Congratulations to Trish Waite and Gregor Smart of CSB for taking part in DSWA's 50th Anniversary Walling Competition
Trish reports
On Saturday 19th May I arrived at DSWA H.Q. to see the familiar face of Gregor in the car park. As part of the members weekend activities we were taken on a guided walk around Tilberthwaite Slate Quarry, now a National Trust Site. In wonderful weather we saw Andy Goldsworthy’s amazing restoration of a large rectangular sheep fold, with beautiful insets in slate. The quarry site is huge with old railway tunnels, a deep lake and a man made cave aptly called the ‘Cathedral ‘. There is now a small industry using the slate waste for garden paths. We got back to base in time for the AGM.Next day, it was an 8am meet at Fleet Farm by Kirkby Lonsdale. The competition was open and I entered as a single amateur. Gregor was there as a pro also working solo.We were all working on a long stretch of farm wall with varied stone in size and type, much was too crumbly to re-use. 1.5m had to be stripped out and rebuilt with dire warnings that excessive use of the hammer would be penalised. After bacon baps and a cuppa we were off by 9am and had until 4.30pm. We could ask for help from supervisors and fellow competitors.My amateur neighbour, Paul, was very helpful and we both had to cooperate so that our adjoining sections didn’t have a running joint. On the other side my professional neighbours showered me with stone fragments as they hammered endlessly. They won their class and the best copes .Gregor and I were both a bit puzzled as we had both tried to obey the rules.We both enjoyed our day in beautiful weather and surroundings and despite not being placed we reckoned our 2 pitches were pretty good and strong. It was however a pity there was no follow- up appraisal,