Those with stone walls

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Polos Mum

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Evening knowledgable people. We've recently moved to a new house with stone wall boundary and internal fencing. Some is in pretty poor shape and some we need moved.
I have a good feel for the cost of post and rail but not come across stone walls before - anyone give me a guide as to what it might cost per meter to repair and to take down and move per meter (ideally)

Also is it worth it? Most yards around seem to have electric to keep horses away from the walls - so I guess it's not that strong/ horse friendly?

Am I best to just get it taken down and replace it with post and rail?
 
It costs an arm and a leg, that much I can tell you :) I would just leave them be if they aren't too much in the way and put secondary fencing alongside it.

ETS - I just had an idea, there are courses in dry stone walling, you could send you OH on one and then he could repair/build all the fences for you. Just don't tell him it was my idea ;)
 
In the peak park, at least thirty pounds a metre.

It is actually really good fun and I do my own holes when they happen. I wouldn't want to have to do more than four metres at a time, but it's very therapeutic :)

I would always have secondary fencing. It only takes one rotten base stone for a hole to appear from nowhere suddenly.
 
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Thanks both, so expensive and useless - great ! I can patch up the little bits as I wander around (I'll add it to my poo picking and rag collecting duties!) but we've 25m that I'd like moving 3 m back from right on the edge of the road by the drive so it makes pulling out tricky - sound like I might be better investing in one of those bubble mirror thingys !
I can see my big horse having a nice itch and finding himself in the middle of the hay field!! - He's a nightmare with fencing at the best of times!
 
The outer edges of all my land are stone, and some areas have broken down this winter due to the weather. I am really worried about the cost of rebuilding. I have no option but to retain the stonework. Obviously I have erected some fencing inside for current safety.
 
There are some grants available in the national parks, but it nowhere near covers the cost. The other thing that gets me is that all the wall builders require you to supply stone, then they pick and choose the best bits and leave the rest all over the floor for the land owner to clear up. I have about 300 metres of wall. The stuff close to the house I repair myself. The rest I am just letting fall down until the Peak Park offer not to leave me three grand out of pocket to rebuild it even if I get a grant.

I checked that it was not a legal requirement to rebuild it when we bought the house. If it had been, I would have taken a bigger mortgage and done it, but it's not, and since the farmers have replaced masses of their wall with sheep wire, I don't feel there's much of a moral incentive for me to keep the wall looking pretty.

And lastly, the walls that have been rebuilt around here have holes in them again within a couple of years, it's a never ending maintenance task :(
 
We have walls as our boundary but fortunately OH is a dry-stone waller by trade. We find that the worst problem is that next door farmer's cattle knock them down but this year some of the internal wall has come down because it has been so wet. We have electric fencing running inside the walls to stop our horses rubbing, some local people have post and rail for the same purpose. Some of these walls have been standing 200 yrs or more, so they are bound to be a bit vulnerable to disruption. We have an original wall that OH built 20 yrs ago, which hasn't moved.
 
Around here, straightforward (ie not retaining and easy to access) field walling is anywhere from £35-55 a metre. Which is why I do mine myself!
 
Thanks all, the suggestion of getting OH to learn how to do it is great - other than he has one or two other jobs at the new place I'd like him to do (not least look after 2 small kids full time!)
Sounds like the best way might be to get rid of it completely and have bigger fields - selling the stone from the worst of the internal walls might fund some post and rail for the inside of the boundary walls - esp by the road (paranoid about them getting on the road!)

Shame as it does look nice - just amazed it's so impractical given it's everywhere. I guess 300 years ago when the farmers built them themselves from stone they found kicking around in the fields it was very cost effective.
 
Stone walls do what fences will never do - provide lots of shelter from the weather for your stock.
 
