Fence

For other uses, see the structure.

A fence in Westtown Township, Pennsylvania.

A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction: a wall is usually restricted to such barriers made from solid brick or concrete, blocking vision as well as passage (though the definitions overlap somewhat).

Fences are constructed for several purposes, including:

• Agricultural fencing, to keep livestock in or predators out
• Privacy fencing, to provide privacy
• Temporary fencing, to provide public safety and security on construction sites
• Security fencing, to prevent trespassing or theft and/or to keep children and pets from wandering away
• Decorative fencing, to enhance the appearance of a property, garden or other landscaping
• Boundary fencing, to demarcate a piece of real property

Types

Fence with barbed wire on top.

Split-rail fencing common in timber-rich areas.

Some of the technologies developed for fencing include:

• Barbed wire fence
• Cactus fence
• Chain link fencing
• Dry-stone wall or rock fence, often agricultural
• Electric fence
• Ha-ha (or sunken fence)
• Hedgerows of intertwined, living shrubs (constructed by hedge laying)
• Palisade
• Pet fence Underground Fence for pet containment
• Picket fences, generally a waist-high, painted, partially decorative fence
• Pool fence
• Post-and-rail fencing
• Radden Wire
• Split-rail fences made of timber, often laid in a zig-zag pattern, particularly in newly-settled parts of the United States and Canada
• Snow fence
• Stake-and-wire fencing
• Turf mounds in semiarid grasslands such as the western United States or Russian steppes
• Temporary fencing
• Wire netting or wire gauze between posts
• Wood-panel fencing
• Wrought iron fencing, made from tube steel, also known as ornamental iron.

Alternatives to fencing are a hedge or a ditch (sometimes filled with water, forming a moat).

A balustrade or railing is a kind of fence to prevent people from falling over the edge, for example, on a balcony, stairway (see railing system), roof, bridge, or elsewhere near a body of water, places where people stand or walk and the terrain goes steeply down, and so on.

Requirement of use

A typical urban fence.

The following facility types often have to be fenced in:

• facilities with open high-voltage equipment (transformer stations, mast radiators). 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 (in the United Kingdom)
• plants with dangerous mobile parts (for example at merry go rounds on entertainment parks)
• explosive factories and quarry stores
• most industrial plants
• airfields
• military areas
• prisons
• zoos and wildlife parks
• open-air areas that charge an entry fee
• domestic swimming and spa pools (in New Zealand)

Legal issues

Decorative palace fence (in St Petersburg)

Fences can be the source of bitter arguments between neighbours, and there are often special laws to deal with these problems. Common disagreements include what kind of fence is required, what kind of repairs are needed, and how to share the costs.

In some legislatures the standard height of a fence is limited, and to exceed it a special permit is required.

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, disposessing 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.

United Kingdom

Looking out of the back of the house, the fence on your left is usually the one that belongs to you. It is normal to put the "fence cladding" on your neighbours side, away from you. This gives your neighbour the neater view of the construction, but gives you access to the posts and rails when the inevitable maintenance is required. 5' fence panels used to be the standard, but higher fences give more privacy, especially in smaller gardens.

Eastern Europe Communist Countries

In Eastern Europe communist Countries, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the former Soviet Union, fences (starting the 1950s until late 1980s) were depreciated and removed, in a move against "private property".

Quotations

"Good fences make good neighbors." - Robert Frost (ironically, in the poem "Mending Wall").

"A good neighbour is a fellow who smiles at you over the back fence, but doesn't climb over it." - Arthur Baer

"There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it's the risk, the gamble. In any event it's a thing I need." - William Faulkner

"Fear is the highest fence." - Dudley Nichols

"What have they done to the earth?/ What have they done to our fair sister?/ Ravaged and plundered/ and ripped her/ and bit her/ stuck her with knives/ in the side of the dawn/ and tied her with fences/ and dragged her down." - Jim Morrison, of The Doors

See also

• Separation wall
• United States–Mexico barrier
• Wire obstacle
• Temporary fencing

References

• Encyclopedia Britannica (1982). Vol IV, Fence.
• Examples Of Chain Link Fences, Steel Picket Fences, PVC Fences, Aluminum Picket Fences and Wood Fences