Bricks and Bats

 

Let's start with the bats. As part of the major refurbishment of our lovely old Folly in the middle of Settle the roof has been renewed, or at least re-laid.   Almost inevitably, evidence was found that bats used the roof space.  No actual bats, just 'evidence'.  The Bat Police insisted that the new roof would enable bats to return if they so chose.   Here is the rather clever solution to that - a very neatly crafted lead tile with a bat on it.  The bottom edge of the lead tile stand just high enough above the row of tiles below for bats to fly through.  Blind or not.

And bricks you ask?  Well, not bricks in the made-of-clay sense but stone bricks, from which the water tower walls are most elegantly made.   Here is a picture of the left side of the south facing stone wall.  Nothing unusual about it at first glance but look again at the course of stones more or less central in the picture.

There you see the daddy of all stone bricks stretching the entire width of the wall between the carefully detailed quoins at either end:

Few or none of the stones are of uniform lengths yet they fit exactly between the quoins without recourse to small fillers to make good any gaps.   Wonderful Victorian railway craftsmanship.

And an enlargement:

Notice too the minimal amount of mortar between the courses.  Just about impossible to re-point and not in need of it either, happily for us.