Ronnie Ball Award

An award for young people interested in dry stone walls

The Ronnie Ball Award recognises and rewards special achievement in walling or dyking by those aged 25 years or under and is open to young people interested in any aspect of dry stone walls and walling, regardless of whether or not they are members of the Dry Stone Walling Association. There are two levels of Award – Silver and Gold.

There are many ways of recording achievements in the craft and each application is assessed on its own merit. The assessment is made on the basis of a portfolio of work by the applicant to demonstrate a high level of commitment.

Some examples of what might be used as part of the portfolio include:

· Voluntary conservation walling that has been accomplished
· Natural history studies or conservation
· Competitions that have been entered successfully
· Lengths of walling that have been built
· Surveying of walls
· Photographic works of walling
· Historical research on walls

These are only ideas; any aspect of the craft of dry stone walling can be considered.  

Details of previous winners of the award can be found here.

Application: Applications may be made at any time in writing to the DSWA office. If you are a member of one of the local branches, it would be useful to speak to someone in the branch just to let them know you are applying for the award as they may be able to give you some help and advice on the presentation of your project.

Initially a summary description of your portfolio should be submitted to the DSWA office. This should be no more than two sides of A4 paper with a brief account of what you have done, together with your name, address, telephone number etc. The Award Panel will consider this and then you may be invited to submit your full Portfolio with a detailed description of what you have done.

If the work is mainly written, it will be circulated to members of the Panel and one or two members may either meet you or speak to you about your project. If there is practical work, members will visit for you to show them around.

The Ronnie Ball Award is at two levels:

The Silver Award is for good quality work and awarded to all individuals whose projects meet the approval of the Panel.

The Gold Award is for outstanding achievement and awarded at the Panel's discretion.

Presentations will be made to award winners at a suitable event during the year.

What to do next
If you are twenty five years of age or less and feel you have achievements within dry stone walling worthy of recognition, you should send an outline of your completed project on no more than two sides of A4 paper to the DSWA office.

If you have any queries about the Ronnie Ball Award Scheme, please feel free to contact the DSWA office on 015395 67953 for an informal chat about any ideas you might have.

Encouraging young people to take an interest in dry stone walls today
will help preserve the craft for the future.