| A |
|
| Abacus |
flat portion on top of a capital |
| Aisle |
space between arcade and outer wall |
| Allure |
wall-walk |
| Apse |
circular or polygonal end of tower or chapel |
| Arcade |
row of arches, free-standing and supported on piers
or columns, known as a blind or dummy arcade when it is attached
to a wall |
| Arch |
a curved structure, normally in the vertical plane,
that spans an opening |
| Architrave |
a moulding surrounding, or framing, a doorway or window
opening |
| Arrow-loop or slit |
long, narrow and usually vertical opening in a wall
or merlon, through which arrows were shot |
| Artillery |
firearms, such as handguns and cannons |
| Ashlar |
building stone precisely cut and finished to a smooth
finish |
| Astragal |
a bar in a window, often wooden, between the panes |
| Aumbry |
recess to hold sacred vessels, often found in castle
chapels |
| B |
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| Bailey or ward |
area enclosed by castle walls, also known as the courtyard.
Originally the defended area adjoining a motte |
| Bailiff |
person in charge of allotting work to peasants, organising
repairs to castles, and doing other jobs on a medieval castle |
| Ballista |
siege engine taking the form of a giant crossbow, mounted on a stand |
| Balustrade |
ornamental parapet of posts and railings |
| Barbican |
outwork defending the entrance to a castle. Often a walled passage projecting from the front of the gatehouse which had large spaces in the roof, or no roof at all, so that defenders could fire upon any attackers trapped inside. It often had its own doors, portcullis and drawbridge in addition to those in the main gatehouse. |
| Barmkin |
the small walled yard attached to a pele tower (generally
Scottish) |
| Barrel Vault |
semicircular (barrel shaped) roof of stone or timber |
| Barracks |
building or group of buildings used to accommodate
soldiers |
| Bartizan |
small turret projecting from the corner or flank of
a tower or wall, usually at the top |
| Base cruck |
form of timber-framed construction where the roof
is supported by curved timbers rising from the walls and not by
aisle posts set on the floor |
| Basinet |
close fitting medieval soldier's helmet, with a visor |
| Bastion |
tower, turret or other construction that projects
out from a wall length or commonly found projecting from the corner
junction of two walls, that allows defenders to both see and fire
upon the ground in front of the walls |
| Bastle House |
Small tower house with a living room over a byre |
| Batter |
sloping part of a wall at ground level, particularly
of a great tower |
| Battering Ram |
large beam used to break down the walls or doors of
a fortification |
| Battlements |
parapet on top of a castle wall, with a series of
gaps (embrasures or crenelles) between raised portions (merlons),
allowing defenders to shoot through; also called crenellations |
| Bays |
internal divisions of a building , marked by roof
principals or vaulting piers |
| Bay window |
a window projecting out from a building at ground
level, either rectangular or polygonal, of one or more storeys.
A window that projects out from a building above ground level is
known as an oriel window |
| Belfry |
tall, movable wooden tower on wheels, used in sieges |
| Berm |
level area separating a wall or tower and its moat |
| Billet |
ornamental moulding used in Norman architecture, consisting
of raised cylindrical or rectangual blocks at regular intervals |
| Bivalate |
a hillfort defended by two concentric ditches |
| Blind arcade |
line of arches on the face of a solid wall for decoration |
| Blockhouse |
small fortified barrack |
| Bond |
arrangement of bricks in courses |
| Bond tenant |
a tenant who was bound to provide a labour service
as part of his tenure; later changed to a money payment |
| Boss |
a knob or projection to cover the intersection of
ribs in a vault |
| Bow window |
as bay window but curved in plan |
| Brattice or Hoarding |
covered wooden gallery with holes in the floor, which was attached to the top of the
external wall of a stone castle so that defenders could see and fire upon assailants at the base of the wall.
