During the National Trust working holiday our group was working on an area of the footpath to prevent further loss of soil and vegetation. To do this we simply dug ditches but the technique we used called Stone Pitching. The National Trust information board near where we were working said: ‘We also use a technique called Stone Pitching. This is an ancient technique that predates the Romans, the path line is dug out and stones are embedded upright, the gaps are filled with small stone and soil.’
The process was in two parts, the first was digging the ditch and we used pick axes for this. It’s not as easy as it looks as I said previously the group leader broke his finger doing this on the first day. But once you get a rhythm it’s quite straight forward, but like any physical work it can be demanding. After we dug our section of ditch, we then had to find stone to fit on the side nearest the footpath, which would stop the erosion. There was a slope so we had to make sure the stones were put in a gradual rise. The stones had to be hit with a mallet so they were solid.
We then needed bigger stones for the ditch part and this was like doing a jigsaw puzzle as all the stones were different sizes. And once we did all that work we then had to cover our work with earth so it looked like it had been there all along!
To finish it off a couple of days later we did some landscaping and I did some turfing which meant digging up some turf squares and then making them secure by hitting them with a sledgehammer. For some reason I found this part quite satisfying.
The whole process was really interesting and I didn’t have any awareness before of footpath erosion and how you can prevent it. So this part of the trip was very educational.
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