Historic Walls for Wildlife

Yesterday I gave a hands on demonstration of Dry Stone Walling for the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation

The large stones for the adults

and the smaller stones for the children.

In all my years of teaching dry stone walling, invariably a group of strangers come together and within minutes they are working together like old friends.

In this particular case three children came together, and within seconds they were cooperating verbally and actively to create this masterpiece

I would like to think it was the wall that had the full attention of the baby in its mothers arms. you're never too young to learn

The bottom half of this miniature wall started with multiple running joints (stones stacked one on top of another) whereas the top half is almost entirely built with crossing joints. That is a steep learning curve for a child. Well done.

Whatever the end result, the looks of concentration and enjoyment that go into the build make it a worthwhile endeavour.

It's nice to know someone was listening when I was explaining the batter of a dry stone wall.