Battlements are the parapet at the top of a wall or tower, made up of alternating raised sections, called merlons, and gaps, called crenels or embrasures. Originally defensive, they allowed archers and soldiers to shelter behind solid sections while shooting through the openings.
Battlements are a defining feature of medieval castles, town walls and fortified manor houses, and the right to fortify a building in England required a royal licence to crenellate. As warfare changed, battlements became increasingly decorative and were applied to church towers, gatehouses and colleges as a sign of status. From the eighteenth century the Gothic Revival and the taste for the picturesque led architects to add battlements to country houses, follies, lodges and garden buildings, a style known as castellated. Strawberry Hill and many Regency and Victorian mansions show this romantic use. The motif also appears on furniture, clock cases, fire grates and metalwork, where a crenellated cornice or gallery gives a Gothic flavour. Salvaged stone merlons and crenellated copings occasionally come onto the market and make striking garden features.
