Site Boundaries
Stone walls stretching out from the buildings and settlements of the Park are, as much as any other features, the element that binds building and setting together. The walls of the gardens and fields form a spreading web anchoring the settlement of the ground.
The site boundary is the meeting point between the building and the settlement in which it is located. Stone walls and hedges are the defining boundary characteristics of the National Park and help to integrate buildings into the landscape. The use of new and existing boundary walls can be important in providing privacy and security for both new development and existing properties. Strong boundary structures separate the domestic garden and associated areas around the house from the countryside beyond. They can also help screen the less attractive features of new development, such as bin stores and drying areas.
The craft of stone-walling is still practised and though it is a slow and relatively expensive form of construction, the stone wall proves a durable investment. Many of our gardens today shelter within walls built in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which have required or received almost no subsequent repair.
The stone is usually the rough material from the same source as the finer dressed stone of contemporary buildings, probably the more weathered overburden of the same quarry. If it is more difficult today to obtain new local quarry material there is often a ready supply of salvaged material obtainable through builders or stone-wallers in the area.
Various profiles of capping stones - mortared walls
Close to the house or in the building of higher walls for the garden it is best to build a mortared wall so that it can remain fairly slender and of constant thickness. This should incorporate a damp proof course and have a top capping also bedded on a damp proof course. Generally the coursing of stone walls should follow the contours of the ground.
At the settlements edges where land has been taken out of agricultural use the boundary wall should be akin to the dry-stone field walls with slightly 'battered' i.e. sloping faces to give strength and the copings set tightly on top or bedded on an inconspicuous layer of mortar.
Boundary walls made in pre-cast concrete Spanish style are not appropriate in the National Park and there are many other sharply mechanical products that the designer should exclude from their palette.
Fences are of course much cheaper to erect than stone walls and may in many positions be adequate and appropriate. They do not achieve the same visual effect and are not so durable. If the fence is to keep livestock and vermin out of the garden it must be stoutly constructed and fitted with netting. Often a fence will be erected in order to protect a young hedge and will eventually become subordinate to the mature hedge. Various types of fence are common in and around the settlements of the Park ranging from the iron park railing to timber post and rail with vertical palings, or timber posts with wire and netting. Sometimes when the need is only to prevent vehicles being driven onto grass a single rail with intermediate posts is sufficient deterrent, or a simple row of stubby posts. Gates in fences should reflect the style of the fence as with dark painted railings or stained palings.
For gates in stone walls there is more freedom but some well tried types are good at excluding rabbits. Wider gates for drives do not necessarily follow the structural rules for wicket gates, as there is more of a tendency to distort with the weight of the wider span: whether the mooring of the gate is the traditional stone gatepost or a timber post the self-weight of the wide span gate requires very thorough packing in around the post to avoid settlement at the slamming edge. This problem can be overcome by a set of double gates. In these examples the Park Authority encourages the re-use of salvaged stone gate posts or stoops.
Oiled hardwood, teak or oak weathers nicely and is very durable.
The diagonal bracing should rise from the bottom hinge to the top of the slamming edge.
