Delta Ged, Volunteer Ranger @ National Trust Lyme Park : Weeks 80-81 30/09/2015 - Walling and Mine Caps, 3 Days Inside and Out

Photo Blog Weeks 80-81 - Wed 23 to 30 September 2015

These two weeks have seen me introduced to the Walling team at Lyme and I have already realised that the job is not conducive to photography. Parking close to the work site, being involved and busy all day and tired and carrying arm fulls of gear at the end mean the camera can be an inconvenience.
However, these 3 days in the park cover my first two days as an apprentice Waller and one day on the Southern boundary including the approach from outside the Park.

Wed 23 September

Main Drive

On the way up the main drive beautiful autumn colours appearing

How would you like to cut this lawn at weekend?

It's referred to as 'topping' and is partly for presentation but also has an important role in management of some weeds cutting the heads off before the seeds mature.

Walling Week 1

Parked in the main car park and walked up through Drinkwater Meadow to the work site.

Looking over the trees from Drinkwater Meadow to the Cage

Approaching the work site.

Our view when we looked up

Beetle with iridescent blue shell edging

Christened 'Mini Stone Henge' a collection of dressed stones which came out of the old wall

Work in progress

My First Day:
Even though I know many of the Walling team from my patrols, I still felt as if I'd gone back to being a 16 year old Trainee Technician Apprentice at the GPO. TTA's spent between 1 & 3 weeks with each engineering function so the mornings were invariably sitting in a room surrounded by engineers, not knowing the process and wondering who would take you out with them and what you should be doing and how should you be reacting. Happily, unlike 1969 when it was the engineer slowest off his feet that was forced to take me out, this pleasant crew invited me to go along with one of the groups when they moved.

I had been supplied with an outline list of kit, not all of which was immediately required. I arrived with all sorts but it is going to take a few weeks to work out what to carry from the car. It's a bit like going on holiday, people with small bags seem to somehow have everything they want; whilst I've got two suitcases and I still don't have just the right thing with me.
I have all weather gear suited to my patrolling but this job can involve mud, dust and abrasion so my good walking gear is not suitable. Cue hunting through my garage for ex-BT protective clothing from the early 1980's before I left Engineering for IT.

The site we are working at started as a gap which has been widened to prepare for rebuild. Much of the stone removed from the wall is unusable due to degradation. Some of it is suited to breaking to use as packing inside the wall but a large proportion will be recycled as filler repairing tracks in the Park.

The first job of the day was working through the stacks of stone on the floor and throwing rejected material onto a scrap heap. Now, you may remember that I had been on a weekend course 8 years ago but on that course, the stone in the wall was OK so it was a take down, relay foundations and rebuild. I am pleasantly surprised how much of that weekend has been retained in understanding the process and things to avoid but it did not prepare me for assessing stone quality. I spent most of the morning feeling very insecure that I may be throwing away and wasting good stone and pestering my co-workers with, 'is this scrap' or 'is this usable'. For an apparently simple job, I felt very out of my depth but the others were very supporting and I think I did ok.
After lunch, I spent a good portion of the afternoon on my knees helping bed in foundation stones which I enjoyed as I felt I was being of some use. The rest of the new wall sits on the top of the foundation stones which must be well packed and levelled if the wall is going to last a couple of hundred years.

I was aware that there will be times of year when midges will be infuriating but hadn't considered that rotting material inside and around the walls can mean a face full of bluebottle type flies which I wasn't impressed by. On the other hand there are remarkable beetles and spiders to watch.

I managed without the tools but only by keep borrowing a hammer and a spirit level so those items plus knee pads are definitely coming next week.

Not sure whether I enjoyed the day but am definitely coming back for more. A challenging new skill to learn and good company, I committed in the form of ordering a walling hammer for next week for £20.

Mon 28 September

I came into the Park on the Monday to complete a pass along both sides of the Southern Boundary Wall adding GPS and Photographs to a wall defects list. This was nothing to do with joining the wallers but a request from them for me collect additional information whilst out on my Patrols.

Southern Approach:

I parked just outside Pott Shrigley in a small quarry entrance off Bakestonedale Road and walked up to the boundary from the South.

