Estate rail

[Kent]

Gosh I am glad this is finished! Started it at the wrong time of year (not bad for the gate making and all the drilling of the posts 79 off with 5 holes at 18mm and one at 22mm in each - yep lots o' drillin'). But the work on site was terrible many times I got there for a good forcast and went after 40 mins of persistently raining)
Did it all on my own except my 15 year old did 1/2 day painting when I was priming it. Wanted to do it this way as its the first I have done and wanted to learn the wrinkles without worrying about how much it was costing in wages.
Spec is
40x10 posts
5 off 16mm rails
1 off top 20mm rail
80x80 SHS gate posts capped in 5mm plate top and solid 80mm ball Galv dipped
3 hinges (middle upside down to prevent lifting and help with drop through wear)
Hand made latches on bolts (stops cows licking them open)

Paint
Primed red oxide
Top coat gloss black high build vinyl

welded
6013 Esab
Full circle both sides all
946 welds in total - it aint going nowhere in a hurry!

 

[Kent]

Here is the latching lock

 

[Kent]

The snakey rail on the field gate (wide one) side railing is to disguise the fact that this section of railing sits higher due to ground level change. All bottom rails are set at 130mm centres from the floor. The fence then goes were it will it aint like doing a stepped type of rail like you might with hoop and rail set between posts

Posts are set 600 deep minimum and gateposts are set 1200 deep. All gateposts are concreted and a few posts are, were concrete is used on a post a cross brace is welded on some are one this way but just tamped down in the clay soil. Some sections were nothing but rock, at one stage I had to go through were the owner removed an old dry stone wall section.

 

[Kent]

Will be posting more on my regular Facebook blog Bowland Fabrications Ltd.

 

[gordon stephenson]

A job to be proud of Kent.particularly liked the gate details and the rails independent of the gate posts.

 

[eSCHEn]

Lovely work Kent. Fits in beautiful with its surroundings.

 

[awemawson]

Really nice Kent. I'd love to have estate fencing round some of our paddocks, but I imagine that was a very costly job, both in time and materials

 

[Kent]

Really nice Kent. I'd love to have estate fencing round some of our paddocks, but I imagine that was a very costly job, both in time and materials

Costly? well about a grand in that job materials wise! To be fair its the most cost effective fencing you can by if you consider "whole of life cost" I put in about 5-600 yards of Yorkshire board in here at home as we had brick pillars and a totally ruined one in place when we bought the property, 5 yrs on its getting ready for more work I doubt it will do ten so Perfect for a paddock, fit it and your grand kids will be retired before it needs much and nothing will get in or out unexpectedly in a storm or premature failure. (we have some estate rail in our area pre-electric welding days still functioning). I am very tempted to set up a team just doing these BUT no more winter fits.

Bowland Fabrications are always pleased to quote though

 

[Kent]

A job to be proud of Kent.particularly liked the gate details and the rails independent of the gate posts.

Yes some do bolt together stuff or kits but key to this is each section supports the next, you cant just push over 20-40 rails placed at 1000mm intervals all in one go all set deep into the ground (each post is welded with 12 fillet welds to the rails remember and each rail is continous butt welded to form one very long bar length brick pattern).

 

[balmerchris]

Gateposts 1200mm into the ground! My god!don't fancy digging that. Looks great, is that 16mm and 20mm solid bar? Is it hard to get the bars to pull through?

 

[Bill Edwards]

Excellent work, not only is it clearly strong but it's aesthetically well designed too.

Very good.

 

[roofman]

Looks great...reminds me of "cheshire rails"

 

[Kent]

Gateposts 1200mm into the ground! My god!don't fancy digging that. Looks great, is that 16mm and 20mm solid bar? Is it hard to get the bars to pull through?

Yep solid and yeah it is a bit of a job! parts are rolled and some parts hammered through 1/2" at a time

The depth of the post might seem overkill but when a big old cow chooses it for her regular scratching post and the ground is wet every little helps

 

[Kent]

Looks great...reminds me of "cheshire rails"

You want to see their stuff in the flesh, it don't look so hot as the photo lots of socket joints and bolts. Cheshire rails? explain? that's a CDI job in the photo is it not? they advertise in The Field

 

[Kent]

Excellent work, not only is it clearly strong but it's aesthetically well designed too.

Very good.

Thanks, much of the design is just copied from existing Blacksmith made work from over 100 years ago I have been cataloguing around the area of the Bowland Fells and farms. Its a shame to see so many non traditional alternatives replacing these as they fail and I should like to think my work will still be good when as old as those guys did prior to electric welding as the gates are riveted together and of course we have better paints now.
I have a few more ideas on improving things but gradually over time, part of the reason I did everything on this one single handed. What I don't want to copy is mass produced bolt together stuff I cant abide it and feel it worse than the cheap thin scroll work in a 70s garden gate trying to imitate proper wrought Iron

 

[chunkolini]

Fabulous work. I always look at these fences and think how in hell did they do it.

 

[J.B. Welding]

Thanks, much of the design is just copied from existing Blacksmith made work from over 100 years ago I have been cataloguing around the area of the Bowland Fells and farms. Its a shame to see so many non traditional alternatives replacing these as they fail and I should like to think my work will still be good when as old as those guys did prior to electric welding as the gates are riveted together and of course we have better paints now.
I have a few more ideas on improving things but gradually over time, part of the reason I did everything on this one single handed. What I don't want to copy is mass produced bolt together stuff I cant abide it and feel it worse than the cheap thin scroll work in a 70s garden gate trying to imitate proper wrought Iron

Nice work Kent-around here the old estate fences are flat bar and wedged in the posts, the joins are formed on the post by tapering the ends of the lengths of flat bar and overlapping them, jammed in through the post 50:50 and they look great but like you say no welders back then. Wrought iron doesn't corrode like modern steel that's why all the old stuff lasts so well-with all the BS and EN numbers in the world attached to it, they still don't make it like they use tae.

 

[Kent]

Fabulous work. I always look at these fences and think how in hell did they do it.

It becomes obsessive looking how others got it done in the past. I do this with some of the sculpture stuff guys like you post, figure out the how and think nah mine wouldn't look like that if I did

 

[Kent]

Nice work Kent-around here the old estate fences are flat bar and wedged in the posts, the joins are formed on the post by tapering the ends of the lengths of flat bar and overlapping them, jammed in through the post 50:50 and they look great but like you say no welders back then. Wrought iron doesn't corrode like modern steel that's why all the old stuff lasts so well-with all the BS and EN numbers in the world attached to it, they still don't make it like they use tae.

Yes, there is that fact. I used to do some repair work on some real quality old wrought iron stuff at stately homes and such with a smith then in his 80s and still turning in to work. Spoke of using brace and bit to drill steel when he was learning if he was still with us he should be a teenager again with a 1 before it!

7 bars with a round top one and six flat below are common here also as are the wedges, I think these wedges were used on a Job on a local Estate post and rail not all that long back but you really cant tell when it could be a decade or more back. Nominal bore tube is also quite common done especially on stone wall tops all the joins with the taper thread and those wedges again

 

[J.B. Welding]

I much prefer this type of fencing to the bow top railings now seen EVERYWHERE , but scrolls made of 12x3, outside, ungalvanised and with one coat of 'black paint' are a real pet hate-Wrought Ironwork my heiney.