Drystone walling

Drystone walling is building a wall from graded stone with no mortar, held together by the weight, shape and placement of the stones themselves. Done properly it outlasts a mortared wall, because it drains and moves rather than cracking. Blooming Marvellous Gardens builds and repairs drystone walls around Banbury and across Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire.

Walling is booked either as a service or as an hourly visit, with a minimum booking of 2 hours, depending on whether the job is a defined length of rebuild or a day spent working along a boundary putting right whatever needs it. It often follows on from reshaping work in the garden, where a new level or a raised bed needs holding.

Condition

Repair or rebuild?

A bulging or collapsed section is a symptom rather than the fault itself. In almost every case the foundation has settled or the through stones that tie the two faces together have failed, and the wall has begun to split down the middle and push its faces outwards. Patching the face rarely holds, because the loose hearting behind it carries on working the stones apart.

The honest answer is usually to take the failed section down, sort the stone, and rebuild from the foundation up. That sounds like more work than a patch, and on the day it is, but a properly rebuilt gap stands for decades while a patched one comes down again after a hard winter. Where the rest of the run is sound, only the failed length is taken down and the good work either side is left alone.

Construction

How a wall is built

The foundation course is set below ground level onto firm subsoil, so the wall is not sitting on topsoil that will move. Stone is graded as it comes off the wall or off the pallet, with the largest at the bottom and progressively smaller courses above, which is what gives a drystone wall its taper and its stability.

The middle of the wall is packed with hearting, small stone placed by hand rather than tipped in, so the two faces bear against a solid core instead of a loose fill. Through stones are laid at intervals to span the full width and tie the faces together, and coping along the top finishes the wall, weights the courses beneath it and sheds water off the structure.

Material

Working with local stone

Cotswold limestone is the common material across this area, and it behaves differently from the harder stone used further north. It is softer and more prone to shearing, so it is worked with a lighter hand and stones are chosen for the face they already have rather than being forced into shape. It also weathers quickly, which is why a rebuilt section using the original stone settles into the run rather than standing out.

Existing stone is reclaimed wherever there is enough of it. Where a wall has been robbed or a length has been lost entirely, matching stone is brought in, and we will say plainly at the outset how much of the material can be reused.

The work

Typical walling jobs

Field boundaries are the largest category: long runs where sections have come down and stock is getting through. Garden walls are smaller and more visible, so the coursing and the coping matter more to the finished look. Raised beds built dry drain freely and suit planting well. Retaining sections, holding a bank or a change of level, are built with more batter and heavier through stones because they are carrying a load rather than simply standing.

Access, stone supply and the state of the existing foundation set the pace of any walling job, and all three are worth looking at on site before a length is quoted.