Location
The Cotswolds
Stone
Cotswold limestone laid dry, with a dressed coping and a carved plaque
Scope
8ft high by 6m long dry stone wall, coped, returned to a gateway, with a hand-carved name plaque built in

The job

Eight feet is a lot of dry stone wall. At that height the wall stops being a boundary marker and becomes a piece of structure: the batter has to be right the whole way up, the hearting has to be packed properly course by course, and every through stone has to earn its place. Get it wrong and it does not show for years — and then it shows all at once.

Newly built dry stone wall eight feet high running along a lane, with a dressed coping and a carved name plaque set into the face
Six metres of it, coped along the top, seen from the lane.

Walling and banker work together

The wall returns to a new gateway and ties into the older walling beyond it, so the new build had to pick up the line and the character of what was already there. Set into the face is a plaque carved with the house name — banker work, cut at the bench, then built into the wall as it went up rather than fixed on afterwards.

Hand-carved stone plaque reading The Old Rectory, built into the face of the new dry stone wall
The plaque, built in rather than fixed on.
The new dry stone wall returning to timber gates, with the coping running through and older walling continuing beyond
The return to the gateway, and the older wall picked up beyond.

The result

Two trades on one job: the walling, and the lettering. Both from the same yard.