Tiltyard

A tiltyard (or tilt yard or tilt-yard) was an enclosed courtyard for jousting. Tiltyards were a common feature of Tudor era castles and palaces. The Horse Guards Parade in London was formerly the tiltyard constructed by Henry VIII as an entertainment venue adjacent to Whitehall Palace; it was the site of the Accession Day tilts in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

Henry VIII also constructed a tiltyard at Hampton Court Palace, where one of the towers, known as the Tiltyard Tower, was used for viewing the tournaments below.

The Tiltyard at Whitehall was "a permanent structure and apparently had room for 10-12,000 spectators, accommodated in conditions which ranged from the spartan to the opulent." Ambitious young aristocrats participated in the Accession Day events for the Elizabeth I in 1595 where "the whole chivalric nature of the tournament with its mock combat and heroic connotations was peculiarly appealing." The aristocrats who attended wore elaborate costumes "designed and made for themselves and their servants."

Tilt

Tilt may refer to:

Music

Film and television

Photography

Games and sport

Tilt (arcade)

Tilt, also known as Tilt Family Entertainment Center, is a chain of video arcades inside various shopping malls. Tilt is owned by Nickels and Dimes Incorporated located in Carrollton, Texas. There are numerous Tilt stores spread across the United States from California to New York. The first Tilt! game room was in Six Flags Mall in 1972. It was founded by Craig Singer.

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Tilt (French magazine)

Tilt was a French magazine which began publication in September 1982, focused on personal computer and console gaming. It was the first French magazine specifically devoted to video games. The headquarters of the magazine was in Paris.

The name of the magazine was a nod to the pinball term, where excessive nudging of a pinball machine would result in a "tilt" penalty, and the loss of a turn during gameplay. The final issue of Tilt was published January 1994.

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Yard (land)

A yard is an area of land immediately adjacent to a building or a group of buildings. It may be either enclosed or open. The word comes from the same linguistic root as the word garden and has many of the same meanings.

A number of derived words exist, usually tied to a particular usage or building type. Some may be archaic or in lesser use now. Examples of such words are: courtyard, barnyard, hopyard, graveyard, churchyard, brickyard, prison yard, railyard, junkyard and stableyard.

Word origin

The word "yard" came from the Anglo-Saxon geard, compare "garden" (German Garten), Old Norse garðr, Russian gorod = "town" (originally as an "enclosed fortified area"), Latin hortus = "garden" (hence horticulture and orchard), from Greek χορτος (hortos) = "farm-yard", "feeding-place", "fodder", (from which "hay" originally as grown in an enclosed field). "Girdle," and "court" are other related words from the same root.

In areas where farming is an important part of life, a yard is also a piece of enclosed land for farm animals or other agricultural purpose, often referred to as a cattleyard, sheepyard, stockyard, etc. In Australia portable or mobile yards are sets of transportable steel panels used to build temporary stockyards.

Rail yard

A rail yard, railway yard or railroad yard is the US term for a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic. Railroad cars are moved around by specially designed yard switchers, a type of locomotive. Cars in a railroad yard may be sorted by numerous categories, including railroad company, loaded or unloaded, destination, car type, or whether they need repairs. Railroad yards are normally built where there is a need to store cars while they are not being loaded or unloaded, or are waiting to be assembled into trains. Large yards may have a tower to control operations.

Many railway yards are located at strategic points on a main line. Main line yards are often composed of an Up yard and a Down yard, linked to the associated railroad direction. There are different types of yards, and different parts within a yard, depending on how they are built.

Yard (sailing)

A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber or steel or from more modern materials like aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards, the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used on square rigged sails. In addition, for some decades after square sails were generally dispensed with, some yards were retained for deploying wireless (radio) aerials and signal flags.

Parts of the yard

Note that these terms refer to stretches of the same spar, not to separate component parts.

Controlling the yard

The yard can rotate around the mast to allow the direction of the vessel to be changed relative to the wind. When running directly downwind the yards are 'squared', pointing perpendicular to the ship's centre line. As the ship is steered closer to the wind the yards are braced round using the braces. When further rotation is obstructed by other bits of rigging (typically the shrouds), the yard is said to be braced "hard round" or "sharp up", as in "sharp up to port". This angle (normally about 60 degrees) limits how close to the wind a square rigged ship can sail.