Climbing up from the quarry

A capped mine shaft amongst the Bracken

Nearing the top, the Cheshire Plain extends away to a misty horizon

a peep over to Cage Hill lit up in a patch of sunshine

* WALL NOT IN LYME PARK *

Looking down to Paddock Cottage through a break in a wall

Having reached the outside of the Lyme Park Boundary I headed East and North East along the ridge following the wall path

Looking over the wall to Park Moor and Bowstonegate Farm

Pleasant green track continues along the ridge

The view South (back to the Park) from the ridge track is beautiful out across Derbyshire, Cheshire and to Staffordshire

Approaching Bowstonegate Fm.

The Bowstones - these two bases of Saxon crosses are the source of the farm's name

Another look South before entering the Park

West along the ridge to Sponds Hill

The Bowstonegate Farm entrance to Lyme Park

Looking down the track to Knightslow Wood and the Park before I turn Southwest along the inside of the boundary wall

A group of Hinds on the Moor. The rears standing out ready to attract the Stags during the impending rut.

The sight line cut through Knightslow Wood and Cage Hill behind

Over the final summit on the inside of the Boundary Wall, Cheshire extends outward

Meadow Pippit

(I think. Please comment if you know better)

The Cage inevitable keeps featuring being in the middle of the Park

Looking down Deer Clough from the junction with Cluse Hey

Bracken covered Western Moor

Outside the Park again

Having completed the westbound pass of the inside wall and diverted to Deer Clough, I exited over the ladder stile near Moorside Lane and headed East returning to my start point on the boundary before descending back to Bakestonedale.

panorama North

The wall is the Southern boundary, Cheshire to left and Bowstonegate Fm to right

Sheep during my descent

Another mineshaft cap in the trees below

Sheep with a blue sky

This monument to the coal bell mines in the area was placed by the Bridgend Centre of Bollington. The faces carry information and one side has a clear pane showing a 3D model of a mine inside.

The Centre are also responsible for the many markers on posts and walls in the area which are on several Interest trails. These Walking Trails, which include interesting historical commentary are available at a small charge from the Centre.

Wed 30 September

Walling Week2

So, week 1 I felt like a child apprentice, this week I managed the new lad who is late on his second day.
For the first time in years, I went out to the car to find the battery dead.
30 mins later, Britannia Rescue got me started and the conclusion was I'd probably left something on but I should get the battery checked. It looks like it is the battery as it did it again on me today 4 days later.
I arrived about an hour late and made my way out to the same site as last week. On arrival, it was apparent that there were already the maximum number of people working on the wall so I busied myself all morning bringing building stone down from the pile to the work area and breaking other stone for filler.

Fungi Fest' : at the end of a log seat by the work site

Equipment :
The outline kit list emailed to me before starting made more sense after last week and the starred items I already had with me this week. I even broke in my new walling hammer.
The eye shields proved valuable when when breaking filler a sharp fleck of stone hit squarely in the middle of one lens.

Lunch, and plenty of drinks *

apparel suitable for ALL weathers *
overalls or old jeans etc. *
safety glasses *
steel toe capped boots
insect repellent and sunscreen
knee pads (for when foundations are being laid *

3lb Pennine walling hammer *
bolster chisel
a scutch chisel
ball of string (10m at least)
brick pins
line level,
spirit level *
old rucksack / tool bag *

My First Stone

After dinner, I was guided into actually working on the wall. A couple of these are my first building stones and I am pleased to say they don't rock and they are level. Multiple builders switching in and out and leaving it for a week at a time seems to mean that it loses a bit of logical flow and some awkward shapes develop to build into.

At this point it feels like I'll never make a Waller. Initially I was given the job of packing the middle of the wall to lock the building stones but then I moved onto actually building an outer skin.
Spending ages apparently unproductive trying to spot a specific shape or thickness of stone, deciding on a face, switching in and out to try different configurations and searching stone piles for 'the one' is exasperating. It feels like it's just me that can't do it but I'm absolutely convinced that I will get my eye in with time. No-one seemed the least bit discouraged by my progress (or lack of) and I was assured to leave on a high with the last stone laid.