A tanner a yard the Wallers they earned,Their monuments still stand for their trade was well learned.
For mile after mile over hill and through dale,
They can withstand the storm and the gale.
They sweated through Summer and froze in the cold,
To earn a living their labour they sold.
Six days a week they would toil at their craft,
Until Sunday gave respite from their graft.
Strange terms and words these men they would use,
The Batter, Fillings, Top-stones and Throughs.
But now not many Wallers have their skill to hire,
For farmers mend their walls with rolls of barbed-wire.
I remember building a wall on the tops over Earby for the council. I was a general labourer, and Ian Dix from near your house was an apprentice stone-mason. Ian knew what he was doing even then. Wonder if that wall still stands.
ReplyDeleteIt was the one I wrote about in my story - "The Best Man".