That’s called Ornamental Mesh Double Loop fence.
That’s called Ornamental Mesh Double Loop fence. That was the standard for rural cemeteries like this one at the Little Brown Church in Richland County, Wisconsin. Usually such fences are twisted, rusty, bent, grown into tree trunks – what you might expect after 100 years or so – and that’s what we replaced here this fall. The dedicated Friends of the Little Brown Church wanted the new fence to emulate the original style.
We faced two challenges: finding “loop caps” that look like the old ones. By a stroke of good fortune, these fittings (themselves probably close to 100 years old) are re-furbished from a large chainlink fence we removed in Maple Bluff, which we then replaced with a different type of ornamental fence. That owner had no problem with this recycling project.
Secondly, and this is very sad news, the old-fashioned Ornamental Mesh Double Loop fencing is now obsolete. That is to say, that the weaving machine, itself over 100 years old, is being destroyed because new owners of the company have no use for it, and it’s too big to move. So we bought up what we could from the last remaining supplier, and are keeping it safe to finish off the Little Brown Church job next spring and to replace yet another old cemetery fence located in Sauk County, Wisconsin.
That’s history. All good things come to an end.
Harriet Statz
