A hoard or hoarding was a temporary wooden shed-like construction on the exterior of a castle during a siege that enabled the defenders to improve their field of fire along the length of a wall and, most particularly, directly downwards towards the bottom of the wall. The latter function was the purpose of the invention of machicolations, which were an improvement on hoardings, not least because masonry is fireproof.
A hoard or hoarding was a temporary wooden shed-like construction on the exterior of a castle during a siege that enabled the defenders to improve their field of fire along the length of a wall and, most particularly, directly downwards towards the bottom of the wall. The latter function was the purpose of the invention of machicolations, which were an improvement on hoardings, not least because masonry is fireproof.
Source: Wikipedia "Hoarding (castle)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
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