Fence repairs - High Hartsop Dodd

Although it is now June we are still finding ourselves repairing boundary walls and fences caused by the devastating floods last December.

Last week we finally got to one of the last remaining fences that had been destroyed by a landslide.

About 80 metres of fence had been completely destroyed and needed replacing, before the farmer could let his sheep back onto the fell.

This was probably one of the last fences to be repaired because of its difficult location. It is situated half way up High Hartsop Dodd above Brothers Water.

To repair the fence we needed: 40 posts, 4 strainers, 8 12ft rails, 2x 50m roles of wire, a post knocker, a bar, bucket of staples not to mention numerous hand tools. This would have taken us the best part of a week to get to site.

Enter the mechanical barrow

We managed to get the materials to site in half a day.

A special thanks has to go to our compatriots from Windermere who also came to lend a much needed hand.

Once all the material was on site we could get on with the job at hand.

It wasn’t going to be easy. The terrain was still very loose and wet from the landslide.

The plan was to try and follow the old fence line where possible. Once we had located that we could start putting in the new posts.

Some of the larger posts (the strainers) had to be strutted, to stop them moving when we put the tension onto the wire.

Chiseling out the wood for the strut. Not a bad view.

Once all the posts were in place the wire could be attached and the fence once again could become stock proof.