Fence


A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors creating a boundary, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length.
Alternatives to fencing include a ditch.

Types

By function

A balustrade or railing is a fence to prevent people from falling over an edge, most commonly found on a stairway, landing, or balcony. Railing systems and balustrades are also used along roofs, bridges, cliffs, pits, and bodies of water.
Another aim of using a fence is to limit intrusion. In support of these barriers there are sophisticated technologies that can be applied on the fence itself to strengthen the defence of an area, such as:
  • Detectors
  • Peripheral alarm control unit
  • Means of deterrence
  • Means for communicating information remotely
  • Remote alarm receiving unit

    By construction

  • Brushwood fencing, a fence made using wires on either side of brushwood, to compact the brushwood material together.
  • Chain-link fencing, wire fencing made of wires woven together
  • Chicane
  • Close boarded fencing, strong and robust fence constructed from mortised posts, arris rails and vertical feather edge boards
  • Composite Fencing, made from a mixture of recycled wood and plastic
  • Expanding fence or trellis, a folding structure made from wood or metal on the scissor-like pantograph principle, sometimes only as a temporary barrier
  • Ha-ha
  • Hedge, including:
  • * Cactus fence
  • * Hedgerows of intertwined, living shrubs
  • * Live fencing is the use of live woody species for fences
  • * Turf mounds in semiarid grasslands such as the western United States or Russian steppes
  • Hurdle fencing, made from moveable sections
  • Pale fence, or "post-and-rail" fence, composed of pales - vertical posts embedded in the ground, with their exposed end typically tapered to shed water and prevent rot from moisture entering end-grain wood - joined by horizontal rails, characteristically in two or three courses.
  • Palisade, or stakewall, made of vertical pales placed side by side with one end embedded in the ground and the other typically sharpened, to provide protection; characteristically two courses of waler are added on the interior side to reinforce the wall.
  • Picket fences, generally a waist-high, painted, partially decorative fence
  • Roundpole fences, similar to post-and-rail fencing but more closely spaced rails, typical of Scandinavia and other areas rich in raw timber.
  • Slate fence, a type of palisade made of vertical slabs of slate wired together. Commonly used in parts of Wales.
  • Split-rail fence, made of timber, often laid in a zig-zag pattern, particularly in newly settled parts of the United States and Canada
  • Vaccary fence, for restraining cattle, made of thin slabs of stone placed upright, found in various places in the north of the UK where suitable stone is had.
  • Vinyl fencing
  • Solid fences, including:
  • * Dry-stone wall or rock fence, often agricultural
  • * Stockade fence, a solid fence composed of contiguous or very closely spaced round or half-round posts, or stakes, typically pointed at the top. A scaled down version of a palisade wall made of logs, most commonly used for privacy.
  • Wattle fencing, of split branches woven between stakes.
  • Wire fences
  • * Smooth wire fence
  • * Barbed wire fence
  • * Electric fence
  • * Woven wire fencing, many designs, from fine chicken wire to heavy mesh "sheep fence" or "ring fence"
  • * Welded wire mesh fence
  • Wood-panel fencing, whereby finished wood planks are arranged to make large solid panels, which are then suspended between posts, making an almost completely solid wall-like barrier. Usually as a decorative perimeter.
  • Wrought iron fencing, also known as ornamental iron

    Legal issues

In most developed areas the use of fencing is regulated, variously in commercial, residential, and agricultural areas. Height, material, setback, and aesthetic issues are among the considerations subject to regulation.

Required use

The following types of areas or facilities often are required by law to be fenced in, for safety and security reasons:
  • Facilities with open high-voltage equipment. Transformer stations are usually surrounded with barbed-wire fences. Around mast radiators, wooden fences are used to avoid the problem of eddy currents.
  • Railway lines
  • Fixed machinery with dangerous mobile parts
  • Explosive factories and quarry stores
  • Most industrial plants
  • Airfields and airports
  • Military areas
  • Prisons
  • Construction sites
  • Zoos and wildlife parks
  • Pastures containing male breeding animals, notably bulls and stallions.
  • Open-air areas that charge an entry fee
  • Amusement equipment which may pose danger for passers-by
  • Swimming pools and spas

    History

Servitudes are legal arrangements of land use arising out of private agreements. Under the feudal system, most land in England was cultivated in common fields, where peasants were allocated strips of arable land that were used to support the needs of the local village or manor. By the sixteenth century the growth of population and prosperity provided incentives for landowners to use their land in more profitable ways, dispossessing the peasantry. Common fields were aggregated and enclosed by large and enterprising farmers—either through negotiation among one another or by lease from the landlord—to maximize the productivity of the available land and contain livestock. Fences redefined the means by which land is used, resulting in the modern law of servitudes.
File:Bolivar Heights Battlefield, fence on Bakerton Road.jpg|thumb|Buck-and-rail fencing such as this in West Virginia was ubiquitous in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as it was easily made as long as there was plenty of timber readily available. Soldiers from both sides of the war made use of wood from these fences for their camp fires.
File:Zagroda z Rożnowic.JPG|thumb|A wattle fence at Sanok-Skansen outdoor museum in Poland
In the United States, the earliest settlers claimed land by simply fencing it in. Later, as the American government formed, unsettled land became technically owned by the government and programs to register land ownership developed, usually making raw land available for low prices or for free, if the owner improved the property, including the construction of fences. However, the remaining vast tracts of unsettled land were often used as a commons, or, in the American West, "open range" as degradation of habitat developed due to overgrazing and a tragedy of the commons situation arose, common areas began to either be allocated to individual landowners via mechanisms such as the Homestead Act and Desert Land Act and fenced in, or, if kept in public hands, leased to individual users for limited purposes, with fences built to separate tracts of public and private land.

United Kingdom

Generally

Ownership of a fence on a boundary varies. The last relevant original title deed and a completed seller's property information form may document which side has to put up and has installed any fence respectively; the first using "T" marks/symbols ; the latter by a ticked box to the best of the last owner's belief with no duty, as the conventionally agreed conveyancing process stresses, to make any detailed, protracted enquiry. Commonly the mesh or panelling is in mid-position. Otherwise it tends to be on non-owner's side so the fence owner might access the posts when repairs are needed but this is not a legal requirement. Where estate planners wish to entrench privacy a close-boarded fence or equivalent well-maintained hedge of a minimum height may be stipulated by deed. Beyond a standard height planning permission is necessary.

The hedge and ditch ownership presumption

Where a rural fence or hedge has an adjacent ditch, the ditch is normally in the same ownership as the hedge or fence, with the ownership boundary being the edge of the ditch furthest from the fence or hedge. The principle of this rule is that an owner digging a boundary ditch will normally dig it up to the very edge of their land, and must then pile the spoil on their own side of the ditch to avoid trespassing on their neighbour. They may then erect a fence or hedge on the spoil, leaving the ditch on its far side. Exceptions exist in law, for example where a plot of land derives from subdivision of a larger one along the centre line of a previously existing ditch or other feature, particularly where reinforced by historic parcel numbers with acreages beneath which were used to tally up a total for administrative units not to confirm the actual size of holdings, a rare instance where Ordnance Survey maps often provide more than circumstantial evidence namely as to which feature is to be considered the boundary.