Stone carving and lime pointing.

I did a course on lime pointing today at Ushaw College- part of Durham University. We were on site to help with pointing a wall that was enormous. The wall was originally built to house 3 Fives courts. Fives is a game played with a tennis ball sized ball and the hand. The court is an irregular shape and have a little hut as part of it. The wall also has arched recesses that were used for another game. Ushaw college was originally a Seminary for Catholic priests.

Lime pointing is using a lime mortar to fill in the gaps between bricks in a wall and it was used extensively before the use of sand and cement.

In the afternoon we did stone carving.

The course was free and run by the Heritage Skills Initiative.
HopeI haven't bored you to death; I know this is not everyones cup of tea.