Stone Fences
Driving around the other day I stopped to photograph one of the stone fences that are found all over the state of Kentucky. I've learned there is a stone fence conservancy that is working to rebuild some of these that have fallen into disrepair over the years. Most of them date back to before the Civil War and are part of the American heritage. Here's a little information and a link to a video on these if you'd care to watch it. The video is from a program on KET (Kentucky Educational Television) called "Kentucky Life". Kentucky Life explores many aspects of life in the state of Kentucky each week. The video is about 7 minutes.
"These historic fences are examples of dry-stone masonry, in which the rocks are carefully fitted to hold themselves in place without mortar. The techniques were brought over from the British Isles by immigrant stonemasons, mostly Irish, who passed them along to selected slaves who became master artisans and trained others in turn. Central Kentucky has one of the largest concentrations of 19th-century rock fences still standing anywhere in America—but once had many more. By most estimates, today’s examples represent only 5-10% of what once was here."
posted by Fish-2 at 2:55 PM
1 Comments:
That's really interesting, Fish. I know about dry-stone masonry, but have never seen one of those fensces, and if I had, I would probably have called it a "wall". At first I was surprised that tourists hadn't carried off the stones but then I thought that the reason they haven't is because they don't realize their historic significance. It's probably a good thing!
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