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 unit 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 dyking 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 flat 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 metamorphism.
Footing
A stone at the base of a wall, or the foundation of a wall in 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.
Joint
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).