A stockade is an enclosure of palisade

Palisade

A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...

s and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.

Stockade as a security fence

Stockade fortifications were simple forms of defense of military camps or settlements, used since ancient Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 times and earlier. The troops or settlers would build a stockade by clearing a space of woodland and using the trees whole or chopped in half, with one end sharpened on each. They would dig a narrow trench

Trench

A trench is a type of excavation or depression in the ground. Trenches are generally defined by being deeper than they are wide , and by being narrow compared to their length ....

 around the area, and stand the sharpened logs side-by-side inside it, encircling the perimeter. Sometimes they would add additional defense by placing sharpened sticks in a shallow secondary trench outside the stockade. In colder regions, sometimes the stockade received a coating of clay or mud that would make the crude wall wind-proof.

Builders could also place stones or thick mud layers at the foot of the stockade, improving the resistance of the wall. From that the defenders could, if they had the materials, raise a stone or brick wall inside the stockade, creating a more permanent defense while working protected.

Stockade as a military prison

The word stockade also refers to a military prison

Military prison

A military prison is a prison operated by the military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, enemy combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members of the military found guilty of a serious crime...

 in an army camp, and in some cases, even a crude prison camp or a slave camp. In these cases, the stockade keeps people inside, rather than out.

Decorative stockades

Nowadays, stockade walls are often used as garden fencing, made of finished planks more useful for privacy fencing

Privacy fencing

Privacy fencing is the use of fences to protect privacy, usually by preventing outsiders from seeing onto a property. There are cultural differences with regards to the use of fences around properties. For instance, it is common in European countries to put a fence around the entire border of one's...

and decoration than security.