We are at the end of the season for the Cotswolds Branch of the DSWA we have run a fair few courses and attended the Cotswolds Show.
A slight change of committee members, we give a huge thanks to Kelly and Bo for all they have done getting the Branch up and running and we welcome Charles as Treasurer.
May Course in the sun!
Cotswolds Show
Autumn Course
We still have the generally lighthearted AGM to go at the time of posting this, but Wow, what a fantastic year!
Summer Course
Our First Course was run in June nr Burford, instructor Richard Gray led the course along with David Butler and Nigel Chivers helping out, the weather was fantastic! Infact, the only complaint we had was that it was too warm.
Cotswolds Show
Then we had a display at the Cotswolds Show at The Royal Agricultural University, A huge thanks goes to Austin Hind for organising everything for the show including getting us some stone.
The whole show had a great feel to it and we really enjoyed being there showing everyone about dry stone walling Thanks go to the helpers on the day as well, Pauline Roenisch, Stuart Mayling, Richard Gray, Ed Browne and Jon Fredrikson.
Autumn Course
In september we held another beginners course nr Tetbury, 10 people on the course, and from no knowledge to the finished wall, what a great bit of wall!
Members Practice weekend
During the September course we ran a members practice and social weekend. It was really well attended with a dozen members turning up over the course of the weekend, some to build, some just for a chat. We will do it again next year, we promise.
Our first outing as a Branch for a long long time and our first Beginners course happened on the weekend of the 17th and 18th of September 2022, this was the weekend before Her Majesty’s the Queens funeral the following monday. It felt like everyone wanted to be outdoors and enjoying the countryside, it was respectful and everyone was mindful of what was going to take place the following Monday.
At 9am all 11 attendees turned up and we didnt hang around stipping out the failed bit of wall, there was a mix of people on the course, some that had projects at home and some that were considering taking it up as a career, all were very welcome, by 11am all the wall was taken down and the area cleared for the foundations, a quick lesson in foundation stones and the wall started its journey back upright.
It didnt take long for everyone to get the hang of it and by mid afternoon we were a foot high and called it a day.
I should add that along with Nigel instructing, Kelly our Treasurer spent the whole weekend with everyone helping out and sharing her knowledge, not only Kelly, But Ray (yes, the former Chair of the DSWA) spent the weekend with us as well helping out. Thank you both so much for giving up your weekend.
Nearly there!
We cant wait until next year to do more of this.