1) This was formerly the word used in the hilly parts of the West Riding for a stone that was fixed naturally in the ground. Dry-stone wallers often incorporated earthfasts into their walls, partly to save labour.
1589 all my good earthefast aboute my kilne, Scriven. The OED has one reference in the Old English period, c.1000, but then no evidence of its use until 1868. In the unpublished memoranda books of Henry Power of New Hall, Elland, a labourer called Robinson was employed in 1661 to clear a new piece of land, with instructions to digge it all ˝ a yearde deepe & to make it plowable & bare all the great earth fasts round about & to remove all the lesser stones round about from them. In 1818, a South Crosland farmer made the following entry in his accounts: April 18 Self 1 Day getting Earth fasts 3s.