Using clay for farm track

[Overby]

Morning,

We have an old track running alongside one of our fields, it's had hardcore on in the past but is now just a boggy mess.

We've been offered a load of clay for free (loads of it) and we're toying with building the track up with clay, levelling it off, then hardcoring the top. Ideally the water would then run off the track and it'll be much better.

Does this sound like a goer?

We've done similar for a bale standing area before, but never a track.

I'm not much cop in this area so any advice much appreciated

(

 

[Lincs Lass]

Over time ,the hardcore will sink in to the clay and it will end up rutted and flooded

 

[Badshot]

But if you built it up enough and domed it so the water ran off it and never sat, it should keep dry and not rut?

 

[Pan mixer]

I would think that you would be better off putting a membrane over your current track and then putting the hardcore on it.

Clay would be awful on all except the driest of times and one journey across it on a wet day would mess it up for ever.

 

[Overby]

Loads of clay, loads of hardcore. Terram barrier?

I'd like to make use of all the clay and this would seem like a possible solution and a way of fixing the track?

Sorry, was replying to 2 above.

The clay hardstand with hardcore on top has worked a treat.

 

[Overby]

I do have another use for the clay but not for about 18 months, trying to come up with a win/win situation as the agreement is mutually beneficial!

 

[Ffermer Bach]

line a pond with clay?

 

[ollie989898]

I do have another use for the clay but not for about 18 months, trying to come up with a win/win situation as the agreement is mutually beneficial!

Why not just pile the clay up into a heap and keep it until needed?

 

[Adam@Rumen]

People pay to get rid of clay was my understanding?

 

[Kevtherev]

It will sink in time and become a sh!t hole
Hardcore only way

 

[CPF]

Are they paying you to take it?
Muck away of site , like clay is a nightmare to get anyone to take it away round here no one want it.

 

[toquark]

I laid one in the spring one year which turned rock hard when it dried out and was a superb driving surface, then promptly turned to plasticine as soon as it rained.

Wouldn't be in any hurry to do it again.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

I can think of nothing worse than clay being brought on to the farm for anything but a pond lining.

We have it in abundance around here, it’s awful when wet

 

[Dry Rot]

The best field I have has some clay in it. Otherwise, it is all sand here thrown up by a tsunami 8,500 years ago! One man's meat is another man's poison! Isn't it called miring or something to put clay on fields? Definitely done in the past, but only to improve sandy soil. Must have been fun putting that on with a shovel!

 

[Ffermer Bach]

The best field I have has some clay in it. Otherwise, it is all sand here thrown up by a tsunami 8,500 years ago! One man's meat is another man's poison! Isn't it called miring or something to put clay on fields? Definitely done in the past, but only to improve sandy soil. Must have been fun putting that on with a shovel!

What is marl and what was it used for? Marl is a mixture of clay and limestone that is often formed by the erosion of other rocks. The quantities of these different components vary, as is seen in Appendix i. with the term ‘marl’ often being used to cover a miscellany of soils. There are, however, two main types of marl: shell marl which is often found in maritime locations and which consists of dissolved animal shells; and earth marl which is more common and sometimes contains fossils (Appendix i). Marl was used as a form of fertiliser to revive the soil. This was achieved in a number of ways. For instance, it improved the water-holding capacity of the soil, helped to make nutrients more readily available to plants, caused the soil to have a more open and friable structure and acidified the soil. This is why it was often spread on sandy soils and chalks. The effect of this marl on the soil was, however, slower than that of lime. It would often last for around 30 years and is recorded to have increased the agricultural output of land on which it was used. For example, the records of the Christ Church Estates in 1309 show that on a non-marled land there was an average of 22.22 bushels of oats an acre and an average of 34.58 bushels of oats an acre on marled land.1 The practice of marling Marling was not a regular practice, because the effects of it lasted for such a long time (around 30 years) which meant that it only needed to be carried out every generation or so. When it was used, however, it required thorough mixing with the earth and to be distributed on an extensive scale in order for it to be effective. Ideally it was spread in winter or autumn to achieve optimum effect, although it would appear that in practice it was often spread in the summer or spring. It required a relatively large amount of labour, with five to six men typically working for a fortnight under the supervision of the ‘Lord of the Pit’.2 The importance of this marl to agriculture and for the estates is reflected in the fact that landowners would actively search for marl, as is recorded in the Marchmont Estate in Berwickshire,3 and in the fact that some estates, such as the Roxburghshire Estate, conserved their marl resources by restricting its sale and use to farms on their estate.4 The practice of marling appears to have been known about and undertaken to some extent since before the Roman occupation of Britain. Pliny records that the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, Gaul and Megara used marl in the 1st Century. There then appears to be a gap in the evidence until reference is made to the practice of marling during the 13th Century, when leases refer to the provisions made for the digging of 1 Mate, ‘Medieval Agrarian Practices: The Determining Factors?’, www.bahs.org.uk/33n1a2.pdf 2 Marl Pits around Upton Area’ (www.historyofuptonbychester.org.uk/marlpits.html) 3 Dodgina, ‘Land Improvement in Scottish Farming: Marl and Lime in Roxburghshire and Berwickshire in the 18th Century’, www.bahs.org.uk/26n1a1.pdf 4 Dodgina, ‘Land Improvement in Scottish Farming: Marl and Lime in Roxburghshire and Berwickshire in the 18th Century’, www.bahs.org.uk/26n1a1.pdf 4 marlpits. This practice did not, however, fully take off until approximately the 16th Century. The 16th, 17th and early 18th Centuries, were characterised by an increase in the number of marlpits and the practice of marling, partly because of the agricultural revolution which was taking place, along with population pressures and an increase in food prices which necessitated a growth in agricultural output. This continued until the late 18th Century, when lime began to supplant marl because of its greater convenience, its more rapid effect on the soil, its greater availability commercially and the shortage of labour for marling, along with the improved transport networks which enabled lime to become the more dominant fertiliser. Lime was later supplanted by artificial fertilisers in the mid-19th Century. Marlpits Marlpits varied in size depending on a number of factors, most typically the amount of marl available. On average, however, they tended to be 30-50 feet across and more than 20 feet deep. The pits tended to have a square-edged gentle slope at one end, where carts full of marl would be hauled over, and a steep rounded edge at the other.5 They were often situated in the middle of agricultural fields in order to make the spreading of the marl easier, but it has been suggested that they could alternatively have lined access-baulks or been situated where two furlongs met.6 The remains of marlpits often seem to have been filled with water so that they sometimes have the appearance of ponds. They also sometimes become bowlshaped and about 30 yards wide at the time they were abandoned

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Very interesting, thank you.

However, I’m unsure why, about a quarter of the way through the text, it says marl will acidify the soil. It doesn’t do that because marl is very alkaline. Adding it to acid soil will neutralise the pH.

Hundreds of old marl pits in Warwickshire.

 

[Gulli]

If anyone wants some clay I have about 100 acres of it will swap for sand/chalk!

If you can get the clay down while it's dry and the ground is dry and roll it in hard and then put a large amount of hardcore on top and cap it with some smaller stuff then you will have a useable track, eventually it'll sink though and you'll have a bumpy track and you'll spend the rest of your life levelling it out

 

[Overby]

Why not just pile the clay up into a heap and keep it until needed?

Too much...be a huuuuuuuuuuuuge pile

 

[Overby]

People pay to get rid of clay was my understanding?

Mutually beneficial

 

[ollie989898]

Too much...be a huuuuuuuuuuuuge pile

Can't you flog some of it to nearby farmers wanting to make a lake/pond or slurry store?