What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Tony Griffiths]

Bob, if you've ever been to Yorkshire (or Derbyshire, or Lancashire) you will see mile upon mile of dry stone walls, approximately one ton per yard (1000kg/metre).
I am always intrigued as to how long it took and how many were engaged in what appears to be infinite work. Standing on the tops above Hawes or any other high moor town, a quick panoramic scan will show perhaps twenty or thirty linear miles of walling, perhaps 1/3  to 1/2 of a million tons. Mind-boggling!

Much of the low Pennine area was once forest. With enormous effort this was cleared and converted to farmland, the rocky fields then being cleared of stones and piled up to make walls. As late as the 1960s, the Derby and Lancs Gliding Club at Great Hucklow - just across the valley from my house - needed to have regular "stone-picking" days to clear rocks from the airfield, these seeming to magically work themselves to the surface over a winter.