Widford 2011/12
Widford 2011/12
Dry Stone walling group take on their toughest challenge yet at Widford.
The Wychwood Project Dry Stone Walling Group have tackled some tricky walls over the last few years but the project at Widford is the most challenging yet. The group tackled the thirty metres of wall that runs from St Oswald’s Church down to the River Windrush.
The wall is in an English Heritage Scheduled Monument site that includes the former medieval village of Widford and crosses one of the most popular footpaths in West Oxfordshire that runs from Burford to Swinbrook.
The dry stone walling group is composed of volunteers, under the expert supervision of Trevor Townsend, an amateur waller of ten years' experience. In recent years the group has restored walls at St John’s Church, Fifield, along Brook Lane at Stonesfield and another wall at Widford last summer.
Some people are regular volunteers and others join in, as and when they are available. Trevor has a remarkable knack of being able to get novice builders involved from the beginning so that they are very soon contributing to the building of the wall.
This wall is an even greater challenge than usual, due to the size of the wall which used to form the boundary to a deer park. The original height of the wall was probably around 7’ where the normal size of a Cotswold wall is around 4’6”. Therefore, the base of the wall is extra wide to hold that height of wall. The plan is to restore the wall to about 4’6” high but this will mean that the width at the top will be too wide to put the traditional toppers on.
Work is well underway with much of the demolition required completed. Although it might not seem the most interesting part of the work volunteers find this a useful process to take part in. As volunteer Cecile Coignet said, ‘“Dismantling the bulging parts of the wall really helped me understand what was structurally wrong with it and therefore what we needed to do to ensure our work would last for generations to come”
The rebuilding is without doubt the most challenging but also the most satisfying part of the work as you start to see the wall grow again. The size and length of this wall has given Trevor many headaches. He has to ensure that the batter (the angle at which the width of the wall decreases towards the top) is regular along the length of the wall. At the same time he has to ensure that the courses are maintained along the length of the wall as well as accommodating the slope of the land. This is all regulated by a system of batter frames and string lines that guide the wallers in their work.
The other major concern that wallers have to look out for is to ensure that the building stones cover the joint between the stones below, it is amazingly easy to be so pleased that a stone fits perfectly that you forget to check the joints below. It is not unusual to hear the refrain ‘Oh no! Look at those running joints’. So, one of the important techniques is to remember to step back regularly to look at your work from a distance as any problems are then revealed and can be quickly remedied.
Phase 2 December 2011
Energetic members of the CAT group tackled the demolition of the second phase of the wall at Widford. This will save a great deal of time for the walling group so they can use their expertise on the building. The building project has tight time constraints so any help is very welcome. Taking the wall down is still a very interesting part of the process as people can get a good idea of how a wall is built in the first place and the forces that result in its collapse. The group were amazed that the collection of stones and dust was still standing at all and not at all surprised at the places where it had totally slumped to one side. Once the stone was laid out in rows ready for rebuilding everyone was amazed at the amount of stone and that it would all go back into the wall plus some new stone that would have to be brought in.
Funding for this walling project is a partnership with the Cotswolds Conservation Board, Oxfordshire Stronger Communities Alliance, the Friends of Wychwood and the landowner all making contributions.
Experienced wallers will be very welcome to join the group
If you have had any walling experience and have some time to spare on Mondays or Tuesdays you will be most welcome if you could come along to help us to finish this marathon building project by the end of July 2012.
Please contact the project office or email wychwood@oxfordshire.gov.uk if you would like to join the group.
To see photographs of the work at Widford follow this link to our Flickr site http://bit.ly/rBjigd
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