Already during the 1600s plots were separated from public areas by fences. The oldest fences were vertical board fences. The fence was high and completely closed. In the beginning, different plots were not separated from each other by fences, but for the keeping of domestic animals fences between plots became common. With the spreading of horizontal siding for buildings, fences also for the most part became horizontal in structure. From the first decades of the 1800s, fences began to have stately drive-in gates. The poles on the sides of the gates were high and often decorative. The gates themselves were two- sided and had, like the fence, no space between their boards, thus offering complete protection.