Like the millions who visited before, the Lakes District instilled in me a sense of wonder and awe. The beauty of the area is balanced by a yesteryear charm, including unspoiled vistas, the multitude of lakes, also called “meres,” and “waters,” delightful names such as Windermere, Ambleside, and Loweswater, and the preservation of history. The Lakes District even has a stone circles called Castlerigg which predates Stonehenge.
There is something magical about the Lakes District. The colors are more vivid, the light more pure, the landscape more natural and more passionate than any I’ve ever visited. I could point my camera in any direction with zero to no set up and capture a print-worthy image. Even the photos of me in the area turned out well, and that’s saying something!
Once of the many fascinating aspects of the area was the use of slate stones to build fences, barns, bridges, businesses, and pretty much any type of structure. When the early settlers found farming difficult due to the multitude of stones in their fields, they removed the offending elements, and like any enterprising settler, put these rocks to good use in constructing all their buildings. Slate rock was readily available, study, and durable—perfect for building material.
Today, the skill used to build these stone structures is in danger of becoming a lost art. They use a technique called dry stone. Builders literally use dry stones with no mortar or cement to glue them together. Like a master puzzle solver, the specialist meticulously chooses each rock for its shape and size, and fits them together to create a strong structure that holds up to animals, weather, and even time itself.
A technique called stone cladding places a thinner layer of stone to the outside of buildings. Unlike shingles, siding or stucco, stones never need painting and seldom need repairs or replacing. Some of the buildings are covered with a white material called pebble dash, and many have a combination of slate and pebble dash.
Slate rock structures are just one of the many unique and memorable reasons I fell in love with the Lakes District of England.
I suspect a not-so-distant-in-the-future book I write will take place in this enchanting area of England. Have you visited the Lakes District?
The Lakes District and Slate Rock posted first on http://donnahatchnovels.tumblr.com/
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