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Murder-hole
A murder hole or meurtrière is a hole in the ceiling of a gateway or passageway in a fortification through which the defenders could shoot, throw or pour harmful substances or objects such as rocks, arrows, scalding water, hot sand, quicklime, or boiling oil, down on attackers. Boiling oil was rarely used because of its cost. Similar holes, called machicolations, were often located in the curtain walls of castles, fortified manor houses, and city walls. The parapet would project over corbels so that holes would be located over the exterior face of the wall, allowing the defenders to target attackers at the base of the wall. The primary difference between these two features is in their location. Murder holes were located on the interiors of castles and other fortified buildings at the entranceway. Their supposed intention was to discourage (or kill) invaders once they had breached the walls, though it has been suggested that they may have in some cases also facilitated m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bretèche
In medieval fortification, a bretèche or brattice is a small balcony with machicolations, usually built over a gate and sometimes in the corners of the fortress' wall, with the purpose of enabling defenders to shoot or throw objects at the attackers huddled under the wall. Depending on whether they have a roof, bretèches are classified in two types: open and closed. The open ones were accessed from the battlement's wall walk, or from a crenel. Medieval latrines (called garderobes) were fairly similar in construction, but they were not placed over doors. In Catalan (''lladronera'') and Portuguese (''ladroneira'') the word for ''bretèche'' was in fact derived from the Byzantine latreys (latrine), but this regionalism did not carry over to other languages. Because the places protected by bretèches were usually vital, they were usually manned by professional soldiers, often mercenaries in the Middle Ages. As a result of these circumstances, the word for latrine even denoted a me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bodiam Murder Holes
Bodiam () is a small village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. It lies in the valley of the River Rother, near to the villages of Sandhurst and Ewhurst Green. The MP of the local UK Parliament constituency is Huw Merriman. Geography South of the village of Bodiam and extending to the railway station is the site of a Roman settlement investigated in the 1960s. The site was located within the former Guinness hop gardens and the excavations were undertaken in between the rows of hops. A comprehensive landscape survey was carried out around 2016. The village is on the line of the Roman road from Rochester to Westfield near Hastings. This road crossed the River Rother at the same position as the present bridge having approached from close to the parish church. At the Kent Ditch to the north at the County boundary the Roman road can be seen in the bank of the present watercourse outcropping as a solid layer of waste material from iron smelting,(slag) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tower House
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces. At the same time, they were also used as an aristocrat's residence, around which a castle town was often constructed. Europe After their initial appearance in Ireland, Scotland, the Frisian lands, Basque Country and England during the High Middle Ages, tower houses were also built in other parts of western Europe, especially in parts of France and Italy. In Italian medieval communes, urban ''palazzi'' with a very tall tower were increasingly built by the local highly competitive patrician families as power centres during times of internal strife. Most north Italian cities had a number of these by the end of the Middles Ages, but few now remain, notably two towers in Bologna, twenty towers in Pavia a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castle Architecture
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merlon
A merlon is the solid upright section of a battlement (a crenellated parapet) in medieval architecture or fortifications.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 202. Merlons are sometimes pierced by narrow, vertical embrasures or slits designed for observation and fire. The space between two merlons is called a crenel, and a succession of merlons and crenels is a crenellation. Crenels designed in later eras for use by cannons were also called embrasures. Etymology The term ''merlon'' comes from the French language, adapted from the Italian , possibly a shortened form of , connected to Latin ( pitchfork), or from a diminutive , from or (a wall). An alternative etymology suggests that the medieval Latin (mentioned from the end of the 10th century) functioned as a diminutive of Latin , " blackbird", expressing an image of this bird sitting on a wall. As part of battlements As an essential part of battlements, merlons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoarding (castles)
A hoard or hoarding was a temporary wooden shed-like construction on the exterior of a castle during a siege that enabled the defenders to improve their field of fire along the length of a wall and, most particularly, directly downwards towards the bottom of the wall.Hull, Lisa E (2006)''Britain's Medieval Castles'' Praeger Publishers, (p. 67) The latter function was the purpose of the invention of machicolations, which were an improvement on hoardings, not least because masonry is fire proof. Machicolations are also permanent and always ready for a siege. It is suspected that hoardings were stored as prefabricated elements in peacetime. Construction of hoardings was often facilitated by putlog holes, sockets that were left in the masonry of castle walls for wooden joists called "putlogs". However, some hoardings were supported on permanent stone corbels. Some medieval hoardings have survived, including examples on the north tower of Stokesay Castle, England, and the keep of L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrowslit
