A Variety of Fences from the Gloucestershire Countryside
I hope they may prove helpful for accurate modelling of fences, particularly in the larger scales. A great variety of fences can be seen on even the shortest rural walk in the county.
A nice simple fence made of wide-spaced posts with large squared wire netting reinforced by a half-round pole at the top. I would personally add a barbed wire along the bottom, just above the ground, to prevent the pigs pushing their snouts under the wire net and lifting it up.
A really 'rustic' fence made almost entirely of patching-ups. I can see a fence like the one in the picture above, overlaid with some internal dividing pieces from an old pigsty, a couple of old gates, and a few panels from a dismantled chicken coop, as an easy and fun scrapbox-emptying project. The fence is made rather high to try to stop goats jumping over it.
This one is made of more wire netting, with a couple of strands of barbed wire along the top. It has been left to flop about as it is no longer required to retain livestock.
Slightly closer poles with two lines of half-round rails interspersed with several strands of barbed wire. The hedge planted around the fence is beginning to overwhelm the fence in places and will eventually grow over it and replace it.
Similar to the above, but in better condition and with no barbed wire. This fence is typical of the sort used around horse paddocks. Most farm livestock would get past this one easily, pigs and sheep would slip under it and goats would jump it. It might be suitable for cows however.
Neat three-rail square-post that should keep most larger things in. Though in this case it is merely used to mark a boundary. It is rather more expensive than the others. As with all the other wood-railed fences displayed, the rails are nailed or screwed to the side of their posts.
Another horse fence. Unusually, the rails are nailed to the posts on alternate sides instead of being all on one side. This may be because the fence divides two fields which are both occupied by horses, rather than edging the field. Let me explain.
Nailing the rails to the post sides mean the fence has a unidirectional weakness, pushing in one direction pushes the rails against the posts, so the rails hold strong, and the entire structure of the fence resists the push. Whereas in the other direction the rails are pushed away from the posts, so the force of the push is concentrated on the nails holding the rails to the posts, which means the nails may pull out, so the rails fall and there is a gap in the fence.
Hence boundary fences nearly always have the rails on the side facing into the field, so that its occupants are always pushing the rails toward the posts. This applies for wire fences too, they always have the wire attached to the side facing into the field. Alternating sides on a dividing fence means that at least part of any push against the fence from either side is directed toward a post, not away from it.
Nailing the rails to the post sides mean the fence has a unidirectional weakness, pushing in one direction pushes the rails against the posts, so the rails hold strong, and the entire structure of the fence resists the push. Whereas in the other direction the rails are pushed away from the posts, so the force of the push is concentrated on the nails holding the rails to the posts, which means the nails may pull out, so the rails fall and there is a gap in the fence.
Hence boundary fences nearly always have the rails on the side facing into the field, so that its occupants are always pushing the rails toward the posts. This applies for wire fences too, they always have the wire attached to the side facing into the field. Alternating sides on a dividing fence means that at least part of any push against the fence from either side is directed toward a post, not away from it.
A messy, overgrown fence made of wire netting with barbed wire above. Often barbed wire fences are allowed to get more decrepit than other types because the sharp barbs keep animals away even when it has got to the point that they could easily push it over.
A magnificent four-railed all-square fence. These keep just about anything penned in, and for this reason most fences along the sides of standard gauge railways and major roads today have fences of this kind. Judging by its appearance, this must be a rather new one. I don't often see these except along the side of thoroughfares as they are expensive to build due to the quantity of timber required, so are not really advisable unless you just have to have an indomitable fence. Most commercially made plastic fencing for the smaller scales is based on this type of fence.
Close-up of a new, well-made fence of the netting topped with barbed wire type. I include this to show how these are built. It may be hard to see how a fence goes together once it has started to decay and flop and/or get covered in herbage.
A very basic and crude barbed wire fence consisting of only two strands of said wire. Sometimes barbed wire is all that is necessary, particularly in fields used for cows.
A three-rail post-and-rail fence. This one uses half-round rails rather than plank-like ones.
Now what exactly was going on here then? A three-rail timber fence overlaid with chicken wire, together with what appears to be ornamental wire garden fencing along the top. I would really like to know what exactly happened to make it end up like this.