New Gates

Old gates.....

The new (old) stone piers and gates are finished and, rarely have I had such fun designing and helping to make anything.  It must be a freaky creative gene but they are exactly as I pictured they would be and just a bit prettier and more detailed than the old rather more basic/utilitarian style.  The stone used for the piers is a complete mixture of type, size, shape and colour.  Whilst it's easy to draw designs and pictures or choose a particular stone for a place in the pier, the real skill is actually laying the stones and the spirit level was in constant use!  Although difficult to see, the 4 antique hinges were a present from Chris P.  Building the gates around the hinges and hanging them across sloping ground with upright piers was about as tricky as it gets - hence a pair of cosmetic uprights on the piers.  The wood is Elm and I learnt more about planing and chamfering!  Once again, drawing the designs was easy the easy part - making them on the garage floor was both the clever and the fun part! 

 Having hung the gates; fixing a drop bolt and making an Elm draw bolt with (red) keepers from left over bits of metal were the finishing touches before the inevitable coat of creosote in the interests of preservation.  Thanks to Chris for his patience and skills! Hopefully, we will source an enamel sign with PTC's name on it to fit the centre of the old letter box.

...new gates!