Stone walls (GAEC 13)

The aim of these rules is to encourage the retention of stone walls because they are an important landscape feature.

A. You must not

remove a stone wall¹ or remove stone from a stone wall.

You will not break these rules if you have removed a stone wall or stone from a wall for one of the following reasons:

to widen an existing gateway in a wall to allow machinery or livestock access. In this case the gateway should be no wider than 10 metres and the newly created wall-ends finished to a vertical face;
to repair another stone wall on your land which is in a better condition than the one from which stone is removed;
to make minor repairs to a public footpath on your land.

The rules of this GAEC standard (GAEC 13) do not apply if a derogation has been granted. Information on under what circumstances RPA can grant derogations can be found in the introduction to this guide. You must apply to RPA in writing for the derogation and wait for written permission before carrying out any work.

Further advice and guidance

The Defining stone walls of historic and landscape importance final report is available from the cross compliance section of our website at rpa.defra.gov.uk/crosscompliance/farmerguidance.

Guidance for Cross Compliance in England: Management of Habitats and Landscape Features (rpa176) is available on our website at rpa.defra.gov.uk/crosscompliance/farmerguidance.

Footnotes

¹‘Stone wall’ means a stone wall that is or was used as a field boundary, which has: a continuous length of at least 10 metres, or a continuous length of less than 10 metres where it meets (at an intersection or junction) another field boundary at each end, or a continuous length of less than 10 metres and forms an enclosure.

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Page published: 30 December 2011