We've got miles of crumbly, ancient stone walls. It's still an effective boundary in places, and you can step over it in others. Mostly there is post and rail 'supplementing' the boundary - -this works very well.

word if caution tho - my vet reckons knocks, scrapes and cuts from stone wall injuries are far 'dirtier' than modern fencing - he seems to think the stones harbour far more bugs!
 
We have dry stone walls.
They do take time to maintain but they are worth it to me. I love to see them and the wildlife they support.
I see mice, toads, thrushes etc. traveling along and in and out them. I also like the variety of lichens and plants that grow on them.
We have an excellent book, I''m almost certain it was from BTCV,
I will check when I get home. It is a very useful if you want to have a go at building/maintain walls.
 
Thanks all, interesting re cuts and grazes.
I do like to help wild life but I've got 700m of bad condition wall (even £40 x 700 = best part of £30k!) then I need to post and rail on both sides so 1400 of say £8 a meter post and 2 rail to keep them off the walls is another £10k) where as the alternative is to do an ebay/ preloved ad and see if someone will come and take the stone away for next to nothing then spend about 300m of £10 top end post and rail (as I'd ay the fields out differently if I started from scratch.

I could buy a wonderful field shelter for each field with a fraction of the £35k saving!
 
I do mine myself too. Its hard work but very rewarding and you do get better at it the more you do. Its all about finding the right way to place the stone and filling in the middle bits!
 
We have dry stone walls because im in the cotswolds. We have one wall that reguary falls down because of tree roots digging it up, the bit that falls can't be any more 1m high and 2m long because it's a shared wall the neighbour and us splits half and half - It is a good 300 pounds. So it is expensive
 
Polos Mum said:
Thanks all, interesting re cuts and grazes.
I do like to help wild life but I've got 700m of bad condition wall (even £40 x 700 = best part of £30k!) then I need to post and rail on both sides so 1400 of say £8 a meter post and 2 rail to keep them off the walls is another £10k) where as the alternative is to do an ebay/ preloved ad and see if someone will come and take the stone away for next to nothing then spend about 300m of £10 top end post and rail (as I'd ay the fields out differently if I started from scratch.

I could buy a wonderful field shelter for each field with a fraction of the £35k saving!
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I agree with the replies about dsw benefits, but some horses are just determined to get walls down asap and rub and scratch themselves raw doing it, our Fell saw walls as a personal challenge to his enormous backside to push them over given half a chance.
PM please check that local laws allow you to remove a wall, because we can't, but we are in a National Park.Also have a look at how much the garden centres charge for individual top stones b4 you give it away for next to nothing!!
 
cptrayes said:
There are some grants available in the national parks, but it nowhere near covers the cost. The other thing that gets me is that all the wall builders require you to supply stone, then they pick and choose the best bits and leave the rest all over the floor for the land owner to clear up. I have about 300 metres of wall. The stuff close to the house I repair myself. The rest I am just letting fall down until the Peak Park offer not to leave me three grand out of pocket to rebuild it even if I get a grant.

I checked that it was not a legal requirement to rebuild it when we bought the house. If it had been, I would have taken a bigger mortgage and done it, but it's not, and since the farmers have replaced masses of their wall with sheep wire, I don't feel there's much of a moral incentive for me to keep the wall looking pretty.

And lastly, the walls that have been rebuilt around here have holes in them again within a couple of years, it's a never ending maintenance task :(
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Why should the Peak Park pay to maintain your property ? We live in the park, and I wouldn't expect them to pay to maintain my walls/fencing - why on earth should they ? You chose to live there with all the benefits and downsides of having such a property. Just my opinion, but letting something fall into disrepair, because someone else won't pay for it is pretty shabby, in both ways.

OP - We have some stone walling, but have a post and rail on the inside, to stop them leaning on it. They look great, and as someone has said, harbour a safe haven for so much wildlife. They also give a great deal of shelter in inclement weather.
 
