Dry stone walling contest – another British Tradition

An excerpt from the book 40 Humourous British Traditions

Gabriel Herriott won the Littondale Wall contest a record five times, including an unprecedented hat-trick between
1845 and 1847. His detractors claim that Herriott used his pointer Snowball illegally by having the dog take one step
uphill every five minutes, thus giving Herriott a theodolite other competitors didn’t have. The shortest wall on record measured 12 feet 8 inches in length and was built by a Master James Handysides in 1683. To be fair, James was the owner of a particularly ferocious bull, which would explain why the wall was 33 feet high. This structure still stands today and is used as a windbreak by the local cattle in stormy weather.