The South Yorkshire Branch of the Dry Stone Walling Association of GB: August 2006

Remaining Branch Events for 2006

2 September Management Committee, DSWA, Crooklands
9 September Penistone Show
17 September Whirlow Farm Fair, Sheffield
19 September Branch Meeting, The Cock Inn, Birdwell (8pm start)
30 Sept & 1 Oct Branch Training Course (Whirlow Farm, Sheffield)
17 October Branch Meeting, The Cock Inn, Birdwell (8pm start)
22 October Practice Day for Examination Entrants, Whirlow Farm
29 October Branch Examination Day, Whilow Farm
21 November Branch Meeting, The Cock Inn, Birdwell
25/26 November DSWA National AGM and Members Weekend
To be confirmed Practice Meet at Sandbeck Park
19 December Branch Meeting, The Cock Inn, Birdwell (8pm start)
16 January 2007 Branch Meeting, The Cock Inn, Bridwell (8pm start)

Branch Meetings are every third Tuesday of the month at the Cock Inn, Birdwell at 20:00 Both members and non-members are most welcome.

Branch Training Courses are open to members and non-members for a modest charge (the charge to non DSWA members includes DSWA membership). Training Course Gift Vouchers can be purchased and can be used for any Branch Training Course, providing places are available - so book up early!! Details of costs and gift vouchers can be obtained from the Branch Secretary.

The Branch Training Course 19-20th Aug 2006 at Hoylandswaine

The Branch held a training course this past weekend at Hoylandswaine, South Yorkshire and although the weather forecast said that we would get a thorough soaking for two days, we only got one good rain shower over the two days! There were three students for advanced training - Martin, Barry and his son Chris, who we set to building a wall head (or cheekend) under the watchful eye of Gary. Joe, Josh, Warren and Bob were new to walling and were taught how to strip a wall down and rebuild it under Les's instruction. Alan provided overall supervision and instruction and Mick and Tom kindly helped us all out.

The day started by stripping down the old wall which had started to fall into disrepair basically due to old age and land slippage.

The land having been prepared, the foundation stones are laid and the A frames double checked for accuracy by Alan.

The foundation stones are carefully positioned to give a stable platform on which to rebuild the wall.

Alan spots a flaw and shows the students how to overcome the problem.

The end of day one. The days walling is looked on by some tired, sweaty and aching trainees and instructors alike.

And now the best bit - Barry leads the dash to the bar at the Lord Nelson which is just over the road from where we were walling. Before we continue we must give a huge thank you to Paul and Scott and their staff at the Lord Nelson for their support and opening up the pub very early both mornings and feeding us with delicious bacon butties and cups of hot tea. Absolutely brilliant and most appreciated by us all. It's amazing how, at the end of the day, the aches and pains seem to subside after a couple of pints of Black Sheep Ale!!

Day 2 starts. We got off to an early start as the foundations took more time to build than we anticipated on Day 1. After a tea and butty break at the Lord Nelson we cracked on.

Gary helps young Chris out.

Martin ponders his next move in building this lovely cheekend.

Gary's like a rash! He's all over the place teaching his more advanced student how to build cheek ends. Another special mention at this stage! Gary did most of the hard prep work for the course identifying the course site (his farm!) and getting stone and our walling equipment to the course location. He put in an awful lot of time and effort to make sure that this was a successful event. Thank you Gary!

Chris cracks on with his cheek end.

The team really go for it!

Warren, who travelled all the way from Anglesey to take part in the course, looks for that 'right' stone.

And all of a sudden the wall is up!

Flush with success at building a nice piece of wall and a good cheek end, Barry tries, and fails, to impress chief instructor Alan with his elephant impression.

I think you'll agree that the standard of walling was very high considering 4 of the students had no previous experience of building walls. Or was it good instruction!?! Lets go for a mixture of the two!! The students should be very proud of their work as it was of a high standard - so well done to all of you!!

Course photo! From L to R: Alan, Mick, Barry, Bob, Warren, Josh, Chris, Gary and Martin. Not on the photo Tom, Joe and Les.

Everything cleared away, we enjoy an end of course pint in the Lord Nelson!

I think that all who were involved, student and instructor alike, had a great time with lots of laughs as well as lots of learning too! Thanks again to the Lord Nelson. Thanks to Alan for his tireless work for the South Yorks branch, his intructing, along with Gary and Les, and to Mick and Tom for giving up their valuable time to help out.

For those who don't know, the Branch is a registered charity and all the instructors and helpers time is given free of charge.

If you would like to participate in our next training event which is on 30th Sept and 1st Oct at Whirlow Hall Farm, Sheffield then please contact the Branch Secretary Les Young on 07952 551025 or les@morgan-young.com

Emley Show Saturday August 5th 2006

Last Saturday we had the pleasure to provide a demonstration of dry stone walling with our colleagues from the West Yorkshire Branch of the DSWA, at the Emley Show. It was a beautiful, if not a bit too warm, day and we met lots of interesting people. We had a lot of interest in walling and many members of the public left the stand with information sheets and books. Roger was even interviewed for the radio – fame at last!

NB The August training course is now full, but we will take names as stand by in case someone drops out. Alternatively, we still have a few places left on the Sept 30^th course at Whirlow Hall Farm, Sheffield.

Here are a few photographs of the day, and thanks to all who helped out on the day – especially the lovely Claire who was chief ‘gofor’ in between the stand, the beer tent and the butty wagon!!

A very special thank you to Johnsons Wellfield Quarries for lending us the walling stone and to Honley Skip Hire for transporting it to and from the show.