I wanted to go to the DSWAC indoor course in Milton in January, the May workshop at Balsam Lake or the May seminar at Baltimore. I didn’t manage to get to any of them so I was determined to go to the Cumberland House Port Hope Seminar last week and find out what is involved in building a dry stone wall.
I grew up in England where there are dry stone walls everywhere and some of them have been there for centuries. They simply don’t move or fall down or wear out and they look so beautiful. There is a bridge in Norfolk near where my mother lived that has dry stone walls. The whole thing was built by monks in the 7th century. There have been things done to the bridge to allow modern traffic – horses and carts and then cars – to go over it, but the walls are still intact. As no cement or earth is used the air can get through and the wall remains dry. A properly built wall will last many hundreds of years with only a little attention. It is an incredible craft and looks like it would take a lot of skill, a very strong back and a lot of patience.
What I discovered last week was that a bunch of people of all ages – 11 neophytes and two experts – could build a simply beautiful wall in a day. I was impressed and in love.
The craft (or is it an art?) of dry stone wall building goes back 5000 years to the Stone Age. It is one of the oldest construction methods known to mankind. (One of the more extraordinary examples is Rock of Cashel in Ireland, a cathedral built entirely (including the ceiling) by this dry stone method.) These mortar-less barriers are in the countryside all over the world and are becoming more and more popular as fashionable additions to the home garden.
Stonemason John Shaw-Rimmington is one of the experts and has built walls all over Northumberland County since he and his family came to Port Hope a couple of years ago. He is also the president of DSWAC, the Dry Stone Walling Across Canada, he is a wonderful teacher and it was on his property that these brand-new-to-the-art people, from Toronto, Collingwood and London and all over Northumberland County, came to learn how to build a wall. With help from stonemason Matthew Ring from Oshawa, John led his students through the process. They started early in the morning, broke for lunch and ended just before supper. As you can see from the pictures they did a remarkable job and I can assure you they are all hooked. Not surprising. It’s the total opposite to modern technology: easy, not expensive, no machinery, no noise, simply the sounds of stones clinking together and people working.
It was a remarkable experience and I would love to have a go. There’s a very special event coming up over the thanksgiving Weekend – October 8, 9, and 10. 2005 It’s the Second Annual Dry Stone Walling Festival and John is going to build ‘a ruin’ at the Hill and Dale Bed and Breakfast in Port Hope. He will be assisted by well-known dry stone artist Dan Snow from New England, and there will be courses, demonstrations and documentary films.