A stone for building; a stone forming part of a wall. Also, in generalized sense, masonry; stone suitable for building; spec. see quot. 1870. Also fig.
a. 1000. Crist, 2 (Gr.). Ðu eart se weallstan, þe ða wyrhtan in wiðwurpon to weorce.
a. 1000. Ruin, 1 (Gr.). Wræetlic is þæs weal stan.
1610. R. Vaughan, Water-Workes, K 2 b. Hauing … Wall-stone, Tyle, Lime, and Bricke, as necessary as any man liuing.
1639. Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876), I. 403. Thair is licence grantit to Sir Robert Dowglas to gett ane hundrethe kairtis of wall stones out of the townes quarrell.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xvii. For a’ the folk I see here are as hard as the wa’ stanes.
1837. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 72/1. Below the rag is the block stone, [used] for common walls, and usually called wall stone.
1870. Greenwell, in Jrnl. Ethnol. Soc. (N.S.), II. 423. This [stratum of flint] is called by the present flint-workers the ‘wall-stone,’ from its being used for building purposes.
attrib. 1837. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 72/1. The block, or wall-stone seam, is in this quarry about 10 or 11 feet thick. Ibid. In Yorkshire the workmen calculate all wall-stone work by the rod of 7 yards.
