Old fashioned fence looks the goods
• John Rothall, satisfied with another finished fence. Photo Tracey Walker.
The task of building a post and rail fence would be wasted on many, but for John Rothall it’s a labour of love.
The former Blessington farmer says, “it’s a lot of hard work”, but the 76-year-old is not one to shirk that.
He does it pretty much the old-fashioned way and “it takes me a bit longer than it used to.”
But when it’s finished he’s not the only one that admires his handiwork.
“A lot of people slow down or stop for a proper look when I’m building and they love the look of a fence when it’s done.”
John has been building split post and rail fences since working on his father’s and uncles' farms around Blessington as an 18-year-old before running a couple of farms of his own.
“I was never fencing full-time, but there’d be dozens of them over the years.
“They’re not a cheap fence, but it’s a fence with no nails.”
He concedes from the old manual ways of the preparing posts and rails to the modern methods of a chainsaw.
The right tree has to be selected in
the bush.
“You can tell from the look, and a chip of bark tells whether it will be straight grained or not.
“It’s got to be straight, so I can split the long rails with hammer and wedges.”
But with posts split he speeds up the morticing with a chainsaw.
“The old timers would only have had an auger and probably did eight or nine posts a day, but I can do 10 in half an hour.”
The finished product could not be distinguished from the originals.
“The end results are wonderful.”
And there’s plenty of demand for
his work.
“I’ve got a little bit going on. There are four or five jobs coming up.”
Most of his work is on rural properties, as entry ways rather than long sections.
One more public example is a fence opposite the old church in Ross.