What is a Stile?
A stile is a device which allows people to cross a wall, fence, or hedge without allowing livestock through. Stiles are typically designed so that people do not need to open a gate or move any parts, simply walking over the stile to reach their destination. The design, however, is unfriendly to livestock, ensuring that livestock cannot escape over the stile. The “stile” has also been adopted in the sense of the turnstiles used in places like subway stations to control entrances and exits. In the most basic form, a stile is simply a set of ladders which run over an obstacle, so people can climb over. Other stiles take the form of steps, specially designed gaps in fencing, or ramps. If you’ve ever wondered about a strange structure in the middle of a fence, wall, or hedge, now you know what you were looking at! A related concept, the kissing gate, is a gate which requires force to open, along with a narrow body to navigate the gate’s enclosure, and closes on its own. The goal of both kis
…an arrangement of steps allowing people but not animals to climb over a fence or wall… This rhyme apparently originates from the time of Charles 1 and the crooked man is commonly supposed to be General Sir Alexander Leslie of Scotland. The General is one of those who signed the Covenant which secured religious and political freedom for Scotland. The ‘crooked sixpence’ being Charles 1 and the ‘crooked stile’ being the England/Scotland border. ‘They all lived together in a little crooked house’ refers to the fact that the English and Scots had come to an agreement. http://nurseryrhymes.allinfoabout.com/crooked_man.
