bretache

English

Noun

bretache (plural bretaches)

1. Alternative form of brattice (“structure for attack or defence”)
   • 1851, Thomas Hudson Turner, Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England, page 247:

     […] St. George on the wall, in the entry of the hall, with two leaden windows; to wainscote the chamber in which Guy de Lezinan our brother lay; and to rebuild the two rotten bretaches in the same castle and cover them with lead.

   • 1859, Henry Bull (of Devizes.), A history military and municipal of the ancient borough of Devizes [by H. Bull]., page 64:

     A primitive Bretesque or Bretache was generally something salient or projecting. It has been described in some glossaries as a vantage point from which proclamations might be addressed to the citizens; also as a wooden defence […] But whatever be the form or purpose a bretache, the generic idea is wood. This is evident when it occurs in the mandates issued by Henry III. to his architects. At Southampton for instance two bretaches are to be rebuilt […]

   • 1884, George Thomas Clark, Mediæval Military Architecture in England, page 177:

     A bretache is mentioned in a Survey of 1314, but the present corbels overhanging the gateway, and upon which the timber work rested, appear to be of the age of Richard II., and probably date from 1386.

   • 1899, Melville Portal, The Great Hall, Winchester Castle ..., page 14:

     In 1239, Paulin Peyvere and Thomas de Newere, the Keepers of the temporalities of the Bishoprick of Winchester (custodes episcopatus Wintonia) are ordered to make in the Castle a drawbridge, with a bretache (cum unâ bretasch) ...

   • 1905, Great Britain, Calendar of the Close Rolls ...: Preserved in the Public Record Office, Public Record Office, page 125:

     […] the timber necessary for repairing those defects, as the king is informed that there are several defects in the castle, as in bretaches, buildings, bridges, engines and other garniture, which are in great need of repair.

   • 1912, Margaret Mahler, A History of Chirk Castle and Chirkland: With a Chapter on Offa's Dyke, page 28:

     In 1213 there is an entry , in the Pipe Rolls , of £ 5 paid for a bretache for the Castle of Chirk. This proves that it was still a Crown castle.

   • 2004, Peter Harrison, Castles of God: Fortified Religious Buildings of the World, Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 107:

     In some instances the inside door to the nave from a porch entrance would be overlooked by a similar structure to a bretache, known as an assommoir. Windows would be bricked up, defended by stout iron bars and grilles […] In other instances a box machicolation or bretache overlooked the door. There are, rarely, remains of grooves for a raised drawbridge or portcullis and archival evidence of a barbican. […] Sixteen bretaches were placed to overlook every opening of the church, be it door, window or defence opening. The roof of both nave and chancel was stone-vaulted with meuretières at the rib crossings […]