Southwater Local History Group: The Measure of Things

Looking at an allotment tenancy agreement caused us to muse on the measurement of things and how the standards came to be set down.

For example, and official full sized allotment plot is measured at one rood or rod, which has it’s origins in mediaeval times when ploughing was done by a team of oxen, which were controlled by the use of a rod, pole or perch (some of you may remember those terms from your schooldays – same unit of measurement, different terms!) The rod and pole are self-explanatory – the perch is from an old French word “perche” meaning pikestaff, with which the unfortunate beasts would be poked. Obviously, this was a very rough and ready measure and became defined with a degree more accuracy in the “The Statute of Ells and Perches” somewhere in the late 1200’s. “It is ordained that 3 grains of barley dry and round do make an inch, 12 inches make 1 foot, 3 feet make 1 yard, 5 yards and a half make a perch, and 40 perches in length and 4 in breadth make an acre“ So there you have it. Even so, one man’s barleycorn may be plumper than another’s so there was still room for considerable error. Indeed, even as late as the Weights and Measures Act of 1824 it is stated that “the different Weights and Measures, some larger, and some less, are still in use in various Places throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the true Measure of the present Standards is not verily known, which is the Cause of great Confusion and of manifest Frauds“. You bet!

The term “yard” would seem to come from the Old English “gyrd” and seems to be interchangeable with an ell. In the 12th Century, William of Malmesbury “Deeds of the Kings of England” writes of Henry I "the measure of his arm was applied to correct the false ell of the traders and enjoined on all throughout England”. You can see a true British Yard Measure plus feet and inches on a wall at the Greenwich Observatory.

Let’s not get into metric!

Monday 6th June 2022 – 7.30p.m. at The Village

Hall, Church Lane, Southwater.

Speaker – Helen Poole - ‘Charles ll and his Escape Through Sussex’

Monday 4th July 2022 – 7.30p.m. at The Village Hall, Church Lane, Southwater.

Speaker – Brian Freeland - ‘George Bernard Shaw’

Parking is very restricted so we ask that you park in Lintot Square and walk up to the Hall.

Please do not attend if you have any Covid-19 symptoms

Contact Jeremy Senneck 01403 731247 for any further SLHG information.