dial. [Of doubtful origin: cf. the variant SPEAR sb.4] A pointed and doubled rod used in securing thatch.
1746. B. N. C. Muniments, Estates 43. 45, Sept. 7, Paid for one day worke of thacing, 1s. 6d. Paid for 500 of sparies, 1s. 3d. Ibid. (1748), Feb. 26, Paid for 4500 of sparis, 11s. 3d.
1796. W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. W. Eng., I. 330. Spars, thatching rods.
1825. Jennings, Obs. Dial. W. Eng., 71. The pointed sticks, doubled and twisted in the middle, and used for fixing the thatch of a roof, are called spars: they are commonly made of split willow rods.
1874. T. Hardy, Far fr. Mad. Crowd, xxxvi. The dull thuds of the beetle which drove in the spars.
b. attrib., as spar-gad, -hook, -house, -rod.
1844. W. Barnes, Poems Rur. Life (1847), 387.
1863. Moncrieff, Dream, in I. of Wight Gloss. (E. D. S.), 52. He skulks through the copses for sparods and ledgers.
1886. T. Hardy, Woodlanders, ii. A bundle of the straight, smooth hazel rods called spar-gads. Ibid., iv. [He] crossed over to the spar-house where some journey-men were already at work.
