Ferney Lee Farm: Gate, fence and stile
Paul and Frank H out again, after a week's break, to continue with a series of tasks on the right-of-way through Ferney Lee.
i. The gate
. . . It's difficult to see what Paul is doing here!
It could be the re-enactment of an ancient springtime ritual peculiar to Old Town . . . or perhaps he is just tightening the new bolts that will fix the gate 'post' firmly to the concrete upright.
The outcome:
A firm gate post angled slightly back towards the wall so the gate will swing shut under it's own weight.
New hinges, of a length suitable for this width and weight of gate.
New 'stop' stob so the gate cannot be swung back more than 90 degrees.
ii) The fence
The mesh of the stock fence and the barbed wire are tensioned to the braced straining post rather than the stile side-post. Each strand is held in place by a single staple and the excess wire given one turn around the post and then twisted around itself.
This keeps barbs away from the stile, gives a neater finish, uses fewer staples and meets the recommended standards for stiles.
iii) The stile
Work was started on a second stile. No 'before' pictures were taken - just imagine a stile with barely embedded side-uprights hanging from a sagging fence! The following picture show the progress so far.
The old uprights have gone. They were only 300 mm into the ground! New ones are in place. They are about 900 mm into the ground!
Installing these new uprights was a problem because the footings of an old wall were exactly where the hole had to be! However thanks to Paul's herculean effort with bar, lump hammer and spade success was a forgone conclusion.
The cross-rails are temporary as is the fixing (barely visible) of the stock fence. The stile however is safe to use,
Next Wednesday (hopefully the weather will be fine again) we'll complete this job although, given the problem with the old wall footings, we might have to use an alternative straining and attachment technique.
Today's work was funded by the landowner who also fuelled us with tea and biscuits (many thanks!).