Also spelt bractice or bretasche. |
| Breastwork |
Timber palisade used to strengthen earthwork defences |
| Brewhouse |
building or room where ale was brewed |
| Broch |
A round tower-like structure, open in the middle,
the double wall of dry-stone masonry being linked to form internal
galleries at varying levels. Found in north and west Scotland, probably
dating from the 1st century AD. |
| Bronze Age |
in Britain, c. 1800 to 600 BC |
| Bulwark |
bastion or (in first half of 16th century) a blockhouse |
| Buttery |
chamber used for storing and preparing food and drink |
| Buttress |
projecting pillar added to a wall to strengthen it |
| C |
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| Cable moulding |
a Norman moulding carved like a length of rope |
| Cap-house |
small chamber at the top of a spiral staircase in
a tower or turret, leading to the open wall-walk on the roof |
| Camera |
Private room used for both living and sleeping, set
apart from the more public areas of a house |
| Campshedding |
facing of piles of boarding along a bank |
| Capital |
the head of a pillar, often decorated |
| Caponier |
covered passage within a ditch |
| Casement |
bomb-proof vaulted accommodation for troops, stores
or guns |
| Castellan |
officer in charge of a castle |
| Castellations |
battlements and turrets |
| Chamfer |
surface made by smoothing off the angle between two
stone faces |
| Chevron |
ornamental zig-zag moulding (12th century) |
| Citadel |
stronghold within or close to a city |
| Cloister |
four-sided enclosure with a covered walk along each
side connecting a church with the principal administrative and domestic
buildings |
| Clunch |
hard chalk used as a building material. Often plastered
with limewash for durability |
| Cob |
unburnt clay mixed with straw |
| Colonnade |
range of evenly spaced columns |
| Concentric castle |
castle with two or more rings of defences, one inside
the other |
| Constable |
official in charge of castle in owner's absence |
| Corbel |
stone bracket projecting from a wall or corner, to
support other stonework or timber |
Corbiestepped or
Crowstepped |
squared stones forming steps upon a gable |
| Cornice |
decorative projection along the top of a wall |
| Counterfort |
defence work of besieging force |
| Counterscarp |
outer slope or wall of a ditch |
| Course |
level layer of stones or bricks |
| Courtyard |
walled enclosure in a castle |
| Courtyard castle |
type of castle consisting of a stone curtain wall
that surrounds a courtyard, with buildings built inside the courtyard,
normally against the curtain wall |
| Covered Way |
protected communication all round the works of a fortress
on the outer edge of a ditch, covered by earthworks from enemy fire |
| Crenel or Crenelle |
the space between merlons on a battlemented wall,
also known as an embrasure |
| Crenellation |
parapet on top of a castle wall, with a series of
gaps (embrasures or crenelles) between raised portions (merlons),
allowing defenders to shoot through; also called battlements |
| Crossbow |
weapon with a bow arranged at a right-angle to a wooden
stock; it was used to fire metal bolts |
| Cross-wall |
internal dividing wall in a castle |
| crow-steps |
step-gabled end to a roof. Also called corbie steps |
| Cunette |
trench in the bottom of a ditch |
| Curtain wall |
the perimeter wall of a fortification, or any wall
within a castle that does not support a roof and is used to link
towers i.e. a wall 'hung' between towers |
| Cusp |
a projecting point forming a leaf shape in the tracery
of a gothic door-arch or window-head |
| D |
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| Desmene |
area of land reserved for a lord |
| Diaper work |
decoration of squares or lozenges |
| Dogtooth |
diagonal indented pyramid |
| Donjon |
another name for a great tower or keep |
| Dormer window |
window placed vertically in sloping roof |
| Drawbridge |
wooden bridge that could be raised and lowered, sited
in front of a tower or gatehouse, across a ditch |
| Dressing |
carved or smoothed stonework around openings or along
edges |
| Dripstone |
a projecting moulding above an arch or lintel to throw
off surface water |
| Drum-tower |
large, circular tower, usually low and squat |
Drystone
Drystane (Scots) |
unmortared masonry |
| Dubbing |
ceremony in which a monarch or high ranking lord gives
another person the title of knight; usually involving tapping each
shoulder with a sword |
| Dun or Dum |
An Iron Age fortified enclosure, built of dry-stone,
