A wicket gate, or simply a wicket, is a pedestrian door or gate, particularly one built into a larger door or into a wall or fence.

Use in fortifications

Wickets are typically small, narrow doors either alongside or within a larger castle or city gate. The latter were often double gates, large and heavy, designed to allow the passage of wagons, coaches and horsemen. The purpose of wickets was to avoid the risk of having to open the main gates to the castle or city for just one or two individuals on foot. Because the wicket was only one person wide, it only allowed entry one at a time and enabled the guards to better control access. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

the narrow doors in the city walls also enabled late arrivals to gain entry after the main gates had been closed. If the small entrance in the door of a large

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include '' yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wal ...

has a high

threshold Threshold may refer to: Architecture * Threshold (door), the sill of a door Media * ''Threshold'' (1981 film) * ''Threshold'' (TV series), an American science fiction drama series produced during 2005-2006 * "Threshold" (''Stargate SG-1''), ...

, it may be called a manway. If it is a separate, narrow entrance next to the main gate, it may be called a pedestrian entrance. This type of double entrance is rather uncommon, however, and was only worth having at large sites where there was a lot of coming and going. It is found, for example, at the Alsatian castle of Hohlandsbourg, the Hochburg in Emmendingen, the Electoral Cologne castle of Friedestrom and at

Schaunberg Castle The County of Schaunberg (german: Grafschaft Schaunberg; also ''Schaumberg'') was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in present-day Upper Austria. It roughly corresponded to the modern ''Hausruckviertel''. Its seat was the , Hartkirchen. ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The narrow side entrance could be protected by its own

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

and sometimes even opened into a gate passage separated from the main one as, for example, at

Hohenwang Castle Hohenwang is a ruined castle in Municipality of Langenwang, Styria, Austria. It stands on a hill at an elevation of 650 metres above sea level. The castle, whose core dates back to the 12th century, is the symbol of Langenwang, and because of i ...

. The wickets in main gates that were easily visible should not be confused with the small, hidden sally ports in the walls of

castle 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 r ...

s and

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

s. These small openings were used in times of

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterize ...

to escape to carry out military raids.

Other uses

A wicket gate is also used for a stand-alone gate that provides convenient secondary access, for example to the rear of a walled park or

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

. The

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

term "

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

" comes from this usage. "The Wicket Gate" is an important feature in

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; baptised 30 November 162831 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress,'' which also became an influential literary model. In additio ...

's 17th-century Christian allegory ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a progenitor of the ...

''. As the first stage of the journey of Christian to the Celestial City, it is the entrance to the King's Highway. Bunyan's idea being to illustrate Jesus's dictum, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." ().

References

Heinrich August Pierer (Hrsg.): ''Universal-Lexikon, oder vollständiges encyclopädisches Wörterbuch''. Band 20. Literatur-Comptoir, Altenburg, 1835, pp. 5–6
online
. F.-W. Krahe: ''Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundrisslexikon'', p. 24. F.-W. Krahe: ''Burgen und Wohntürme des deutschen Mittelalters'', p. 28. Walter Hotz: ''Kleine Kunstgeschichte der deutschen Burg''. 5th edn. Komet, Frechen, 1991, , S. 48. O. Piper: ''Burgenkunde'', p. 300. Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner: ''Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen''. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2004, , p. 70.

Literature

* Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundrisslexikon''. Flechsig, Würzburg, 2000, , p. 24. * Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen und Wohntürme des deutschen Mittelalters''. Thorbecke, Stuttgart, 2002, , p. 28. * Otto Piper: ''Burgenkunde''. Reprint of the 3rd edition of 1912. Weltbild, Augsburg 1994, {{ISBN, 3-89350-554-7, p. 300. Castle architecture Doors Garden features Types of gates

Use in fortifications

Other uses

See also

References

Literature