No-go areas: locking the threats out \u2013 or in<\/h3>\n<\/div>
To most of us today, front doors are mere portals between the outside world and the privacy of our own homes, worthy of little more than a clean and perhaps a new lick of paint every now and then. But if you were charged with the defence of a castle in the Middle Ages, they could be the difference between life and death.<\/p>\n
Doors were the weak spot in even the best medieval fortifications, and by the 12th century, great efforts were being made to ensure entry was difficult for attackers. Before they even reached the door, assailants might have to negotiate the drawbridge across the moat and quickly get through before the \u201cquick release\u201d portcullis was lowered, a security system that allowed castle defenders vital time to prepare.<\/p>\n
Even more effective was the tactic of trapping attackers between two portcullises, and then hurling down rocks from \u201cmurder holes\u201d in the roof. Herefordshire\u2019s Goodrich Castle, among others, had arrow slits opening into the gatehouse, allowing defenders to shoot those unfortunate enough to be trapped inside. If you were brave enough to attempt to breach King\u2019s Gate at Caernarfon Castle<\/a>, you\u2019d have to negotiate two drawbridges, five doors and six portcullises.<\/p>\n The earliest surviving castle door in Europe also happens to be one of its most impressive \u2013 and that\u2019s found at Chepstow Castle, commissioned by Sir William Marshal<\/a>, Earl of Pembroke. Made no later than 1190, the door was ahead of its time in a number of ways: the outer vertical oak planks were originally clad with wrought iron, which meant that it was impervious to fire; it was an early example of oak being sawn, rather than cleaved with axes and wedges; and it was strengthened by inner horizontal latticework. Measuring in at 2.5m wide by 3.5m tall, this mighty entrance put off invaders so comprehensively that they chose to attack the walls instead.<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s most famous front door is surely the black one at 10 Downing Street<\/a>. That door was made of wood \u2013 until it came under attack from Provisional IRA<\/a> mortar shells in 1991. Following the incident, the old door was replaced by two blast-proof steel ones. Only one is hanging in situ at any particular time, of course \u2013 the other kept in reserve for when repair or decoration is required.<\/p>\n The door to 10 Downing Street was the focus of protests long before the 1990s. In 1907, suffragettes<\/a> Irene Fenwick Miller, Annie Kenney and Flora Drummond were accused of \u201cDisorderly conduct at Downing Street\u2026 further, wilfully knocking at the door of No 10 without lawful excuse.\u201d However, as records at the National Archives show, \u201cat the request of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister\u2026 the charge was not proceeded with and they were allowed to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Front doors could also be employed to protect those outside a building \u2013 especially when pestilence was raging through a city. When the Great Plague of 1665<\/a> hit, for example, the Mayor of London stipulated in one of his regulations that \u201cevery house visited [by the plague] to be marked with a red cross of a foot long in the middle of the door, evident to be seen, and with these usual printed words, that is to say: \u2018Lord, have mercy upon us\u2019.\u201d Front doors may have offered protection against enemy soldiers from the physical world, but could they do the same for malign forces from beyond the grave? That was a question that weighed heavily on people\u2019s minds across the medieval and early modern periods.<\/p>\n Evil spirits were, it was believed, constantly seeking to breach a house\u2019s defences, often gaining access via weak points such as draughty thresholds. As James VI of Scotland<\/a> wrote in his 1597 treatise, Daemonologie<\/em>: \u201cAnd if they enter as a spirit onelie, anie place where the aire may come in at, is large inough an entrie for them\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n So how could you protect your premises from such malevolent incursions? One option was to fight hellfire with holy fire. Candles \u2013 especially those blessed by priests following celebrations such as candlemass \u2013 could act as powerful deterrents to evil spirits planning to wreak havoc in the home. (According to the research of building archaeologist James Wright, the candles were used to make tear-drop-shaped burn marks around doors and other entrance points.)<\/p>\n One artefact that\u2019s long been kept besides Jewish householders\u2019 front doors is the Mezuzah, a scroll containing an Old Testament verse thought to ensure God\u2019s protection.<\/p>\n Yet perhaps the best known of all protective devices is the horseshoe. This harks back to an old belief that the devil asked a blacksmith to shoe his hooves. Recognising his customer, the canny blacksmith shod him with red-hot shoes. The devil, so the story goes, cast them off in pain \u2013 and still recoils at the sight of a horseshoe hanging from a front door. Few commentators satirised the code of behaviour that governed polite society in Regency England more acutely than Jane Austen<\/a>. And Austen brought that razor-sharp eye for detail to bear in her novel Northanger Abbey<\/em>. The author describes how Catherine Morland knocks on Miss Tilney\u2019s front door and hands the servant her calling card. The servant returns and \u201cwith a look that did not quite confirm his words\u201d, informs Catherine that Miss Tilney is out. \u201cWith a blush of mortification,\u201d Austen tells us, \u201cCatherine left the house.\u201d<\/p>\n As Austen\u2019s words reveal, by the 19th century, the private home was increasingly viewed as just that: private. Visitors could only gain entry via the etiquette of the calling card \u2013 and if their card was rebuffed, humiliation awaited.<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-2396195cmykwebready-6547747.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Keeping demons at bay: the front line of an eternal battle<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Perils of the cold-call: calling card etiquette<\/h3>\n<\/div>