In with the new, out with the old.

As the old metal railings at Hawse End were looking sorry for themselves we thought it was time to replace them. We could have built a normal stockproof fence with posts and netting - it would certainly have been a cheaper option - but this would not align with the nature of the property. Hawse End is a natural continuation of Brandlehow Park, the National Trusts’ first acquisition in the Lake District. As such it is a very special place, and needs that bit extra. Metal railings just feel right.  So we started off with a volunteer group helping us take the first section of old railings down, and put up a temporary fence. With the temporary fence up this allowed us to work on the first section of new railings.  

When we came to take down the other section of the old railings we thought we would bring in reinforcements, because we didn’t want to go through another 100 hack saw blades. So we called upon the Forestry team, and with no problems they just pulled the fence out with their forwarder. At the same time they brought along some spare timber to use as a revetment, which was backfilled with stone and soil.  

The most time consuming part of the job was getting the uprights of the fence into place. To get it correct we had to get the uprights level in all dimensions, and to make sure that we were following the correct line. As seen in the picture above. Once they were level and upright we then added cement to secure them. When the uprights were all in the job became a bit easier and less stress free. The poles were then threaded through the uprights to complete the fence.