The heat is on!

This last weekend was test weekend…back at Chatton for a practice day on Saturday and the level 1 DSWA test on Sunday.

The weather forecasts for the weekend were doom and gloom but I woke Saturday to blue skies and sunshine and that was to be the pattern for the rest of the day. We set about rebuilding the gap in the wall left from our last visit and incorporating a squeeze stile that would lead to the stone circle we built last time. It was a good day with just the right amount of practice before the main event.

Sunday morning – an early start…at Chatton just before 0800 for an 0830 start to the test. We all pitched up in various states of nervousness and after getting our gear together, it was time for the off. The examiners marked out the stints that we’d be working on – 6 of us in total, with four lucky people getting an end stint each (I say lucky as at the end, you cut in at 45º from the existing wall meaning considerably less to take down, build and less foundation to mess with, whereas a middle stint means the full 2.08 meters of wall to strip and rebuild). I drew a middle stint, but on the bright side it was slap bang in the middle of Ben and Jonathan and being used to working with both of them I knew they’d see me right in terms of building in their stints and not (as Ben puts it) “seeing me off”.

The stripping out went well and in relatively quick time I was at the foundations, then my first fright occurred – one of the foundations was cracked right down the middle! However, this proved to be a short lived problem – one of the curiosities of walling is that, in theory, you should be able to roll out the foundations and then roll them back in the exact same position. I have yet to see this happen, but what it did mean was that the cracked foundation was negated by leaving a gap just big enough to put in a really nice stone and everything actually worked out OK.

Building the first lift actually went pretty well and Donald had told us that we wanted our throughstones in by midday at the latest. It was around 1130 when I hit this so felt I was doing OK. There was a small problem of being left with too little space between throughstones to place the two that were originally in my stint, but the examiner told me to just to put them both in anyway…no harm in doing this, but with hindsight, my stint would have looked far better with just the one and the measurements between the stones would have been so marginal so as not to have mattered to the final finish anyway. Instead, with two throughs crammed into a small space I was struggling to fit stones between them and also to level off to them.

This took me a whole lot of my time in the early part of the afternoon, so much so that our 1530 deadline (lunch was taken on the hop) started to loom closer and closer. By about 1400 I was having real trouble. Another curiosity with walling is that you can take down a wall and practice on it over and over again, every time bringing in more hearting and good stone, but every time, run out of both…I don’t get it! Anyway, I spent a lot of time just trying to find some decent stone to get into the second lift and by abut 1440 I was starting to pretty much slap any old stone on just to get finished.

I’d promised myself that I would focus on my piece of wall all day, but with Jonathan building a stunning piece of wall next to me, Ben doing well and others tidying up having finished I was in a mini-panic. I pretty much threw my cope stones on and did some rudimentary pinning and the guys helped me tidy up (thanks everyone!).

Test over. I looked back at my stint and just felt so despondent. I felt pretty sure I’d passed as I’d done everything technically right, but the overall finish was appalling – I’ve done far, far better on several occasions. I don’t even think it was nerves getting the better of me…I just didn’t have great stone for the second lift or the time to go and find some. Then it dawned on me – this was my exact same horrible stint from my last visit – remember that from my last post? Luck (or lack of) the draw….[sigh].

Never mind – the examiners gave out the mark sheets announcing the passes. I’m certain that mine was the lowest mark and deservedly so. The marks reflected how I felt about what I’d done – not borderline, but by no means great. Still, it was enough on the day and that’s all that counts in any test. I have my Initial Dry Stone Walling certificate and I know I can do far, far better wall than that. Donald appeared rightly proud that all had passed and some, exceptionally well.

The examiners on the day were nice guys. One of them, Steve Allen is generally regarded to be the best waller in Britain and both examiners went about their work discreetly, but also offered advice, guidance and help when needed. I was please and grateful for this as it demonstrated that the level 1 test, whilst a test, is still at the entry and very much learning level of a walling. It also assured me that the aims of the DSWA are noble – in that the examiners want people to pass the tests as ultimately, it makes Dry Stone Walling and the DSWA stronger. With some such associations the order of the day can be about exclusivity and keeping others out, but having seen how the examiners conducted themselves I am reassured that this is not the case with the DSWA.

Would I change anything about my general approach to the test? Not really. I think, as always, coming back from the wall more often (maybe set a timer to go off every 15 mins?) is always a good idea. Also, despite stopping to grab a bite to eat I think having some snacks and sweets nearby is a good idea as by the end of the test I was actually pretty low on energy – little and often is the order of the day and my Camelbak was a really useful thing to have.

I genuinely believe that the problems I had evolved from the stone that was in my stint. I know seasoned wallers would say that you just have to work with the stone, but I’m not a seasoned waller and having good shaped, big stone really does make a difference. The finish in others’ stints was testament to that with nice big square looking chunks all over…so at the end of the day, some of it was just luck of the draw. Oh and for sunny days, I’m going to buy one of those “legionnaire” style hats. I didn’t stop to put sun block on and as a result sat with a wet towel on the back of my neck for the rest of the evening! Stoopid! I now have the most ridiculous tan which stops at the top of my skull where my baseball cap was (I even have a nice “half moon” tan at the back of my head where the hole is…I look like a pint of bitter!

Anyway, job done and first step over. I’m not sure how much walling I’ll get in during the rest of this year with money and annual leave running low. At the moment, I’m thinking about starting up on level two at the start of next year, but if opportunity comes sooner I’ll certainly take it up. For now, I think I’ll get on with reading a few books just to keep the mind ticking over. Congratulations and thanks to everyone else on the test – I hope we can get together again for the next step, and thanks, as always, to Donald for his time, confidence and guidance.

See you soon.

Al