Simple answer to puzzle of 'through' stones

The wall has an inner and outer face. The waller "courses" the stones as near as possible the same thickness. When the stones are placed with the "face" side out, it does not matter too much about their length, as the "rough" end of the stone sticks into the cavity of the wall, usually filled up with small stones or mortar.

After a rise of, say, three feet "spaces" are left for the "throughs". To find stones the exact length for the width of the wall would be almost impossible, as would be to try to trim the stones once

in place.

Better to have them too long than too short, that is the simple answer.

From Peter Thornton, Sirebank House, Jacksons Lane, Bradley, Keighley.

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From Sue Cuthbert, Newton on Rawcliffe.

Peter Johnson asks, why do Dales stone barns have regular projecting courses of stones on each elevation?

My husband used to do dry stone walling. He says that the projecting course shows that they are proof

of where the through stones are and that the wall is correctly built.

From: Trevor Brigham, Linden Avenue, Cottingham, East Yorkshire

Following Peter Johnston's letter about projecting tiestones in Yorkshire barn walls, they clearly appear in some parts of the Dales but not others, so what was their purpose, if any?

Many Dales barns also have rows of "putlog" holes used to house scaffold poles during construction, and some basic research could be done to see whether putlog holes and projecting stones appear together on the same building or in the same locality.

If not, the projections are likely to have been used to support scaffold platforms when the barns were built; this does not, however, explain their appearance in field walls in some areas and an alternative to the scaffold explanation may be required.

It is reasonable to suppose that experienced drystone builders made use of all the available stone in their area for particular purposes, with special stones perhaps selected from different sources with different characteristics.

They may therefore have selected relatively long flat slabs for tiestones, as well as using long blocks for posts and lintels, squared blocks for quoins, stones with one fair side for the facings, and odd bits for the core infill.

In areas where the type of local stone commonly available meant that the tiestones were longer than actually required for the thickness of the wall, it would not have been cost-effective to trim the projections flush. The result may therefore be the product of necessity rather than anything to do with supporting scaffolding, although the projections may have been used for that purpose by the canny builders as an alternative to the putlog system.

From: David S Clarke, Crag View, Cononley, Keighley

Sarah Todd mentioned Flambards (Country Week, September 18). A venue not mentioned was Westbourne Grove, Ripon.

I purchased Blossomgate Stores during the spring of 1978 and opened on July 31. The filming had been done there the previous year.

The shop was at the bottom of Westbourne Grove. The window at the back of our premises had to be covered with a board with an advertisement, as it was a modern window for the period.

It is said a sequence had to be re-shot as a Biro pen had been left on someone's window sill and showed up.

Although shot in various parts of Yorkshire, I recall we had to imagine it was Essex.