English: A Post Medieval iron fragment of a military spur, dating to the 17th century. The fragment has a loop for attachment at the end of a bar which then divides into two curving arms. The rowel box is at the end of one of the curving arms. The central section of the rowel remains, the arms are all broken and missing. There is a break across the other curving arm.

A similarly shaped spur is illustrated in de Lacy (1904) and also in the catalogue of the old Royal United Services Institute museum (1914 no 2716), online at <a href="https://archive.org/stream/officialcatalogu00royaiala#page/182/mode/2up">https://archive.org/stream/officialcatalogu00royaiala#page/182/mode/2up</a> described as 'Military spur - worn during the Thirty Years War 1618-1648. Given by A.W.Franks Esq.' De Lacy (1904) writes, the spur "is adapted for wearing with a shoe. A curved plate, resembling part of a shoe-horn, went down inside the shoe
between the shoe and the man's heel, while a bar, bent over the upper edge of the shoe, came down outside the leather, and in this specimen had a screw-hole at the bottom of the bar for a screw to tighten it to the leather. From the upper part of this bar projects a short curved neck, carrying a five-
pointed rowel, about an inch in diameter. There are several of these spurs to be found in continental museums, though I am not aware of another in England. There is one in the Musee d'Artillerie in Paris, described as English. Zschille and Forrer give two examples as having been used in Germany, and I know of another in Italy. I think this kind of spur was not an uncommon one at this period, when the rank and
file of armies generally wore shoes in preference to boots."

Dimensions: length: 32.46mm; width: 32.62mm; thickness: 7.46mm; weight: 9.04g.