spur

1) A prop or buttress, a short strut set diagonally to support an upright timber.

When Revey beacon in North Bierley was erected, in 1707, four spurrs were among the timber supplied. The allusion is less clear in 1655 when two North Riding gentlemen were despatched to view the spurr in Yeddingham Bridge, being in decay and insufficient: they had to determine what the cost of repairing it would be. The editor Canon Atkinson thought it might be the angle of the pier, although this meaning is not recorded in the OED until 1736.

dates 1655 1707

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