What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Duncan Grimmond]

Bob, if you've ever been to Yorkshire (or Derbyshire, or Lancashire) you will see mile upon mile of dry stone walls, approximately one ton per yard (1000kg/metre).
I am always intrigued as to how long it took and how many were engaged in what appears to be infinite work. Standing on the tops above Hawes or any other high moor town, a quick panoramic scan will show perhaps twenty or thirty linear miles of walling, perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of a million tons. Mind-boggling!

[Tony Griffiths]

Bob, if you've ever been to Yorkshire (or Derbyshire, or Lancashire) you will see mile upon mile of dry stone walls, approximately one ton per yard (1000kg/metre).
I am always intrigued as to how long it took and how many were engaged in what appears to be infinite work. Standing on the tops above Hawes or any other high moor town, a quick panoramic scan will show perhaps twenty or thirty linear miles of walling, perhaps 1/3  to 1/2 of a million tons. Mind-boggling!

Much of the low Pennine area was once forest. With enormous effort this was cleared and converted to farmland, the rocky fields then being cleared of stones and piled up to make walls. As late as the 1960s, the Derby and Lancs Gliding Club at Great Hucklow - just across the valley from my house - needed to have regular "stone-picking" days to clear rocks from the airfield, these seeming to magically work themselves to the surface over a winter.

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

A similar thing happens on the volcanic island of Mauritius.  Every morning at dawn huddles of workers can be seen on the side of the road waiting to be taken to the sugar cane fields. Their job is to collect up the stones before the fields are planted. Amazingly the stones here are completely round, a bit like cannon balls.  As Tony says they magically work their way to the surface between each crop and can destroy a plough blade!  In Mauritius the stones are just piled into pyramids as there is little need for walls.

Cheers

Howard

[Duncan Grimmond]

Yes, there are still stone piles in many of the fields here on the edge of the Vale of York, they keep surfacing. Most of the older remaining houses are built from them, rounded cobbles with cut-stone quoins (and sometimes cut stone facades).
All done with lime mortar, our C17th walls are 2ft thick and "as any fule kno" they will never be ecologically sound as they are impossible to damp-proof or insulate.

[Chris Garner]

Howard,
From what I remember from my few geology lessons at uni. I believe these round stones in Mauritius are termed spherulites.

[Bob Culver]

It is getting a little away from Sevens but I have noticed that relatively light scoria works to the surface. Can anyone explain the phenomenon? Some areas here had stone walls from rounded river stones but many have been crushed up for aggregate.
And on a different tack, it is surprising how cursive writing was used so extensively for documents making them hard to read at the time and more difficult now. Notably old census returns. Spent hours on it at school. Do students learn it at all now? Printing is little slower but may not have suited dip pens.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Chris

Thanks for the info. I think they may have been formed by the exploding volcano throwing out droplets of lava?

Cheers

Howard

[Robin Oldfield]

Hi Robin

Superb job and lovely car.  FO (apart from being Anglo Saxon) is a Breconshire registration  .

Cheers

Howard

See attached copy of original registration entry.  Would it have been purchsased through Tom Norton's famous Automobile Emporium?  It would seem that some subsequent owners are recorded (see especially FO 3039).  Was Lewis Bros just as bit further down the road? Maybe I'll make Llandrindod Wells one of my early outings in due course.

   

[Howard Wright]

Hi Robin

Almost certainly sold through Norton’s.  They held the franchise for the whole of Wales.  Tom Norton’s granddaughter lives just over the road from us  .

I don’t recognise Lewis’s but Pritchard’s was the main competitors to Norton’s. Pritchard’s garage has recently been refurbished and a large part of it taken on by Roger Davies as “The Car Shop on the Corner”. Great to see it back as a garage.

If you are visiting Llandod please do let me know (troedrhiwdalar@gmail.com) and call in for a cuppa.

Cheers

Howard

[Ivor Hawkins]

Robin, all you need to find now is a Norton’s dealer plate as a finishing touch!