Posted on 07/18/2006 10:38:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
unlike hedgerows, there is no protection under law for dry stone walls. An estimated 7,000km - 4,350 miles - of dry stone walls disappeared from the countryside of England and Wales between 1947 and 1985 and 96% of those left are in need of restoration. Factors like this, together with a passion for the highly-skilled 4,000-year-old technique of controlling livestock, brought dry stone wall experts from around Europe to the Brecon Beacons National Park earlier this month for a conference on regenerating the tradition. Sixteen delegates travelled from as far away as Croatia to explore the problems of maintaining and restoring dry stone walls, and also spent three days rebuilding a wall in Llangynidr alongside representatives of the Dry Stone Walling Association and Walls of Llangynidr project.
(Excerpt) Read more at icwales.icnetwork.co.uk ...
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Same thing (disappearance of dry stone walls) happened in my native Kentucky during my lifetime. I well remember, as a child, back in the 1960s, gazing at the beautiful, bucolic landscape.....rolling green pastures delimited by limestone fences. Now, most of those fences are either gone, or have fallen into shameful disrepair.
One of the things I miss about New England are all the stone walls snaking off into the woods. Most are also in disrepair, but one of the ideas about their construction was as a sort of stone holding area--a way for the farmers to store the stones that came each plowing season, as well as to define fields. Not much need for that anymore since small scale farming is pretty much gone from that area.
Anyone who has dug around in New England knows unless you are in a floodplain, you are going to be hittin rocks. When I was working as a contract archaeologist there, we used to go through so many shovels each digging season. Dig dig *clang* "Ouch". :)
Unlike in New England, masons in the Bluegrass region had to quarry their limestone, or haul limestone flags out of creek beds. It was quite a bit of work, I'm sure.
Photographs from the mid-1800s show a serene, beautiful landscape....farmhouses, Presbyterian Churches, and fences all built out of local limestone, a vernacular architecture that framed the lovely Bluegrass farmland. Plenty of this lingered well into the 1970s. Now, sadly, much of that visual paradise is being converted to generic subdivisions and shopping centers.
I've seen some pictures of Kentucky with those stone walls, and you are correct, it is a loss to the region. Generic subdivisions and shopping centers seem to be a virus. I hate 'em--nothing worse than going to visit a city you've never been to, and seeing the same boring, bland architecture everyplace. I like seeing the uniqueness of an area.
Just this past weekend I took a little drive out of the suburban sprawl here in California, out to a little town called San Juan Bautista. It had an old Spanish mission along with a typical western main street (circa 1800s, like Western movies), and it was great to see something unique to the region without a Starbucks on the corner and a faux-Mission McDonalds across the street.
Upper New York State around Rochester is filled with stone walls around some fields. I have always wondered what is the best, practical procedure to maintain them. I am open to suggestions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
