The term _strut_ is commonly used by carpenters for a brace or stay.
_Stower_, in Bailey's _Dictionary_, is a stake; Halliwell spells it
_stoure_, and says it is still in use. Forby connects the Norfolk word
_stour_, stiff, inflexible, applied to standing corn, with this word, which
he says is Lowland Scotch, and derives them both from Sui.-G. _stoer_,
stipes. A _yeather_ or _yadder_ seems to be a rod to wattle the stakes
with. In Norfolk, wattling a live fence is called _ethering_ it, which
word, evidently with _yeather_, may be derived from A.-S. _ether_ or
_edor_, a hedge. The barons, therefore, had to drive their stakes
perpendicularly into the sand, to put the strut-stowers diagonally to
enable them to withstand the force of the tide, and finally to wattle them
together with the yeathers.