Pick-ups parked on the grass verges lined both sides of the lane down to our farm on Sunday morning. We were hosting the Cumbria Young Farmers Southern District walling competition. Early in the morning, a long stretch of drystone wall, including the footings, had been taken down, and the competitors had the rest of the day to rebuild their allocated section in the local style to match the rest of the wall.
Competitors came from Grayrigg, Crook, Sedbergh, Kent Estuary and Pennine young farmers’ clubs to compete in either the junior, intermediate, senior or girls category. Music belted out from the pick-ups to chivvy them along, as well as the tapping of hammers on crowbars.
The wall we had chosen for the competition is built into a bank on one side, so for the first few courses they only had to build half a retaining wall, which made the job slightly easier. The front of the wall soon built up and was packed with small stones, called fillings, behind it. As the walls got higher, both sides had to be rebuilt, getting narrower towards the top. There was lots of discussion about the positioning of throughs – big stones that go right through the wall and sometimes stick out on both sides, forming a sort of stone stile that the farmer can use to climb over.
At 12.30pm the competitors, judges and spectators broke for dinner, served in the farmhouse and eaten on hay bales in the barn. The dinner is an important part of the day, and we had cooked our own sausages to make hot sandwiches, chilli and jacket potatoes, and vegetable soup. Then it was straight back outside to complete the walls.
Peter Allen was one of the judges. He had worked on this farm two days a week when he was younger and knew the walls well. He had also lived at neighbouring Brockholes, over the river, for 20 years. He was looking for level stones, no uncrossed joints, stones decreasing in size as the wall got higher, the middle well filled up, and a tidy job. Ideally, with two rows of throughs.
After the cam stones had been put on the top of the wall, sloping to match the local style, the judges announced that John Handley from Grayrigg was the overall winner, with Grayrigg as the winning club. There were also prizes for the best footings and best cams.
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