About Stephen Harrison

As a farmer's son I have been building walls or dry stone structures from the age of twelve. I first realised I had a gift for building with stone when I won the junior drystone walling class at a Young Farmer's meeting.

In 1974 I entered Malham Show and came second. Two dys later I entered Kilnsey Show and also came second. From that time onwards until 1993 I entered competitions in England and Scotland without exception coming in the first three places.

In the late 1980s I was asked to run my first Dry Stone Walling course by Lawrence Garner the then Chairman of the Dry Stone Walling Association, at Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales. These were a group of young apprentices setting out on the long road to become a craftsman in the art of dry stone walling.

Whilst at the farm I ran a National Dry Stone Walling Competition. This competition was run every two years to run alongside the competition held at Gatehouse of Fleet in Scotland. At the height of the competition's popularity there were 80 competitors entering in several classes from all over Britain. Over the years this competition created a lot of interest in the media, local radio stations and TV coverage.

Through this time I helped Bill Mitchell from Settle, the then editor of The Dalesman, write a book on the subject. I also made a video with National Farming Press called 'Dry Stone Country'. This is on sale - please contact me for details.