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 | Anglo Saxon History |  | |
| | Medieval Measurements and Modern equivalents |
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In the following article there are a number of medieval measurements terms used by the various chronicles, which we do
not use anymore, so the following describe their name, description and modern dimensions.
| | Measurements of Distance ▲ |
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I will assume you are all familiar with a foot (12 inches or aprox 30 cm)
The following is from the Battle Abbey Chronicles
(The English leuga contains 12 roods and fourty perches make a rood. The perch is 16 feet in length)
Perch this was 16 modern feet (4.8 metres)
Rood this was 40 perches so about 640 modern feet (195 metres)
Leuga this was 12 roods - 480 perches - 7,680 modern feet (2.340 metres ) - 1.45 miles (2.34 km)
The Leuga is more recently known as a league so according to Battle Abbey this is 2.34 miles, but
elsewhere this could be different please see Wikipedia
article.
| | Measurements of Area ▲ |
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In the following article there are a number of land measurements used by the various chronicles, which we do not use
anymore, so the following describe their name, description and modern dimensions.
Measurements of Area
Rape a traditional Saxon territorial sub-division of the county of Sussex in England, however its unsure how this
was created. see Wikipedia article
Hide unit of land measurement originally intended to represent the amount of land sufficient to support a
household. This appears to be about 120 acres (49 hectares) of arable land. see Wikipedia article
Virgate was usually described as 1⁄4 hide and notionally equal to 30 acres (12 hectares). The virgate was
reckoned as the amount of land that a team of two oxen could plough in a single annual season. see Wikipedia article
However the following text comes from the 'Battle Abbey Chronicles'
Now eight virgates make one hide. and a wist contains four virgates
This means that in this area a virgate is 15 acres - so we will use that below
Wist a wist contains 4 virgates and as eight virgates make a hide, then a wist must be 1/2 hide or about 60
acres.
Acre the amount of land tillable by one man behind one team of eight oxen in one day. see Wikipedia article
Also the following text comes from the 'Battle Abbey Chronicles'
The acre is 40 perches in length and 4 in breadth, a perch is sixteen feet in length.
This allows us to calculate the medieval acre as approximately an area of 640ft(195.5 mtr) x 64ft(19.5 mtr) which is
40,960 sq ft which is 4551 sq yds (3805 sq mtr ~ 0.38 hectares).
This at least is true in the Battle, East Sussex area according to the 'Battle Abbey Chronicles'.
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