Brattice

[biffvernon]

Anyone know what brattice is, in a period property rather than mining context?

 

[middi]

Don't know.

 

[Penners]

Encarta gives two definitions - one mine related (that you've undoubtedly found):-

1. partition for mine ventilation: a partition used to assist ventilation in a mine

2. temporary parapet: in medieval times, a temporary wooden parapet or gallery erected on the battlements of a fortress and used during a siege

[13th century. Via Anglo-Norman, Old French bretesche < medieval Latin bretescha (turris) "British (tower)"]

Any chance that either these would fit? What's the context in which you found the word? Interesting that it appears to be related to "British".

 

[MdB]

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0002679.html

brattice
n. partition, especially in mine gallery to regulate ventilation or support sides or roof; v.t. erect brattice. brattice cloth, canvas sheet for regulating ventilation in mine.

http://www.answers.com/brattice&r=67

brat·tice (brăt'ĭs)
n.

1. A partition, typically of wood or cloth, erected in a mine for ventilation.
2. A breastwork erected during a siege.

[Middle English bretice, defensive structure, from Old French bretesche, from Medieval Latin bretescha (turris), British-style (tower), probably from Old English bryttisc, British.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brattice

A brattice is a partition used in mining. It is built between columns of a sub-surface mine to direct air for ventilation. Depending on the type of mine and how the operation is run, brattices can be permanent (concrete block, tailings, or wood) or temporary (cloth). Temporary installations are also called curtains.

 

[middi]

It sounds like it is a bustardised buttress on a Bratislavian church parapet to me.

 

[Penners]

It sounds like it is a bustardised buttress on a Bratislavian church parapet to me.

Oh yes... we 'ave one of zose. It's very nice.

With acknowledgement to Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 

[Nemesis]

brattice - (bretasche) A projection from a wall-head, normally built of wood, providing machicolations

machiolation - A slot for dropping stones or shooting missiles

 

[biffvernon]

I think I've worked it out and arrived at where I wanted. It started off as a wooden fence built on top of a defensive wall, made of upright planks and with small gaps between (Machiolations - thanks Nemesis) through which the defenders could fire their worst. And maybe it was a Brittish thing that the Norman French named (bretesche - thanks Penners).

But the context I wanted was the internal walls in a medieval timber building. Such walls were not structural but just served as partitions. The were made of wide planks set upright between floor and beam above. There were spaces between the planks but these were covered by slimmer planks. The whole affair was called a brattice. (Tumbledown - you'll be needing some.)

The same word was adopted in the mining industry for the flimsy screens made either of planks or 'brattice cloth', a tarred tarpaulin, used to direct ventilation along galleries as required.

 

[Nemesis]

In another context - a small stockade - so yes planks placed close together.

Like a plank and muntin screen?

http://www.heritage.co.uk/apavilions/chard.html

 

[tumbledown]

Biff, don't be giving my CO ideas. Two of the windows are in by the way - look a treat.

 

[biffvernon]

Like a plank and muntin screen?

Precisely - that seems to be the more often used term.

Plank and muntin screen between the front and back ranges - evidence of the earliest origins

 

[Manks]

Further to earlier replies. A Brattice is a slatted ornamental framework, assembled by a recalcitrant child.

Manks

 

[Penners]

Further to earlier replies. A Brattice is a slatted ornamental framework, assembled by a recalcitrant child.

One for the Uxbridge English Dictionary, Manks?

 

[Penners]

Biff - The Chambers Dictionary adds a bit more to the definition, as follows:

brattice, brattish, brettice: in medieval siege operations, a fixed tower of wood; a covered gallery on a castle wall, commanding the wall-face below (in these senses also bretesse or bretasche); a wooden partition; a wooden lining; a partition to control ventilation in a mine.

It also cross-references with

bartisan or bartizan a parapet or battlement; a projecting gallery on a wall-face;a corbelled corner turret. [Apparently first used by Sir Walter Scott, who found a reading bertisene for bratticing]

In view of this, I reckon there must also be a distant connection with the word barbican, don't you?