Trail:

Glossary

Plate rail
On a railway, an L-section rail for plain unflanged wheels. Compare edge rail.
Plate tracery
The earliest form of tracery, introduced c. 1200, in which shapes are cut through solid masonry.
Plateway
Early railway using plate rails, i.e. rails of L-section (compare edge rails).
Platt
(Scots): Platform, doorstep or landing.
Pleasance
(Scots): Close or walled garden.
Plinth
Projecting courses at the foot of a wall or column, generally cut back (chamfered) or moulded at the top.
Pocked tooling
Hammer-dressed stonework with a pocked appearance, characteristic of Irish masonry from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
Podium
A continuous raised platform supporting a building; or a large block of two or three storeys beneath a multi-storey block of smaller area.
Point block
A multi-storey block with flats fanning out from a central core of lifts, staircases etc.
Pointing
Exposed mortar jointing of masonry or brickwork. It can be flush or recessed. Bag-rubbed pointing is flush at the edges and gently recessed in the middle. Ribbon pointing has joints formed with a trowel so that they stand out. Tuck pointing: with a narrow central channel filled with finer, whiter mortar.