About Yorkstone Walling

Yorkstone is a high quality and durable natural sandstone which comes from quarries in West Yorkshire. Much of it is made into walling stone used for building houses, extensions, garages, and roadside and garden walls. The main types of yorkstone walling are dry stone walling, pitched face walling, black face or reclaimed walling, tumbled walling, delph walling and punch face walling.

Dry stone walling

Yorkstone dry stone walls are a familiar sight all over the Yorkshire countryside, and new and reclaimed stone walling is also used as garden walling blocks and for patio and driveway walling. Dry stone walling comes in random sizes and in a range of colours from sandy yellow to browns and greys. With weathering over time it will turn to green then dark green to black depending on the surrounding environment. New walling can be coloured to match old black face walling.

Building dry stone walls

A dry stone wall is built by carefully stacking stones of random sizes without using mortar, an art which has been practised in the UK for thousands of years. Foundation stones are laid in a shallow trench and then the layers or 'courses' of the wall are built up like a 3-dimensional jigsaw. At intervals through stones are placed right across to strengthen the wall. Small stones fill the gaps in the middle and there is a top course of rounded capstones or top stones.

Pitched face walling

Pitched face walling is hand dressed or 'pitched' and is historically a method of flattening stone for use in a wide range of building. Pitched face is now the most common finish for stone used in the building of houses and commercial properties in the northern half of Britain. Yorkstone pitched faced walling is made from ashlar block cut into slabs and then cropped into small walling blocks before being pitched.

Black face or reclaimed walling

Original black face walling stone has carbon deposits from the industrial mills and is black with patches of original sandy colour where weathered. Black face stone is reclaimed from housing and old mill demolitions.

Tumbled Walling

Tumbled walling is made from new blocks of yorkstone which are treated to give the appearance of old walling. They are 'tumbled' to knock off the corners and then coloured to match match the the stone in older buildings. The main types are cropped tumbled, dressed tumbled and dressed blackened tumbled.

Delph Walling

Delph or delved walling stone is a high quality natural bed stone made from the small blocks of stone in the quarry. Like tumbled blackened walling it provides a rustic stone like that found in old houses and farm buildings. Delphs or delfs was the name used for the original yorkstone quarries.

Punch Face Walling

Punch face walling is made by using a mallet and punch chisel to chisel the face flat leaving small punch marks in the stone. Some stone masons now use a small pneumatic air chisel to make the punch face on the stone.

 

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About Yorkstone: Article 4
Dry stone walling
Dry stone wall built with new yorkstone
capstones for dry stone walls
New half moon capstones for dry stone walls
pitched face walling
Pitched faced yorkstone walling
black face walling
Tumbled walling coloured to give aged effect
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