Conservation

A wall goes back up on its record rather than from memory. Foundations are built to bedrock or a compacted granular base with the largest, best-fitted stones in the lower courses; the original bond pattern is reproduced, running joints are eliminated, and through stones are set at metre intervals halfway up the height, with a coverband course presenting a level surface for the copings. Where the record supports an improvement it is made quietly — slightly widening the base, for instance, while keeping height and upper dimensions original, without altering the original bond and overall appearance.

Not every historic wall is dry the whole way through. The wall at the Little Dutch Church had been extended around an adjacent property in mortar and capped in formed concrete after the Halifax explosion of 1917, and its rebuilt copings were mortared in place to deter vandalism. Work of that kind needs stone matched to the original — at Halifax, ironstone slate from a small quarry north of the city — and a mason qualified in both traditions. John Scott, the co-operative's president, is a licensed Red Seal stonemason with a diploma in heritage masonry, and led the heritage masonry program at Algonquin College.

A wall can be recorded without being touched, and on some projects the record is the whole of the work. Overall layout, components and dimensions are recorded along with bond patterns, variations and suspected past repairs; at Kingston the wall was divided into one-metre sections and each was recorded individually from both sides. Where a wall is coming down, the dismantling is itself a survey — each linear metre is opened in cross-section to show stone orientation, through stones and hearting, and every metre is bagged, labelled and mapped before it leaves the site.