often with galleried walls, dating from the 1st century AD |
| E |
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| E-plan tower house |
tower house with a main block and at least two wings
at right angles, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries |
| Earthwork |
fortification made of earth mounds, banks and ditches |
| Eaves |
the overhanging edge of a roof |
| Embattled |
to have battlements |
| Embrasure |
the space between merlons on a battlemented wall,
also known as a crenel |
| Enceinte |
a fortified enclosure |
| Enclosure |
castle courtyard |
| Entresol |
a low storey within two high ones (mezzanine) |
| F |
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| Feudalism |
social system operating in the Middle Ages, according
to which land was granted to nobles in return for services |
| Fillet |
narrow flat band |
| Fluting |
concave mouldings in parallel |
| Foliated |
carved with leaves |
| Footings |
bottom part of wall |
| Forebuilding |
structure on the outside wall of a great tower or
keep, protecting the entrance and all, or part, of the approaching
staircase. Some forebuildings contained chambers and chapels over
the stairs |
| Fort |
fortification designed to protect defenders who did
not usually live there |
| Fortalice |
small fort or outworks of a fortification |
| Fosse |
a ditch |
| Freestone |
soft, easily worked, high-quality sandstone or limestone |
| Fresco |
painting on wet plaster wall |
| Frieze |
a horizontal band of ornament |
| G |
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| Gable |
wall covering end of roof-ridge |
| Gallery |
long, narrow passage or room, often overlooking a
great hall or garden |
| Garderobe |
latrine; privy, normally set over a stone shaft or drain |
| Garret |
the top storey of a building within the roof |
| Garrison |
the soldiers who manned and occupied a castle or fort |
| Gatehouse |
the entrance building in a curtain wall; usually one of the most heavily fortified parts of a castle |
| Gauntlet |
armoured glove, often with long cuff |
| Great chamber |
lord's solar, or bed-sitting room |
| Great tower |
main tower of a castle, often containing a hall, private chambers and storerooms; also known as a keep or donjon |
| Groin |
junction of two curved surfaces in a vault |
| Gun-loop or gun-port |
opening in a wall for a gun |
| H |
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| Half-shaft |
roll-moulding on either side of an opening |
| Hall |
principal room or building in a castle, used for meals,
meetings and formal occasions. It also served as a sleeping area
for servants |
| Hall House |
a defensible two-storey building containing a hall
above a basement |
| Hammerbeam roof |
late-medieval form of roof supported on horizontal
beams (hammerbeams) projecting from the walls; it enabled the central
span of the roof to be open |
| Heraldry |
the system of coats of arms used to identify noble
families |
| Herringbone |
brick or stone laid diagonally |
| Herisson |
a barrier of stakes, arranged randomly in the ground
to prevent a direct approach from attackers |
| Hill fort |
Bronze or Iron Age earthwork of ditches and banks |
| Hoarding or Brattice |
covered wooden gallery with holes in the floor, which was attached to the top of the
external wall of a stone castle so that defenders could see and fire upon assailants at the base of the wall. Also spelt hourding. |
| Honour |
large feudal estate, usually centred on a castle |
| Hood |
arched covering |
| I |
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| Impost |
wall bracket to support arch |
| Iron Age |
in Britain from c.600 BC to Roman period |
| J |
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| Jamb |
straight side of arch, door or window |
| Joist |
timber stretched from wall-to-wall to support floorboards |
| Joust |
combat, put on for entertainment, in which two knights
rode towards each other with lances |
| Justiciar |
Chief political and judicial officer under Noman and
early Plantagenet kings |
| K |
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| Keep |
fortified tower, the principal stronghold of a castle,
also known as great tower or donjon |
| Knight |
man who served his lord as a mounted warrior |
| L |
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| L-plan tower house |
distinctive Scottish form of the tower house in which
a wing was added at right angles to the main tower block |
| Label |
projecting weather moulding above a door or window
to deflect rainwater |
