Fieldstone

Fieldstone is uncut or minimally worked stone gathered directly from the surface of fields and streambeds rather than quarried and dressed, used in vernacular rubble masonry walls, foundations and fences wherever farmland naturally yielded a surplus of loose stone that needed clearing for cultivation. Its irregular shapes are laid in a mortar or dry-stacked matrix, producing a rough, uneven wall texture markedly different from the even coursing of dressed ashlar, and its use is closely associated with the stone farmhouses, barns and boundary walls of regions with rocky glacial soils, including New England, the British Isles and parts of continental Europe. Because it requires little processing beyond gathering and rough sorting by size, fieldstone construction has historically been an economical building method for farmers and settlers working land that itself supplied the material.