissolution of the Abbey in the 1500,s much stone was sold, given away, recycled or simply pinched.  Its  a nice surprise when you find a lump of stone nicely worked on one or more sides.

 

Above = after

Below - Before

 

Hedgelaying training for the York Wildlife Trust

Hobb House Farm Rosedale. February 2018

I was asked to run this two day event by Mary-Jane Alexander the NYMNP's Youth Engagement Officer. 

Given that most of them had little experience of using hand saws, axes, billhooks and the like, I was pleasantly surprised that they managed to achieve such good results and under quite cold, wintery conditions.

Mary-Jane and a trainee

Getting stuck in!

Not bad by any means.  Yorkshire style!

Not perfect cuts, but certainly quite good considering their experience, and age.

A Perfect Repair?

I was recently asked whether my stonework is 'perfectly neat'.  The answer is not always,  nor should it be when you are carrying out a repair.  It is important to match the shape and style of the wall.  If the stone work isn't coursed then I'm not too sure you should make it coursed.  Similarly if it is coursed then you should endeavour to match the existing wall. 

You can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear - this is how the original wallers built the wall and it stood the test of time.  

From the picture below my repair seen from side on doesn't appear very neat.  However most of the stones were put length in, where appropriate and there were a number of through stones - no new stone was used in this repair and the rather straggly tops matched the existing wall as can be seen from the second photograph.

Above = A repair of a wall in Goathland, N.YKS

But it matches the rest of the wall in style!!

Some repairs

A few random walls I've repaired in and around Whitby & Goathland.  The old and the new are, I hope closely matched in style, although this is helped by the use of the original stone or stone of similiar type and size being used for the repaired gaps.

Above = Next to Whitby Abbey

Hawthorne Hill Farm - Goathland

Bayness - nr Robin Hood's Bay