A postern is a secondary
door or
gate in a
fortification such as a
city wall or
castlecurtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a
siege, a postern could act as a
sally port, allowing defenders to make a
sortie on the besiegers. Placed in a less exposed, less visible location, they were usually relatively small, and therefore easily defensible.[1]
Tactical use
Posterns were one of the essential means of ensuring safe communication between the
enceinte and the outerworks of a defensive fortification.[2] An 1850
West Point course summary on permanent fortifications discusses the placement and construction of posterns.[3]
Examples
In 1896, C.R. Condor, writing for the London Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society viewed
Zion Gate in
Jerusalem, built west of one of the city's medieval main gates, as a likely postern. Also mentioned were the postern of St. Lazarus, west of the
Damascus Gate; the postern of the Tanners' Gate; and the postern of the Madeleine at
Herod's Gate.[4] Right of the
Golden Gate is a small postern called the Gate of Jehosaphat.[5]
The
city walls of York contained a number of posterns; at North Street Tower,[6] the postern gate was demolished to accommodate the
Great North of England Railway. The tower still stands.[7] There were also posterns at
Fishergate, and Longwalk.[8] Around 1672, the
Castlegate postern was made wide enough for carriages.[9] The fourteenth-century
Layerthorpe Bridge, a crossing of the Foss, adjacent to the King's Pool, was once attached to a postern in the city wall, known as Layerthorpe Postern.[10] The original
Skeldergate postern was only large enough to allow pedestrian traffic to and from the city.[11]
In
Oxford, there was a postern in the east city wall called Windsore Postern.[12] There were at least three posterns in the wall at
New College Gardens.[13]
The
Tower Hill Postern was a small fortified entrance at the eastern terminal point to the London Wall, at the junction of the Wall and the Tower of London moat. In the early 17th century the City and the Crown contested ownership of the postern as part of a Tower boundary dispute.[14]Moorgate was built by upgrading a postern built in 1415, and enlarged in 1472 and 1511.
In
Malory'sLe Morte d'Arthur, "
La Cote de Male Tayle" is rescued at the Castle Orgulous when a damsel slips through the postern to find his horse and ties it to the postern so that La Cote de Male Tayle can escape the 100 knights assailing him.[15]
The term is occasionally used in other contexts referring to a secondary door placed after a main entrance.
North Street Postern Tower (aka Barker Tower), York