Sat 20 Apr: Dry Stone Walling course with Wychwood Forest Trust
This event is in the past.
Join our Countryside and Reserves Manager, Toby Swift, to learn the basics of Cotswolds Dry Stone Walling on 20th April, from 10am - 4pm.
The course will cover: site preparation, tools, materials, building and completion. It will take place at our beautiful semi-natural ancient woodland Singe Wood, near Witney, in West Oxfordshire.
Over 4,000 miles of dry stone walls run across the Cotswold landscape. Sadly, following changes in farm and land management, as well as increasing labour costs, many walls have fallen into disrepair.
Dry stone walls offer amazing habitat and wildlife corridors. Mosses and lichens, pennywort and cranesbill all make their homes here. Slow worms, bees and wasps live within nooks and crannies. Birds like wrens, wheatears and little owls nest in cavities.
As much art as science, building a dry stone wall without mortar relies on the careful placing of stones and the stones’ own weight to keep standing - for more than 100 years if it’s a good one.
So if you'd like to learn this traditional rural skill and help keep it alive, go to https://www.wychwoodforesttrust.co.uk/whats-on to book your place.