The Swedish Roundpole Fence
Gärdsgård is a typical wooden fence of the Swedish countryside (gardsgard, hankgardsgard), Norway (skigard), and Finland (roigasaed or teivasaed) made from unbarked and unsplit youngish trees, mainly spruce and juniper. The fence was traditionally used to keep livestock out of farm fields and mark property boundaries.
It is a very versatile building technique, which was also employed in the construction of small barns or sheds and a variety of other simple buildings. As such, it was an important form of domestic craft knowledge, a “sloyd-skill” in the words of an earlier investigation (Almevik, 2012).
Benefits of Installing a Swedish Roundpole Fence on Your Property
Archival sources and other investigations show that fences were of fundamental importance to open-field farming in seventeenth-century Sweden. They constituted an essential part of the infield-system, which was characterised by the distribution of individual holdings in scattered and intermingled plots across a landscape with abundant raw timber resources.
Today, pole fence construction is a rare skill in Finland, with only a few elderly practitioners. The survival of the tradition depends on introducing it to young people who enjoy working with nature. Possible ways include guidance from an experienced fence builder in an apprenticeship model, pole fence construction talkoot work events, demonstrations, and the introduction of the fencing technique as a course in vocational forestry education or in adult education centers. A reference card for organizing such work events has been prepared (“Aitapolejen jarjestaminen. Maisemanhoitokortti 8,” Rural Women’s Advisory Organization South Savo, 2004). The card contains practical examples of fence-building methods and considerations for the selection of materials.…