Chalk is not a stone usually given much consideration in new build, but at the start of February work began on constructing a new block chalk wall in the picturesque Wiltshire village of Wylye.

It had been at least 200 years since a new structure used block chalk as a building material. The new wall, built under the direction of building historians and chartered surveyors Hill Beild Associates, is a modest structure - a simple boundary wall just over 13m long between the village recreation ground and an adjoining house. Nevertheless, Hill Beild Associates like to think it has the potential to mark the rebirth of the use of chalk as a building stone.

The new wall is an extension of an existing chalk block wall that forms the rest of the boundary. It was built 200 years ago. And there are chalk walls in houses in the village twice that age.

As the site is in the village conservation area it was felt appropriate to build the new wall in the tradition of the existing wall, which has a Chilmark limestone base (the same stone used to build Salisbury Cathedral) to keep the chalk above rain splash and ground moisture level.

On top of Chilmark, chalk is used in blocks up to 200mm thick to form the outer skins of a rubble filled wall. Lime mortar is used to bond it together. The top of the wall is capped with brick and a bonnet of clay tiles.

Hill Beild Associates say they see chalk building block as a potential source of income for farmers in the South East. Elsewhere in the country they are helping farmers to re-open old quarries as a more profitable use of land than farming and so that vernacular building traditions can be retained. They believe there is the same potential for farmers with chalk pits.

Over the centuries building in chalk has not been restricted to cottages and garden walls. There are vaulted passages under Dover castle built of chalk.