Landmark Masterton wall goes up

Stonemason Michael Dunn and his wife June are nearing the completion of a stone wall on the corner of High St and William Donald Drive, in Masterton.PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Veteran Masterton stonemason Michael Dunn has been tempted out of retirement to build a 70-metre stone wall that will likely stand for hundreds of years, he says.

For the past two months, Mr Dunn and his wife June have been putting the wall together from hand-picked greywacke river boulders, using "a level, a straight edge and a good eye".

The "proper English" stone wall is two-thirds completed and marks the eastern and part of the northern boundary of a residential property being developed by Ian and Denzil Wilkinson on the corner of High St and William Donald Drive, Solway.

"I couldn't resist the challenge of building it, when I was offered the job. It was something I just had to do."

The wall stands a metre high, is a half metre wide and will be the first he will have built in Masterton,

Mr Dunn had constructed a similar wall in Martinborough and in Greytown and had also built the greater part of a Wairarapa residential home from stone.

He emigrated to New Zealand from Britain in 1974 to work with Canterbury Stone on the Beehive and the BNZ Bank in Wellington.

He moved to Masterton about 14 years ago from Stokes Valley.

His initial stone work in the capital city had another spin-off, leading to his meeting the Queen at the opening of the Beehive in 1977.

"I shook hands with the Queen, which really was a great honour."

Mr Dunn learned his trade, in which his Masterton-based son Peter is also working, at a stonemasonry company called Thorntons in his home city of Liverpool.

He had completed 50 years in the trade before he retired and said today there are few genuine stonemasons still working in the region.

His work on the High St wall has been the focus of public attention since he laid the first few boulders in place, frequently drawing praise and admiration from passers-by.

The Wilkinson family said friends and business associates had commented, while several calls had been fielded at the Wairarapa Times-Age about the wall.

Mr Dunn had even been congratulated for his work on a flying visit through Eketahuna last weekend. "There are no secrets to building a stone wall. It's just a matter of tying them all in together. You've got to be trained to know what you're doing," he said.

"We're using boulders I pick myself that come in all shapes and sizes. You don't really use boulders in England - my forte is actually schist. But they've got to go in - so they go in - and once done, the wall will be here for hundreds of years."