spere

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spere, speer, spier, spure.
1. Screen, usually treated decoratively, and with one or two doorways, at the lower end of a medieval hall defining the screens passage between hall and kitchen, or separating the cross-entry from the hall. Its top often coincided with the tie-beam of a roof-truss above, in which case the screen and truss were termed the speer- or spere-truss.

2. Short screen, check, or heck between a doorway and a fireplace, acting as a baffle.

Bibliography

Alcock,, Barley,, Dixon,, & and Meeson (1996)

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