An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts. The interior walls behind an arrow loop are often cut away at an oblique angle so that the archer has a wide field of view and field of fire. Arrow slits come in a variety of forms. A common one is the cross, accommodating the use of both the longbow and the crossbow. The narrow vertical aperture permits the archer large degrees of freedom to vary the elevation and direction of their bowshot, but makes it difficult for attackers to harm the archer since there is only a small target at which to aim. Balistraria, plural balistrariae, from balister, crossbowman can often be found in the curtain walls of medieval battlements beneath the crenellations. History The invention of the arrowslit is attributed to Archimedes during the siege of Syracuse in 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cross-wall
A cross-wall is an interior dividing wall of a castle. It may be an external wall dividing, for example, the inner and outer wards, or it may be a wall internal to a building such as the keep.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 85. An example of the external variety is the cross-wall dividing the inner bailey of Carmarthen Castle in Wales. At Rochester Castle in Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ..., the cross-wall within the keep was used for protection when the castle was attacked in 1215. References Castle architecture {{castle-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tully Castle
Tully Castle ( Irish: ''Caisleán na Tulaí'' meaning "castle on the hill") is a castle situated in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, near the village of Blaney, on Blaney Bay on the southern shore of Lower Lough Erne. The Blaney area takes its name from Sir Edward Blaney, who was among the English advance party sent to Fermanagh to organise the Plantation. Tully Castle was built for Sir John Hume, a Scottish planter. During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Rory Maguire set out to recapture his family’s lands. He arrived at Tully Castle with a large following on Christmas Eve, and found the castle full of women and children. Most of the men were away. Lady Mary Hume surrendered the Castle, believing that she had assured a safe conduct for all in her care, but on Christmas Day the Maguires killed 60 women and children and 15 men, sparing only the Humes. The castle was burnt and the Humes never returned. Tully Castle and village site are State Care Historic Monuments sited i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gatehouse
A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most heavily armed section of a fortification, to compensate for being structurally the weakest and the most probable attack point by an enemy. There are numerous surviving examples in France, Austria, Germany, England and Japan. History Gatehouses made their first appearance in the early antiquity when it became necessary to protect the main entrance to a castle or town. Over time, they evolved into very complicated structures with many lines of defence. Strongly fortified gatehouses would normally include a drawbridge, one or more portcullises, machicolations, arrow loops and possibly even murder-holes where stones would be dropped on attackers. In some castles, the gatehouse was so strongly fortified it took on the function of a keep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audley's Castle
Audley's Castle is a 15th-century castle located 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of Strangford, County Down, Northern Ireland, on a rocky height overlooking Strangford Lough. It is a three-storey Tower house named after its 16th century owner, John Audley. Audley's Castle tower house and bawn is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Castleward, in Down District Council area, at grid ref: J5781 5058. There are thousands of small stone towers similar to Audley's Castle in the Irish countryside. They are one of the commonest of archaeological sites, which indicates these were not buildings put up for the higher aristocracy, but for lesser lords and gentry. Most were built in the late Middle Ages (roughly 1350–1550). Audley's was built towards the end of this period. Features Audley's Castle consists of a tower set within a yard (technically known as a bawn) which is enclosed by a thin wall, with a simple gate. The tower has one main room on each floor, with one or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calcium Oxide
Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term "''lime''" connotes calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate. By contrast, ''quicklime'' specifically applies to the single chemical compound calcium oxide. Calcium oxide that survives processing without reacting in building products such as cement is called free lime. Quicklime is relatively inexpensive. Both it and a chemical derivative ( calcium hydroxide, of which quicklime is the base anhydride) are important commodity chemicals. Preparation Calcium oxide is usually made by the thermal decomposition of materials, such as limestone or seashells, that contain calcium carbonate (CaCO3; mineral calcite) in a lime kiln. This is accomplished by heating the material to above ,Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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