| Lancet window |
long, narrow window with pointed head |
| Light |
component part of window, divided by mullions and
transoms |
| Lintel |
horizontal stone or beam bridging an opening |
| Loggia |
covered arcade or colonnade |
| Longbow |
large, powerful wooden bow, used to shoot arrows,
often over long distances |
| Loophole |
narrow opening through which defenders could shoot |
| Lord |
any male member of the nobility or knighthood, often
holder of a castle or manor |
| Louvre |
opening in roof to allow smoke to escape from central
hearth |
| M |
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| Machicolations |
a stone structure that projected from the top of a wall with gaps through which defenders could drop heavy objects, such as rocks, onto attackers below |
| Mail or chain mail |
flexible armour made of interlocking metal rings |
| Mangonel |
stone throwing catapult used as a siege engine |
| Mantlet |
mobile wooden protective shield on wheels |
| Merlon |
solid part of embattled parapet that provided shelter
to a defender |
| Meurtrière |
alternative name for murder holes |
| Mezzanine |
a low storey beween two higher ones (entresol) |
| Mine gallery |
siegwork to call wall collapse |
| Moat |
a ditch around an enclosure, either filled with water or dry |
| Motte |
a mound, often man-made, on which a castle was built |
| Motte-and-Bailey |
earth-mound with wood or stone keep and an adjoining
courtyard with a ditch and palisade |
| Moulding |
masonry decoration |
| Mullion |
vertical division of a window |
| Multivallate |
hillfort with three or more concentric lines of defence |
| Mural |
wall |
| Mural tower |
tower projecting from the curtain wall of a castle |
| Murder hole |
opening in ceiling through which defenders could fire
or drop missiles on enemies below |
| N |
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| Nailhead |
pyramid moulding |
| Newel |
centre-post of a spiral staircase |
| Niche |
vertical recess in a wall, often to take a statue |
| Nookshaft |
shaft set in angle of jamb or pier |
| O |
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| Offset |
ledge in a wall followed by reduced thickness of the
wall |
| Ogee |
a double curve, bending one way and then the other |
| Oolite |
granular limestone |
| Open joint |
wide space between faces of stones |
| Oratory |
private chapel in a house |
| Oriel window |
projecting window in wall |
| Oubliette |
dungeon or pit under the floor, reached by a trap-door,
used for incarcerating prisoners |
| P |
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| Page |
young boy of noble birth who served the household
of a lord, and sometimes became a squire |
| Palisade |
timber defensive screen or fence |
| Pantile |
a roof-tile of curved s-shaped section |
| Parados |
low wall on inner side of main wall |
| Parapet |
low wall on outer side of main wall |
| Pediment |
low-pitched gable over porticos, doors, windows etc. |
| Peel |
originally a palisaded court. Later a stone tower
house |
| Pele tower |
isolated keep-like tower, built during the later Middle
Ages in northern England, but more commonly in Scotland and Ireland |
| Pend |
an open ended passage through a building, at ground
level |
| Perpendicular |
English architectural style, c. 1330-1540 |
| Pier |
support for archor vault, usually square as opposed
to pillar (round) |
| Pikeman |
soldier carrying a pike or similar long-handled weapon |
| Pilaster |
shallow pier used to buttress wall |
| Pinnacle |
ornament crowning spire, tower etc. |
| Pipe rolls |
annual accounts of sheriffs rendered to the king |
| Piscina |
handbasin, usually set in or against a wall, with
drain |
| Pitch |
roof slope |
| Pitching |
rough cobbling |
| Plate armour |
armour made of jointed metal plates |
| Plinth |
horizontal course(s) of finer stones at the base of
a wall to provide better foundation, often projecting from the wall
face |
| Portcullis |
wood and iron grille-pattern gate which was raised and lowered in grooves by ropes or chains, in front of or behind
an entrance |
| Postern |
small doorway useful for entering or leaving a castle
after the main gates had been closed |
| Put-log |
beam inserted into a special hole in a great tower,
gatehouse or curtain to support hoarding, or as scaffolding for
building or repairs |
| Q |
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| Quadrangle |
inner courtyard |
| Quatrefoil |
four sided |
| Quoin |
dressed stone at corner of building |
| R |
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| Rampart |
defensive stone or earth wall surrounding a castle
or town |
| Rath |
low, circular ringwork |
| Ravelin |
outwork with two embankments forming a salient angle |
| Redan |
outwork with two faces forming a salient angle |
| Redoubt |
outwork or detached fieldwork defending a pass, hilltop
etc. also a temporary defence work built inside a fortification
as a last defensive position |
| Re-entrant |
angle that points inwards (opposite of salient) |
| Reeve |
peasant appointed as supervisor of work on the lord's
land |
| Refectory |
communal dining hall |
| Relieving arch |
arch built in a wall to relieve the thrust of another
opening |
| Rere-arch |
arch that supports the inner face of a wall above
a door or window opening |
| Revet |
face with a layer of stone for more strength. Some
earth mottes were revetted with stone |
| Revetment |
retaining wall |
| Rib vaulting |
arched roof with ribs of raised moulding at the groins |
| Ringwork |
circular earthwork of bank and ditch |
| Romanesque |
architectural style, 8th - 12th century with rounded
arches |
| Roofridge |
summit line of roof |
| Rubble |
uncut or only roughly shaped stone, for walling |
| Rustication |
worked ashlar stone with faces left rough |
| S |
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| Salient |
angle that points outward (opposite of re-entrant) |
| Sally-port |
side gate for defenders to go out on an attack; the
postern was often used for this purpose |
| Saltire |
diagonal, equal-limbed cross |
| Scarp |
slope on inner side of ditch |
| Screen passage |
service passage screened off at the service end of
a hall |
| See |
seat or area of authority of bishop or archbishop,
also known as diocese |
| Segmental |
less than a semicircle (e.g. segmental arch) |
| Shaft |
narrow column |
| Shell-keep |
round wall, usually built on top of a motte, in which
the castle buildings are built up against the inner wall forming
a circular courtyard |
| Sheriff |
Royal official, based in a castle, who was in charge
of law and order |
| Shifting house |
building where gunpowder is checked and prepared |
| Shot-hole |
hole for firearms, generally smaller than a gun-port |
| Siege engine |
large weapon or device, such as a battering ram or
big catapult, used to attack a castle |
| Siege tower |
wooden tower on wheels which attackers used to climb
over castle walls |
| Six-foil |
six-lobed |
| Slight |
to damage or destroy a castle to render it unfit for
use or occupation as a fortress |
| Slit |
a narrow opening in a wall for admitting light and
for firing arrows |
| Soffit |
underside of arch or opening |
| Solar |
upper living room of medieval house or castle; often
over the hall |
| Splay |
chamfer, or sloping face |
| Splayed opening |
a window or door opening with angled sides in the
thickness of a wall that allow more light to enter than is possible
with straight sides |
| Springer |
point from which an arch or vault is struck from a
wall face |
| Squinch arch |
arched support for an angle turret that does not reach
the ground |
| Squint |
observation hole in wall or room |
| Squire |
young man who served a knight, helping him with his
horses and armour, who hoped to become a knight himself |
| Steward |
official in charge of running a lord's estate; managing
work, keeping accounts, etc. |
| Stringcourse |
continuous horizontal mouldings on wallface |
| Stronghouse |
a mansion capable of being defended |
| T |
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| Terreplein |
surface of rampart behind the parapet where guns are
mounted |
| Tower-house |
form of small castle, common in Scotland, consisting mainly or entirely of a single tower |
| Tracery |
intersecting ribwork in upper part of window |
| Transom |
horizontal division of window |
| Trebuchet |
siege engine in the form of a large catapult |
| Trefoil |
three-lobed |
| Turret |
small tower |
| V |
|
| Vault |
arched roof or ceiling of stone and mortar, usually
supported by ribs |
| Vice |
spiral stair |
| Voussoir |
wedge-shaped stone forming part of an arch |
| W |
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| Wall-stair |
staircase built into the thickness of a wall |
| Wall-walk |
the flat pathway, usually protected by battlements,
on top of a castle wall |
| Ward |
a castle courtyard or bailey |
| Weathering |
sloping surface to throw off rainwater |
| Wing-wall |
wall down slope of motte to protect stairway |
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