From the humblest gravestone to the grandest monument, leaving a mark to acknowledge our existence seems to be a fundamental human need. This week's Open Country explores the various ways we leave our mark on the landscape.

We meet Alan Davenport and Paul Webley on the Yorkshire Moors. They are both dry stone wallers. Alan was a manager at British Gas until he decided to become a waller. He says the job at British Gas left him feeling unfulfilled and confesses that the thought of leaving a Mini-monument, a testament to his skill and existence plays a large part in his decision to be a waller.

Paul Webley is a master craftsman and prominent member of the Dry Stone Walling Association, he has been walling for decades. He tells Richard of that moment when walling becomes almost a Xen like demonstration of harmony between mind and body. He says the subconscious takes over and hours can just speed by as he becomes totally absorbed in constructing his three dimensional jigsaw.

Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain

Francis Pryor is an Archaeologist and we meet him at Rudston church in East Yorkshire. Rudston is home to the Rudston Monolith, the tallest standing stone in Britain.

Standing twenty six feet high and over four and a half thousand years old the monolith is deeply impressive and a powerful testament to a sophisticated and complex society. The stone isn't local it comes from thirty miles away so the act of quarrying, dragging and erecting the monument was an incredible undertaking, a huge investment in time and energy. This enormous effort must indicate how important creating monuments were to the people of the Neolithic age and Francis tells Richard that monuments convey a complex set of meanings and reflect a very sophisticated and ordered society.

Monuments stake a lasting claim on a piece of land and reinforce that claim by connecting the land to their ancestors. The message a monument conveys is powerful and clear-this is our land and our ancestors have been occupying this site for generations so stay away! The message of warning isn't the only one. Monuments also tell the people who occupy that land that this is their home and they belong here. In fact that message, the message of belonging, is just as significant than any warning to outsiders.

The Rudston Prehistoric Community

The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map

Dot Perkins was a farm labourer and worked the land all her life. Digging drainage ditches, laying hedges, Dot has done them all and it has been the labourers like Dot who have shaped and controlled our landscape - but is it to no avail.

We meet Dot in her Bungalow only one hundred metres from the sea. The coast of East Yorkshire is eroding and Dot tells us of some of the villages that have been lost to the sea. She also gives Richard a taste of the Yorkshire dialect and leaves him totally baffled but it illustrates an important point - how language can also be a lasting monument to the people who have passed this way. The Germans, Swedes that have occupied and settled the area have all left a linguistic legacy that echoes through the ages.

Holderness, East Yorkshire Coast

Christopher Sykes has written his monument.The Big Houseis Christopher's book dedicated to his family and especially their home in the Yorkshire Wolds. Christopher tells Richard of his feeling for his boyhood home and gives us a real sense of what home means. His book is an affectionate chronicle of the generations who lived there and as his boyhood home is a stately home and a grand building, the house itself becomes a monument, a mark the Sykes family have left on the landscape to tell the outside world of their importance but also as a home for future generations of Sykes.

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