8 Modern-Day Moats That Float Our Boats
Water in the garden is magical; even more so when it’s adjacent to the house, requiring us to cross it to reach the front door. Maybe the magic comes from childhood stories of castles and moats, but moats certainly don’t exist only in castles.
Traditionally moats were crossed with a simple raised drawbridge, while modern moats are generally spanned by decked walkways or even concrete stepping stones. Using water close to our houses can give us some of the historical benefits of medieval moats — a sense of security, controlled access to the house and the aesthetic pleasure of being close to water.
You might think that many of these examples aren’t moats in the literal sense, but without doubt these water features have their roots in our medieval past.
If your home security doesn’t involve gates and fencing, there must be something reassuring about having any visitors cross a drawbridge to your front door. Perhaps this reassurance is built into our genes following our ancestors, who gained a sense of security from being surrounded by water that kept both wild animals and enemies at bay.
This wide decked walkway, I suppose, is the closest a home can get to the traditional ideal of a drawbridge in a contemporary setting — though without the ability to raise it at the signs of trouble approaching.
Controlling the access to your house can be an important security benefit that the modern moat can provide, even when the moat is within the house’s perimeter, as shown here.
These randomly shaped stepping stones lead over the moat, fulfilling its traditional purpose of blocking the entrance but with more of a visual sense of a barrier than a practical one.
Read more…
Traditionally moats were crossed with a simple raised drawbridge, while modern moats are generally spanned by decked walkways or even concrete stepping stones. Using water close to our houses can give us some of the historical benefits of medieval moats — a sense of security, controlled access to the house and the aesthetic pleasure of being close to water.
You might think that many of these examples aren’t moats in the literal sense, but without doubt these water features have their roots in our medieval past.
If your home security doesn’t involve gates and fencing, there must be something reassuring about having any visitors cross a drawbridge to your front door. Perhaps this reassurance is built into our genes following our ancestors, who gained a sense of security from being surrounded by water that kept both wild animals and enemies at bay.
This wide decked walkway, I suppose, is the closest a home can get to the traditional ideal of a drawbridge in a contemporary setting — though without the ability to raise it at the signs of trouble approaching.
Controlling the access to your house can be an important security benefit that the modern moat can provide, even when the moat is within the house’s perimeter, as shown here.
These randomly shaped stepping stones lead over the moat, fulfilling its traditional purpose of blocking the entrance but with more of a visual sense of a barrier than a practical one.
Read more…
