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Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   Canadian dry stone wall projects    List Ray Yurkowski Next   Stonemasonry a popular pastime in Canada   By Ray Yurkowski Stonemasonry is one of the earliest trades in history.   “The Ancients relied heavily on the stonemason to build the most impressive and long lasting monuments to their civilizations,” explains Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.   “The Egyptians built their pyramids, the civilizations of Central American had their step pyramids, the Persians their palaces, the Greeks their temples, and the Romans their public works and wonders.”   Sophroniscus, a stone-cutter and the father of Socrates, was among the famous ancient stonemasons.   Alexander Mackenzie, Canada’s second prime minister (1873-1878), was a journeyman stonemason.   According to Library and Archives Canada (LAC), after immigrating to Canada in 1842, the working-class Scotsman “soon found work in the rapidly growing provinces of Canada East and West.”   One of Mackenzie’s first jobs was to build a bomb-proof stone arch at Fort Henry in Kingston and, while serving as Minister of Public Works, oversaw the completion of the Parliament Buildings.   “His pride in his workingclass origins never left him,” recalls the LAC account. “Once, while touring Fort Henry as prime minister, he asked the soldier accompanying him if he knew the thickness of the wall beside them. The embarrassed escort confessed that he didn't and Mackenzie replied, ‘I do. It is five feet, ten inches. I know, because I built it myself.’”   John Shaw-Rimmington of Port Hope, Ontario, has worked more than 25 years as a modern day stonemason but his real passion lies in building dry stone walls. The fascination, he says, comes with using natural materials to achieve both beauty and purpose.   “As a stonemason, I learned very quickly about restoration and structural stone work,” he said. But, as more jobs started using stone as veneer, he became disenchanted.   “That was the sad part of it,” he said. “Stone was being used more and more for decoration. The whole thing seemed like a battle against stone rather than working with it.   Stonemasons have been around for thousands of years and done some pretty cool things.”   Dry stone is a building method where stone structures are constructed without any mortar to bind them together. African tribes knew the construction technique as early as 1350 to 1500 AD. In fifteenth century Peru, Incas made use of otherwise unusable slopes by dry stone walling to create terraces.   The increasing appreciation of the landscape and heritage value of dry stone walls has led to a renaissance of the ancient craft, helped, in no small part, by their sturdiness and consequent long, low maintenance lifetimes.   But, says Shaw-Rimmington, a wall has to have plenty of heart.   The rock chips, pebbles and fragments packed into the spaces between larger stones are called 'hearting' and they're what hold the wall up.   “It’s like our cement,” he explains. “All the small stones which people usually throw away enable the larger stones to be connected through a mass and structure. These are all laid on the outside with as much care as the big ones.”   And how does patience factor into what amounts to a giant jigsaw puzzle in constructing a dry stone structure?   “I’ve decided that I’m an impatient person and that’s why I’ve taken on dry stone walling,”says Shaw-Rimmington. “ I can build a wall in a week and it looks like its been there for 100 years.”   He explains one of the secrets of the craft: the ability to multi-task.     “You have to think and move at the same time,” he said. “And, I don’t have to go to the gym at the end of the day. It’s labour intensive but it’s not backbreaking.”   What is the appeal of the craft?   “The stone does all the work,” says Shaw-Rimmington. “Most people I know have an affinity for stone. They love it. The disconnect is, you bring it home but you’re not sure what to do with it. But when used for dry stone walling, it’s a logical way of building something where you can stand back and say, ‘I not only collected the stone, I built something with it.’   “Stone is not as mysterious a product, and stonework is not as elite a craft, as some people would say,” muses Shaw-Rimmington. “People realize that this isn’t that difficult and they could take it on, at least as a hobby, with some hands-on training. "I’m sort of the Johnny Appleseed of the whole process; people either learn how to do it or they get someone else to build them some walls because there’s lots of stone."   As president of the Dry Stone Wall Association of Canada, Shaw-Rimmington travels throughout North America teaching the art form. As well, the annual dry stone wall festival, Rocktoberfest, has been held on Thanksgiving Day weekend since 2004, offering three full days of building as workers from all over the world pay for the privilege of participating.   “It’s ironic,” he says. “We charge the performers but not the public.”   Last year, the event attracted more than 800 prospective builders and onlookers alike.   Shaw-Rimmington says he’s not out to dry stone wall the entire country but, in some respect, he is trying to add some character.   “Most people are looking to re-create a small memory of the old country walls that go on for miles. It captures the imagination. They’re beautiful to look at … you realize there’s a story there and it reminds you of your past,” he said. “It looks like a long work of art through a field.”   “Dry stone walling is definitely less effort than concrete or cement and in many cases it lasts longer because it breathes. It’s able to yield to frost rather than break up.”   He likens dry wall construction to the weave of a basket.   “I think people have been so indoctrinated by the idea that stone has to be held together with mortar that even when they’re looking at dry stone work it doesn’t register.”   Shaw-Rimmington tells of a project built in California, a garden arch. When questions came up about how the structure would fare under the rigors of an earthquake, an engineer in the crowd summed it up.   “If there was an earthquake, I would hide under this arch,” he said.   Photos:   1 - Canada's first dry stone hut, built with 80 tons of stone   2 - John Shaw-Rimmington of Port Hope sizes up a stone wall   3 - The results of a 2004 bridge building project in 2004   4 - Use of chips, pebbles and fragments is called hearting     Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2010 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster