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Ahoard orhoarding was a temporary wooden shed-like construction on the exterior of acastle during asiege that enabled the defenders to improve theirfield of fire along the length of a wall and, most particularly, directly downwards towards the bottom of the wall.[1] The latter function was the purpose of the invention ofmachicolations, which were an improvement on hoardings, not least because masonry isfireproof. Machicolations are also permanent and always ready for a siege.[2]
It is suspected that hoardings were stored as prefabricated elements in peacetime. Construction of hoardings was often facilitated byputlog holes, sockets that were left in the masonry of castle walls for wooden joists called "putlogs".[3] However, some hoardings were supported on permanent stonecorbels.[4]
Some medieval hoardings have survived, including examples on the north tower ofStokesay Castle, England,[5] and the keep ofLaval, France. The Château Comtal ofCarcassonne and the keep ofRouen Castle, both in France, have reconstructed wooden hoardings,[6] and alsoCastell Coch inSouth Wales, which was wholly rebuilt in 1875 and which has a hoarding over thedrawbridge designed by the Victorian architectWilliam Burges.[7] Another reconstructed hoarding can be seen inCaerphilly Castle, also in South Wales, which extends along the northerncurtain wall of theinner bailey.[1]
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