The North Wales Branch of the Dry Stone Walling Association (DSWA), a national charity dedicated to preserve, improve and advance education in the craft of dry stone walling for the benefit of the public are holding a special training weekend at Pen y Pass Youth hostel on the weekend on 23/24th July.
Master Craftsman dry stone waller Iolo Jones (Deiniolen) will be instructing a weekend training course in basuc dry stone wall construction, whilst current North and South Wales Champion waller Sean Adcock (Penisarwaun) will be overseeing a unique single wall seminar on the Saturday and have a go sessions on the Sunday.
Sean explained that one of the walls in a field adjacent to the hostel and owned by the YHA is a very rare, single wall. Single walls are common in Scotland and the West of Ireland, but very rare in Wales. Sean added “I’ve restored a couple in Nant Ffrancon and know of others in Llandeiniolen and Waunfawr, but these walls are the exception in Wales”.
Very little is known about how these walls came about, most walls comprise double skins or faces within fill (hearting) in the middle. Single walls, as their name suggests are only one stone wide and represent a considerable feat of stone balancing, rather than walling, to produce a stock proof barrier. In Scotland the `singles` are vertical stones, in Wales the single stones are laid flat just as in a normal, ‘doubled, wall, and interspersed with pockets of more normal doubled walling”.
As so little is known about these walls it is hoped the ‘seminar’ will provide an exchange of views from experienced wallers on why and even how the walls are built. “You would think these walls resulted from a lack of stone in an area, but at Pen y Pass and in Nant Ffrancon these walls are at the base of scree slopes, so a lack of stone really doesn’t enter the equation.” Sean explained, adding “this is a great opportunity for the Branch to preserve an exceptionally rare form of wall. A type of wall which we think was probably more widespread but tends to collapse before people realise it ever existed.”
On the Sunday there will be an opportunity for members of the public to ‘have a go’ at standard ‘double skin’ walling receiving free expert tuition. Participants will be introduced to the basic principles of stone placement and learn about aspects such as ‘batter’ (the slope of a wall’s face, all walls are ‘A’ shaped), and coping (the top stones which seal the two faces, holding them together). They will learn the dos and don’ts of stone placement which ensure that walls stand up for hundreds of years rather than failing in a few weeks. It is hoped that anyone who takespart in a 3 hour session will progress to take part in a full day “taster session” or weekend training courses, further details of which can be found at dwales.org.uk.
The full weekend course under Iolo’s expert tutelage will be dismantling a section of semi-derelict ‘standard doubled’ wall near on the same field as the single wall, with participants taking part in the re-setting of the foundations, building of first and second ‘lifts’ (lower and upper wall), placing of throughstones (long stones binding the two faces) to levelling off and the setting of the coping (topstones) whist maintaining a good shape (profile or batter).
Photograph: A previous training course at Pen y Pass
