Secret garden project

Guild member Pete Maynard, with help from Ben Jackson, have been undertaking this walling project over the past 5 months.

I was approached last summer by a customer to build a drystone folly in his garden by way of a wall either side of a path connected by an arch leading through some trees to an area of the garden which was hidden from view of his house. He wanted to incorporate an arched window recess on one side large enough to house a carved granite bust of a Roman lady. He also wanted a little recess somewhere to encourage a wren to nest.

Having designed the build on paper I then made 4 A frames out of roofing laths and 2 wooden forms out of stronger laths and plywood. I had to carefully construct the forms to get the right amount of batter on them to match the batter of the A frames at the respective heights where the forms would be inserted. In order to get the right amount of batter I calculated that the base width would have to be 5 feet tapering to 3 feet at the top! I was fortunate enough to be able to source some nice stone from a stone merchant in the Huddersfield area. The stone was a bit harder than our local sandstone and was more like gritstone. It was very nice to shape and split. I was also able to source some large pieces of sandstone more locally to use as stone quoins for each corner of the walls supporting the arch.

Once we started building, having erected the A frames, it was initially quite daunting because of the width and sheer size of the build. We had to constantly try to avoid looking upwards as we were building! Apart from the stone quoins, we built the rest of the walls like retaining walls round the edges laying the building stones as much as possible lengthwise into the middle and packing the inside carefully with hearting stone.

As the build progressed it felt like we were building the walls of a castle. I then had the idea to construct a faux arrow loop as arrow loops were often built into castle walls for defensive purposes. My customer liked the idea and I incorporated this into the build using some dressed sandstone building blocks. A recess was also made round the back for a wren nesting box.

I spent some time trying to figure out the best way of supporting the wooden form for the main arch. In the end I decided to build a supporting wooden tower by using a number of strong pallets, which worked a treat. When the forms were placed in position I rested them on roof laths which could later be withdrawn to allow the forms to drop a small distance and thereby compressing the arch stones.

I estimate that approximately 30 tonnes of stone was used for the build. The construction work was carried out by myself, my fellow Guild member, Nick Gwynne and my trainee waller, Ben Jackson. We also built a trial arch prior to commencement of the project using the form I had made for the main arch with the help and guidance of Keith Ledger.