Across the British countryside, dry stone walls have stood for hundreds of years — enduring, adaptable, and shaped entirely by human skill. To celebrate this remarkable craft, we spoke with Noble Stonework, the West Yorkshire siblings carrying forward a long family tradition of stonework. In this Q&A, they share their heritage, their passion, and what it takes to keep this ancient craft thriving today.
1 - Introduce yourselves and tell our followers what you do for a living.
Hello! We are Bert and Lydia Noble, siblings from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire and we run a Dry Stone Walling company together called Noble Stonework.
2 - Tell us about the history and family heritage of your craft and business.
Our family, on our Dad's side has lived in the same part of West Yorkshire for around 500 years, in fact from the top of our small holding you can see the old farm where our ancestors were tenant farmers just a couple of miles away. Dry Stone walling has been part of farming in our area for many, many hundreds of years so it's not a stretch to imagine them walling there all that time ago; before Shakespeare, before the great fire of London or even before the humble cup of tea had landed on British shores. We can only guess what our ancestors got up to back then but we know for certain that our Great-great Grandfather William Noble became a Stonemason in the year 1840. He was the first in our family to be listed on the national census as a Stonemason and in that High Victorian era he did a variety of stonework: he built rows of houses, provided grinding wheels for Sheffield and built many stone walls. He passed his craft down to his numerous sons and grandsons and around 170 years later myself and Lydia are here doing the same thing!
3 - We saw you were recently featured in James Fox’s book Craft Land, have you received any attention from that and what do you think of the book?
'Craft land' is a truly fantastic book, I'm just over halfway through reading it now and I find it truly fascinating and quite inspirational. We live in a time now when people are starting to look again at traditional crafts especially now in a time where conventional careers are uncertain with the advent of AI it seems that the jobs that have been here for thousands of years amazingly are some of the most resilient to the changing times. As for us, we've had quite a few people say nice things to us on instagram about the book which is really nice. It's a huge honour to be included in the book!
4 - Do you have a favourite or go to piece of gear or clothing that you use more than any other?
I'll talk you through my full outfit of go-to walling clothes, poor quality stuff just gets destroyed with walling so I've got a keen eye for finding tough, well made work gear. For my boots I wear Dedito dodi boots, these will be a similar construction to the Hanwag boots you stock, they're a tough, European made mountaineering boot and they're very hardwearing. I like to wear a moleskin trouser this time of year and then on top it's lots of layering, probably a shirt, a fleece and then I'll wear my trusty Barbour jacket on top. They are obviously mostly a fashion item these days but they are amazingly hardwearing and the ones you get today are just as good as the old ones which is a rare thing!. Mine needs a bit of TLC after a few years of being covered in mud and stone but it's a great jacket and the poachers pocket comes in handy for spare gloves!
5 - What do you think about these country crafts and the future of things such as yours, and thatching and others, are there new generations coming through to keep them going for the future? Is it possible for someone to learn dry stone walling today — what’s the pathway for new craftspeople?
Some crafts are doing better than others in terms of new people taking them up. Thatching has just gone on the red list of endangered crafts where as there are probably over 2000 wallers in the country. The real problem is that there is no obvious entry point for many of these crafts, with other trades there is an obvious route where you apply to college and take an apprenticeship but there is no system like that for heritage crafts. It is quite an investment and a risk for a craftsperson to take someone on and train them up and this is one of the major things holding back the industry in my opinion.
That being said, it is possible to learn dry stone walling as there are many great courses you can go on, and would you believe we will be running 2 such courses next year so keep an eye on our instagram for information on that.
6 - What makes a dry stone wall the best choice for a given situation and tell us about the durability of a dry stone wall.
Dry stone walls are marvellously simple constructions that do what they do very well. Because there is no bonding agent such as mortar or glue there is nothing to deteriorate and wash away, even the best mortars will turn to dust eventually but stone can be eternal. A dry stone wall can move and shift with the seasons, soil expands and moves when its wet and a dry wall can move with it. This means it takes a really long time for a dry stone wall to collapse, most of the field walls you see on the uplands of England are around 200 years old and still going strong.
7. How does local stone and regional geology influence the style and look of a wall?
Local geology is what gives stonework its regional character, the type of stone and its characteristics dictate the style. Here in West Yorkshire we have mostly sandstone, some of it is big and some of it is small but you generally wall it all in courses, rows in other words whereas in the highlands of Scotland you get walls built out of great, odd-shaped granite boulders stacked up in a single skin. They're quite amazing to look at!
8. What’s a wall or project you’ve restores or built that you’re especially proud of — and why?
We've been lucky to have worked on a large variety of jobs over the years but a real stand out moment for us was working on the Harris Bugg Chelsea Flower Show Garden in 2023 which won Best in Show. It was an amazing experience to get to work at such a prestigious show and be a part of an amazing team!