Can anyone explain the origin or significance of the term "five-barred gate"? I get the impression it's a British term. I've never heard it in the US.

Of course we have gates over here, plenty of them. And our gates sometimes have bars. But as to whether they're more likely to have four, five, or six bars, I really couldn't say. As far as I know, nobody considers the number particularly important.

Maybe "five" is just an arbitrary number that somehow got embedded in a cliché, like "the whole nine yards" or the "ten-foot pole" that you wouldn't touch something with. (That's the American expression; I understand Brits say "barge pole.")

Interestingly, Google Books gives about 11,300 hits on "five-barred gate" and only 163 on "four-barred gate" and 505 on "six-barred gate."

Too bad Google can't break it down between books published in the UK and books published in America.