A COUNTRYSIDE grant scheme is helping to secure the future of the Dales landscape and keep traditional skills alive.

Around 240 kilometres of dry stone walls in the Dales have been restored with help from the Ministry of Agriculture's Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme (ESA).

That's equivalent to rebuilding twice the length of the famous Hadrian's Wall.

The ESA scheme was established back in 1987 to preserve meadows which would otherwise be destroyed, and to restore traditional farm buildings, stone walls, and hedges.

Since then, 237 kilometres of walls and 350 barns have been restored.

Under the scheme MAFF makes grants of up to 80 per cent of the cost of the work, with wallers able to claim an average of £14 per metre.

Much of the work in the Craven area has been carried out by Litton's Roger Gibson.

Roger is hailed as one of the best dry stone wallers in the Dales and is in constant demand by farmers and landowners.

As a tenant farmer he keeps 150 sheep as "a hobby" at the 300-acre Sawyer's Garth.

"I do a lot of national park work as well as work in the ESA," he told the Herald. "When you're given an old wall to rebuild you have to think of it like a jigsaw with all the different types of stones and you pull it out and sort it."

The craft has always been in his blood and Roger did his first "gap" when he was just eight years old.

"It fell down three times and I decided in the end not to go back to it," he admitted.

Gladly, Roger has got a lot better over the years and can usually construct a five-metre length of new wall in a day.

"Every lad now growing up on a Dales farm has to learn walling and it's up to them whether they continue it. It's an art which is dying out but with grants like this we can keep it going for a long time to come."

It took Roger two-and-a-half years to complete his walling task which he fitted in around his contract work and farming.

Part of the wall includes a curved section specially made so livestock can shelter from the elements.

"Originally it was just a pile of stones in a long line and the lambs used to jump over it," he said.

"Since I've rebuilt the wall, last lambing time we didn't get any of them jumping because they can't do it anymore."

Roger is particularly proud of some of the gates he has put in using a leading technique to secure hinges and fasteners into limestone posts.

"You drill a hole and make it like a bell so when the lead goes in and hardens it can't come out again," said Roger.

"I heated the lead up in a pan in the Aga!"

MAFF senior project officer Martin O'Hanlon said the project not only preserved dry stone walls for conservation purposes, but as a piece of Dales history.

"By helping farmers to restore these traditional features we are preserving the historic landscape," he said.

"At the same time we're also making fields stock-proof and offering protection to animals during the winter months.

"The impact is not just limited to the environment. It is also preserving traditional skills and supporting the local economy.

"The scheme alone provides enough work to keep at least 25 dry stone wallers busy."