Ferney Lee: 'Stile central!'
Paul and Frank H continued with stile construction. This is where we left off last week:
The stile sideposts are in place but everything else is temporary. Ground conditions are awkward because the stile position is directly over the remnants a drystone wall!
After several false starts we eventually managed to make progress:
To the left of the stile a straining post has been installed, a diagonal brace added, the stock fence tensioned and correctly re-attached. To the right, the old wall footings made it impossible to drive a straining post into the ground, so the stock fence was tensioned to a straining pole screwed into the stile sidepost.
Two cross-rails and two shorter linking rails are in position on the appropriate side of the sideposts and a dog gap has been created at lower left.
A half-gate has been constructed and fitted. A 'stop block' (not visible) prevents it from being moved in the direction of the field and a 'stop-pole' limits how far it can be swung back on opening.
Still to do are: sorting out the stile step(s) down into the field, adding 'Right-of-Way' and 'Please Shut the Gate' discs, attaching a closure loop, firming-up the 'stop-pole', fixing barbed wire to the left strainer and tweaking the overall tension of the stock fence . . . after that it's down the hillside to an interesting stone stile problem.
Funding towards today's work was provided by the landowner who also plied us with tea and biscuits (many thanks . . . especially for the latter!)
