Many farmyards are paved with cobblestones and these stones were often collected by hand when people were ploughing and sowing crops.
In areas such as Cheshire these stones can be found in the soil.Webby tells me they were deposited during the last ice age.

They make a very hardwearing yard surface and were smooth for cattle and horses feet to walk on. Many streets in the pre-motor car days were also cobbled.

Our cobbles are rather un-even in places as they were not made to carry the weight of 40 tonne lorries.

In July of 2005 we had new electrics connected, after giving time for the backfilled soil to settle we set out to repair the cable hole.

This was started by digging down to nearly the depth of the surrounding cobbles(approx 50mm),

 

The cobble stones were then carefully placed into position to be reset.

 

 

 

 

Then they are tightened here as we are only laying a patch around 1m square. We are using an iron compactor called a “punner”, if you were doing a large area in the modern day you might use a powered compactor (often called a whacker plate).

 

Next they are scattered with sand and punned again as a final tightening and to shake the sand down between the cobbles.

 

 

 

Finally brushing them over to remove any excess sand. Give this patch a month or two of use and you will not be able to see where the hole was dug unlike if it had been in a concrete or tarmac yard.

 

When these cobbles were originally laid this would be the actual way of doing the cobbling and it would all have been done by hand. Imagine laying a whole streets worth!

Thanks to Josh and Stephen our two works experience students for these pictures.

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