Sunday, December 4, 2016

Short Span



I built this arch over 20 years ago on our farm property in Cannington Ontario. It is built mostly with old reclaimed barn foundation stones. 

Round granite fieldstone and irregular limestone chunks deposited by the glaciers were originally cleared from the land, split and then squared by skilled masons and then laid up with a lime mortar to make strong structural foundations. You can still see some pretty impressive stonework on old barns and houses all over this part of Southern Ontario. 

The small arch in the photo stands as a reminder of the short span of time that has passed from then to where we are now. Now nobody anywhere in Canada does structural stonework anything like those magnificent stone houses and barn foundations built in the past - just concrete, block work and stone veneers. It's a bit sad really.