When Barbara Wager, of Thorpe in Derbyshire, contacted us about how to provide Swift accommodation in a stone wall, we discussed various ideas, ending up with making entrances by casting them in situ.This is a small-scale rerun of the
Alcázar of Segovia project, where we, AfS provided formers, and the rest was done on site. In this case, the wall is 2 feet thick. The entrance leads to a natural cavity in the stonework, without any need for a nest box. The cavity is sealed with a board.
These pictures explain exactly how it was done:
![]() |
| 2 formers |
![]() |
| 2 formers embedded in mortar |
![]() |
| With formers removed, 2 entrance holes |
![]() |
| A view from inside the building, with former still in place |
![]() |
| 2 neat entrances in the gable |
#inserts
