Stone Walling - Cotswold Style - Part 1

Wherever in the country you find dry stone walls, there is always a distinct local style - or perhaps even more than one.  The Cotswolds are no exception, and the above photo shows what I believe is the typical local style, with almost rectangular stones in neat lines with vertical coping stones on top - these are set with mortar but that's not always the case.  An alternative form of coping is simply some rounded mortar (photo right).  If the wall is being made using mortar instead of being dry, then the stones are naturally not needed to be so rectangular as the mortar makes good the irregularities, and the lines of stone are not always so even (lower photo right).



Of course, as I'm not actually in the real Cotswolds, the local stone is not exactly the same and so things tend to be just that little bit different here.  This preamble is my excuse in advance for the odd appearance of whatever I build, as I have the need of doing several stone walls soon.

I have actually made a start this week on my own first simple dry stone wall. This wall is to be about 15" high just to give a clear edge to hold back the raised ground where we lowered the surface to make the drive level (photo below).  Thus only one side is visible and the back of the wall is built into the earth bank.  I already had the foundation which is Celcon blocks laid flat, set on cement; this was done last year when we did the drive, to form a solid edge to the "self-compacting gravel" which we laid as the drive surface (and I'm very impressed by it, by the way).

I'm pretty happy with the progress so far, although it is quite surprising how much stone is required for even a small wall.  This low wall is also a low risk opportunity to see just how difficult this task is as, if it all goes wrong, I can take it down and try again without a great waste of effort or loss of face! 

When I feel competent, I shall progress to a very long wall going alongside the house, to hold back the (higher) garden as mentioned at the end of a recent post (see here), plus a high but fairly short wall beside the front of the house, to incorporate some lovely stones with pintles (which I bought last year) so that I can hang a gate - the other gate will be attached to a post on the side of the house.  The final job is to repair the wall ends where I cut the opening for the driveway.  In my favourite reclamation yard, I found and purchased a large old coping stone which was from the wall outside the local Methodist church.  This lovely piece of limestone was cut in two last June and I think they will look perfect, giving a square end to each wall - see photo of one of them, right, with the newly bevelled edge away from the camera.  However, since that job requires lime mortar, it can't be done until I am sure there will be no more frost; also, it's rather publicly visible so I hesitate to start with that job!