Word Glossary

Glossary

Batter
The slope (taper) of a wall or hedge, expressed as an
angle or as a ratio of horizontal to vertical
dimensions.

Batter frame
A wooden or metal frame used as a guide to the
correct batter and to the heights of throughs and
topstones when building a wall or hedge. Also
known as a pattern (South West), template or wall
gauge (Cotswolds) or walling or dyke frame
(Scotland).

Bed
Deposition layer in sedimentary rock. In walling, the
flattish base of a stone or any plane along which it
splits readily.

Bee bole
A niche in a wall built to store straw bee skeps.

Breccia
Rock composed of sharp-angled fragments cemented
in a fine matrix.

Broch
An Iron Age round tower built of dry stonework as a
citadel against raiders. Found especially in the
Orkneys and Shetlands.

Buck-and-doe
A form of coping alternating large and small upright
topstones. Also known as cock-and-hen (Cotswolds).

Chain
A traditional Luiit of measurement, 22 yards (20m).

Chip and block
A type of stone hedging in which small stones (chips)
and large stones (blocks) are intermixed within each
course (Devon).

Clearance wall
A wall built largely from stones cleared from the
surface of adjacent land. When the Wall is made extra
wide to accommodate the stones it is also known as
an accretion wall or consumption dyke (Scotland).

Cleavage
The structure by which certain metamorphic rocks,
such as slate, split most readily, often at an angle to
the original bedding plane.

Coping
The line of stones along the top of the wall which
protects the structure beneath. Also known as the
cap, comb (Cotswolds and South West), cope or
topping.

Course
A layer of stones in the face of a wall or hedge.
Coverband
A layer of throughstones placed on top of the double
dykjng to anchor it and form a base for the coping
(Scotland) .

Cripple hole
A rectangular opening at the base of a wall built to
permit the passage of sheep. Also known as a hogg
hole, lonky or lunky hole, sheep run, sheep smoose,
smout hole, thawl or thirl hole.

Crown
The top of a bank or hedge. Also known as a comb
(Devon) .

Ditch
A long narrow trench dug as a boundary, barrier or
drain. In Ireland and parts of Wales, a bank or other
raised barrier.

Double dyking
The part of a normal dry stone wall which has two
rows of face stones packed between with fillings.
Also known as doubling (Galloway). Distinguished
from single dyking in which only one thickness of
stones is used with no fillings.

Dry stone wall
A wall built without mortar. Also known as a
drystane dyke (Scot.) or dry stone hedge (Cornwall).

Dyke
A wall (Scotland). Also spelled dike.

Elvan
See Whinstone.

Face
An exposed side of a wall, hedge or bank.

Face stone
A stone whose outer surface forms part of the face of
the wall.


Fence
A structure serving as an enclosure, barrier or
boundary, loosely used to include Walls, hedges
banks, ditches and dykes.

Fillings
Small, irregular stones placed between the two
faces of a wall to pack the space between them.
Also known as hearting (Scotland).

Fissile
Rock characterised by a tendency to split readily
along planes of bedding or cleavage.

Flag
A thin-bedded sandstone which breaks up readily
into Hat slabs. Loosely used for a flat slab of any
type.

Foliation
The structure, similar to but less regular and
perfect than cleavage, by which the minerals in
rocks such as schist and gneiss are arranged in
parallel planes due to rnetarnorphism.

Footing
A stone at the base of a Wall, or the foundation of a
Wallin general. Also known as a found.

Freestone
Stone which has no tendency to split in any
particular direction.

Galloway hedge
A combination dry stone Wall and thorn hedge
which is constructed along a hillside so that the
hedge shrubs root through the wall and are
protected by it from livestock on the uphill side

Gap
A breach in a Wall due to defect or damage. (V) To
fall, leaving a breach; to repair a breach.

Grit
Any hard sandstone, especially one in which small
pebbles are mixed with the sand to give a rough
texture suitable for millstones. Also known as
gritstone.

Head
The smooth, vertical end of a Wall or section of
Wall. Also known as a cheek (Scotland).

Hedge
A line of closely planted shrubs or low-growing
trees. In Devon, an earth-filled bank used as a
barrier or boundary and faced with stones or turf
In Cornwall, any earth or stone barrier.

Herringbone _
A type of stone facing in which alternate courses of
stones are angled in opposite directions.

]oint
In walling, the crack between two adjacent stones
in a course.

Lamination
A structure of fine, closely spaced layering along
the bedding planes in certain sedimentary rocks.

Lintel
A stone slab or wood or metal beam placed over an
opening to bridge it and support the structure
above.

Locked top
A type of coping in which the topstones are pinned
into a solid unit using long thin wedge stones.
Mainly Scotland.

March dyke
A major enclosure wall running between estates
(Scotland).

Masonry
Stonework characterised by the use of cut and
trimmed stone.

Oolite
Rock, usually limestone, composed of small, round
calcareous grains.

Pein
The striking surface of a hammer head.

Pinnings
Small stones wedged into spaces in a wall face.

Quartzite
Sandstone consisting mainly of quartz grains
cemented into a hard continuous mass by silica.

Rag
Any of several kinds of hard coarse rock, mainly
limestones, which break irregularly. Also known as
ragstone.

Retaining wall
A wall built across the face of a bank or slope to
keep the soil from slipping.

Rhyolite
A volcanic rock similar in composition to granite
and usually exhibiting flow lines.


Rood
The traditional unit of wall measurement, 6 yards
(5.5m) in granite districts in Scotland and 7 yards
(6.4m) in limestone districts and through most of
Yorkshire.

Rubble
Rough, mainly untrimmed, walling stone; walls or
copings characterised by such stone.

Runner
A long face stone used in a wall head (Scotland).

Scarcement
The in-set between the outer edge of the footings
and the first course of face stones (Scotland).

Shooting butt
A small, usually circular enclosure built to shelter
grouse shooters.

Smoot
A small rectangular opening in the base of a wall.
Rabbit smoots (Scotland: pen hole; Mendips: pop
hole) are designed to permit the passage of hares
and rabbits. Water smoots (Scotland: double water
pen) are designed to permit the passage of water.

Spar
Any of various non-metallic, lustrous and readily
cleaved minerals, such as felspar.

Stile
A set of steps over, or an opening through, a wall,
hedge or other fence designed to allow passage to
pedestrians but not livestock.

Stoop
An upright monolith set into the ground against
the wall head of a gate or stile. Also spelled stoup

Subdivision wall
A wall built to divide a major enclosure into
smaller sections, often somewhat lower and less
well constructed than the boundary wall.

Through
A large stone placed across the width of a wall to
tie the sides together. Also known as a
throughstone or a throughband or tieband
(Scotland).

Tie
A throughstone used in a wall head.

Topstone
A stone used in a wall's coping. Also known as a
cope stone, topper or topping.

Wedge
A small stone placed under or behind a face stone
to position it securely.

Whinstone
Any hard dark-coloured rock such as greenstone,
basalt, chert or quartzose sandstone. Also known as
elvan or elvin (Cornwall).


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