Higher Warren is situated on the outskirts of Kingsbridge in South Devon. The property dates back to the 1600’s. We were asked to take a look at a boundary wall leading into the rear of the property.

The wall in question had been badly repaired several times over the years and it also had a sand and cement capping. The main problem was that this whole stretch of wall was moving along its base line and it wouldn’t take much to physically push it over. It was decided that this section of wall be taken down to a sound base from the house to more or less the opposite corner and then completely rebuilt. So, with some boards laid down to protect the lawn, the wall was taken down and the original stone set aside for re-use.

The property itself is Grade II listed so a traditional lime mortar was used to build the wall back up. Once everything had been prepared we got the stonework underway.

The original stone consisted of local slate. Two particular stones were pieces of dressed granite. These were identical to stones that are used as corbels in some of the chimney details around the property and these two stones are thought to have originally came from a chimney that had long since been demolished many years ago. These two stones had been re-used on top of garden boundary wall each side of the gate entrance. These were put back in the wall where they came out from. We also put back the granite stone at the base of the wall where the gate hangs.

We soon got the wall up to its original height.

Then it was time to sort the coping out.

The original wall had a sand and cement capping, but this time it was going to be a coping of natural slate. Being new slate, the edges were already sawn by machine, so we distressed the sawn cut edges to make it look more natural.

The slate copings are first laid out dry along the wall to make sure everything fits.

Then they are all set in place.

A pillar was also built against the side of the property to form the gate opening.

And this mirrored the opposite side.

Everyday this chap would turn up to keep an eye on us.

We guess he was just checking to see if we were doing things right.