Bestdogdash said:
Why should the Peak Park pay to maintain your property ? We live in the park, and I wouldn't expect them to pay to maintain my walls/fencing - why on earth should they ? You chose to live there with all the benefits and downsides of having such a property. Just my opinion, but letting something fall into disrepair, because someone else won't pay for it is pretty shabby, in both ways.

OP - We have some stone walling, but have a post and rail on the inside, to stop them leaning on it. They look great, and as someone has said, harbour a safe haven for so much wildlife. They also give a great deal of shelter in inclement weather.
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I don't expect anyone to pay to repair my property. You need to see my property before you can judge me, though I can see how you read my post that way. My walls are in as good a state as many other walls around me, and my property itself is a damned sight better maintained than any of the many farms around here which have left their unwanted vehicles rotting in fields, tin sheds falling apart, piles of old silage wrappers as art installations etc etc

When I moved in, there were holes in the wall which I had repaired, and I now do any holes that appear myself. But to rebuild the entire thing to the pristine standard that tourists would love is an expense I am not prepared to undertake.

I don't share people's ideas about the value of walls as a weather break for horses, all I can say is you must have some very small horses! But my walls are as much a haven for wildlife looking a bit tatty in places as anyone's are.

My pet kestrel who has adopted my tv aerial as his perch thinks it's a great place to live :)
 
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Polos Mum said:
Evening knowledgable people. We've recently moved to a new house with stone wall boundary and internal fencing. Some is in pretty poor shape and some we need moved.
I have a good feel for the cost of post and rail but not come across stone walls before - anyone give me a guide as to what it might cost per meter to repair and to take down and move per meter (ideally)

Also is it worth it? Most yards around seem to have electric to keep horses away from the walls - so I guess it's not that strong/ horse friendly?

Am I best to just get it taken down and replace it with post and rail?
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don't know about walls but P&R
76 meters cost £ 1600, that was 6 ft post 5 x 4 posts and 4 4x2 rails. Worth every penny, small rails 3x1 are a waste of money
 
Our yard has dry stone walls and we have a strand of electric running along them to stop the horses leaning on them. This set up is great and very safe for the horses. It also provides a good weather shelter even big horses line up back to the wall to keep winf and rain off.

There is no risk of getting a leg through like there is with rails or wire so it is good for allowing new horses to meet as they can't strike through it.

If the walls are in good nick and protected from horses/cattle leaning on them or pushing them they are long lasting and robust. Plus you can do minor repairs easily yourself.

We have never had an injury from the walls but we have from post and rail and from post and wire.

You should check that the walls aren't protected. They are in many areas.
 
Anyone know how to find out if the walls are protected/ have to stay? Nothing in my deeds. We're not in a national park or any other special land/ site.
If they were in good/ reasonable nick then I wouldn't hesitate to keep them but they are a horse hazard with more stone on the floor/ spread over the 3/4meters from the wall than actually making any kind of boundary.
I won't get rid of the external ones (neighbours have kept those in sensible shape over the 10 years this place has been neglected) but the internal ones I just don't have £20k to sort it (and if I did have £20k I'd spend it on fixing the (also very broken) school.
 
Could you ask a local neighbour who looks as though they have/might have had, the same dilapidation as you? Or is there a local waller advertising? Estate agent?Otherwise I can only think you would have to ask district/local council.
Here,if the stones aren't an actual wall, just a jumble of stones, the situation is totally different, and all the rules we have to abide by for dsw do not apply. Oh those back breaking days of stonepicking to clear fields - I don't miss them at all!
 
Advertise the stone for sale as walling stone if you can remove it without upsetting the local authority (I also am in a national park and they can get shirty about it). We have top rope electric fenced all ours. One that has completely collapsed we did a trial about two years ago of tipping a load of well rotted manure on and then planted hedging on, and it has romped away and is now about 4ft tall in places and VERY healthy, so we will probably continue on this theme as the wall runs the length of two fields and is 5-600m in length. This will provide better shelter than existing walls as they are only 4ft high. Costs around us for re-building are £35+ per metre.
 
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