How do you build a Cotswold dry stone wall?

How to build a drystone wall

1. Prepare the ground. Mark out the area where you’ll build the wall with string or chalk lines.
2. Lay the foundations. Dig a trench about a foot deep.
3. Build up layers. Your wall should be built to form an A shape, using your A-frame as a guide.
4. Keep the wall stable.
5. Finishing touches.

Do dry stone walls need foundations?

Dry stone walls are durable because they contain no mortar, but are held together by the weight of stone, and by the skill of the builder who selected and fitted the stones together. Fewer new walls are built, although foundations sometimes have to be relaid.

How much does it cost to build a dry stone wall UK?

For dry stone walling using new sandstone the average cost is about £45 per ton. If you want to use reclaimed stone for field walling then the cost is around £60 per ton. Or if you’re looking for more decorative reclaimed stone for the dry walling, the cost will be in the region of £80 per ton.

How do you build a dry stone garden wall?

Dig out a six inch deep trench that is as wide as the base of the planned wall and fill with a bed of crushed stone or gravel and compact it with a wacker plate or by stamping over it. Angle the surface so that it inclines back slightly into the slope (2 inches for every 1 foot of height) for greater stability.

Are there dry stone walls in the Cotswolds?

Over 4,000 miles (6,437 km) of dry stone walls run across the Cotswold landscape. Like character lines on a much-loved face, dry stone walls are so familiar on the Cotswold landscape that we would probably only notice them if they vanished.

When did people build walls in the Cotswolds?

The craft, or is it an art? of dry stone wall building goes back 5,000 years to the Stone Age, when many of the long barrows on the Cotswolds had dry stone walls at their entrances and along the sides.

What kind of work does Cotswold stone designs do?

Cotswold Stone Designs Ltd specialise in the building, repair and restoration of Cotswold dry stone walls. Using traditional and modern methods we build new and renovate old – always in budget and built to last. All of Cotswold Stone Designs’ jobs are backed with a ten year guarantee.

Where was the first dry stone wall built?

The earliest known example of dry stone walling is at Belas Knap near Winchcombe, built by our Neolithic ancestors from circa 3,000 BC. But on the whole, the walls we see today originated in the 18th and 19th centuries when large tracts of open fields and downland were enclosed.