Heritage Projects Index

Rebuilding of Dry Stone Wall near Brickbridge

The stone gateway on Brickbridge Road at the start of the footpath that ascends to the rear of All Saints' Church yard is probably at least 200 years old and has long been a local landmark. It's likely that it was originally built in the time of Samuel Oldknow, as it was on the route taken by his apprentices as they walked up from Bottoms Hall to the Church to attend the services there each Sunday.

The wall next to the gateway had been showing signs of erosion and decay for some time and there was a risk developing that the column supporting the gate and lintel would crumble, leaving a major rebuilding task that would probably never be completed. When Peter Clarke mentioned this to local carpenter Tony Heginbotham he was delighted to learn that Tony had experience of dry stone walling and would be keen to help. After obtaining permission from the farmer to repair the wall a team of volunteers was raised and MAVIS (Marple's Active Volunteer Initiative Squad) sprang into action over the 2003 May Day Bank Holiday weekend.

The task began on Sunday morning with clearing of the area, removal of saplings obscuring access to the damaged area and collection of rocks that had been scattered far and wide. By early afternoon the site was ready for Tony to begin overseeing the rebuilding work, whilst volunteers Peter Clarke, Mark Whittaker and Mike Whittaker laboured hard and began to learn the basics of the dry stone waller's art. By the end of the day good progress had been made and it was getting harder and harder to lift rocks to the top of the wall.

On Bank Holiday Monday Tony and Peter returned, this time accompanied by volunteers Martin Wood, Cath Biggs and Phil Chapman, to complete the task. They were able to finish rebuilding the wall and grouted the rocks into place in the hope of discouraging the vandals from undoing MAVIS's efforts. A wave round of Phil's chainsaw made short work of the saplings encroaching on the entrance to the gateway and after a good clean up of the site the job was completed.

Our thanks go to all the volunteers who gave their time on this task and spent their Bank Holiday weekend helping to save a small part of Marple's local heritage.

The wall obscured by saplings	from the other side
saplings cleared	Tony starts grouting the wall
finishing touches	OK, let's go to the pub