The Great Wall of Curney

Unlike quite a lot of the other Counties, Shropshire has very few dry stone walls. The Curney is therefore slightly unique in having a wall around part of  two sides of the farm. One section of wall is to the west ofthe Sycamore wood, and the other on the southern boundary. The condition of the wall by the wood wasn't too bad, but the one on the southern boundary was in very poor condition - collapsed in several locations and badly overgrown. Because of the fact that we're in an "Area ofOutstanding Natural Beauty", and the rarity of stone walls in this part, we managed to secure a small DEFRA grant to fund most of the repairs - thanks taxpayers! We were also fortunate in finding a local who'd been repairing stone walls all his life and somehow managed to restore the wall.We're still not sure why the walls were built in the first place, particularly the bottom section which must have required excavation of the banking - a major feat of work for no apparent reason.

The Chinese original!  (From our visit - November 2010

 The Curney version.....

Section of wall on southern boundary showing very poor condition of the wall

Another view of the lower wall before repair

Again, a view of the bottom wall disappearing into the undergrowth

A section of the wood wall after repair

Same section of wall shown in photo immediately above, after repair

Another view of the bottom wall after  repair (what looks likes a large bush in the filed is actually all the wood and undergrowth cleared from the wall before being repaired. It made a VERY large bonfire).