In the mid 1980's I did a couple of seasons rigging marquees in Plymouth with a company called Topes on the Barbican. They used to be sailmakers. The lads I worked with used to call a becket a small ten inch long wooden peg used in order to hold the walling of the marquee tight to the ground. Striking was the term used to take the marquee down.
Would be interesting to know if anyone can see a connection between a loop of rope and a wooden peg given the nautical provenance of Topes. Maybe the becket was a loop of rope stitched to the marquee and the peg knotted to it and hammered into the ground, and a later generation of riggers began to refer to the peg as a becket? Curious if anyone has any ideas, thanks.
