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 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

the narrow doors in the

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or Earthworks (military), earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as ...

s 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 is derived from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*gatan'', meaning an opening or passageway. Synonyms include yett (which comes from the same root w ...

has a high threshold, 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 in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. 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 b ...

and sometimes even opened into a gate passage separated from the main one as, for example, at Hohenwang Castle. The wickets in main gates that were easily visible should not be confused with the small, hidden

sally port A sallyport is a secure, controlled entry way to an enclosure, e.g., a fortification or prison. The entrance is usually protected by some means, such as a fixed wall on the outside, parallel to the door, which must be circumvented to enter and ...

s in the walls of

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

s and

fortification A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

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 by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

to escape or 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 games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

term "

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

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

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', which also became an influential literary model. In addition to ''The Pilgrim' ...

's 17th-century Christian

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

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 commonly regarded as one of the most significant works of Protestant devotional literature and of wider early moder ...

''. 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 Otto Piper (1841–1921) was a German architectural historian who, with August von Cohausen (1812–1896), is regarded as one of the two founders of scientific research into castles. Life Otto Piper was born on 23 December 1841 in Röckwitz, the ...

: ''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