WHAT I DO

I will lay your Hedge, Build or repair your Dry stone walling or plant new hedges.

Hedgelaying, Planting, Drystone Walling, Garden features, House stonework, hedgelaying, teaching, illustrated talks, Training in Hedgelaying, Stonework, Drystone Walling

I live and work in the North York Moors area



I'm a qualified hedgelayer and have laid hedges in Ireland, Holland and in the UK. I'm also a drystone waller and have built houses (and walls), garden features, gate entrances in Ireland, Australia and in England.

I've been told I'm a bit of walling and hedgelaying nerd. But I don't mind it because it's normal. Doesn't everyone stop and take pictures of these when they are on holiday?

Some of the site contains my work along with pictures of hedges, walls and walling features from places I've visited. It should be pretty obvious which is my work.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Sheep Creeps

There's a few local names for these, including one of my favourites, 'pop holes'.

This one was part of a wall I was repairing at Howdale and forms the boundary of the farmed land and the moors.  It is also the boundary of the Strickland Estate & Fylingdales parish boundary - an ancient boundary dating back at least 500 years.  I replaced the stones  around this sheep creep in their previous positions where possible.  This was in 2010.  Early in spring this  2016 or 2017 year I was leading a wildlife walk and for the 1st time noticed the circular' cup and ring' marks on the right end of the lintel.  These marks occur in many places in the UK, and can be found in substantial numbers on the nearby moorland. I obviously never noticed when I was rebuilding this wall.

This is not the only archaeology find in this wall.  I also discovered a cope stone with several 'cup' marks on one side.  But that I noticed and emailed the national park at the time of finding it.