perch [English]

1

In the Anglo-Saxon and English-speaking world, 9th century to present, a unit of length typically used in measuring land, in many contexts equivalent to the rod or pole. It survives in the United States at 5½ yards, exactly 5.0292 meters, which was by far its usual value. However, perches from 9 feet to 25 feet are known to have been used. The shorter values occur in connection with farmland; longer values occur in cities and in measuring forest land.

The size of the perch (or rod) was constrained by its use in defining the acre, which was a work unit of land: as much as a team of oxen could plow from dawn to noon. The length of the acre (the furrow-long, or furlong) is as far as the team can plow without needing a breather. The width was the number of furrows that could be plowed before the oxen had to be put to pasture for the day. At least as early as the 8th century an acre was a piece of land 40 perches long by 4 perches wide.

Grierson has suggested that the Saxon gyrd, or rod, from which the perch comes, was the combined length of 20 average, actual, human feet.

Some perches with values other than 5½ yards, 16½ feet:

Ireland	21 feet, ¹⁄₃₂₀ of an Irish mile. Also called an Erse pole. “...the Irish perch or pole is 7 yards, and that of England only 5½. Hence 11 Irish miles are equal to 14 English miles.” (Kelly, 1835, page 195)
Scotland	18¼ feet
Forest	21 feet
Lancashire	21 feet
Tenant-right; court measure	12
Sherwood Forest	“21 foot go to the Pearch, the foot there being 18 Inches long, the measure of which foot was on the Chancel-wall of Edenstow, and in the church of St. Mary in Nottingham” (Worlidge, 1704).
Herefordshire	perch of walling = 16½ feet; perch of ditching = 21 feet (Worlidge, 1704)

R. A. Connor.
Chapter 3. The Saxon Gyrd, the Rod and the Acre.
In The Weights and Measures of England.
London: HMSO, 1987.

sources

First in generall, Land is measured by a Pole, Perch, or Rod, which is usually 16 feet, and an half long; yet in some places they use a Pole of 18 feet, especially for Wood-lands.

Henry Phillippes.
The Purchasers Pattern. 2nd ed., corrected and enlarged.
London: Printed for R. & W. Leybourn, for T. Pierrepont..., 1654.
Page 159.

2

The square perch was sometimes called a perch.

3

In masonry work, as late as the 20th century, 24¾ cubic feet, or a section of wall 16½ feet long (1 perch), 1½ feet thick, and 1 foot high. Sometimes considered to be 25 cubic feet.¹ The conventions for estimating and billing for a masonry job varied by region, but some trade customs were universal: the estimate was based on the surface of the walls (which meant masonry in the corners was knowingly counted twice), and no deductions were made for any opening less than three feet wide.

In some western states of the United States, the perch for rubble work was 16½ cubic feet.²

1. For example, in legislation in Iowa (Code, 1924, ch. 161, sec. 3243), North Dakota (Comp. Laws. 1913, Vol. 1, Art. 59, sec. 3008), Ohio (Gen. Code, 1921, Throckmorton, ch. 32, sec. 6408), Oklahoma (Comp. Stats. 1921, Vol. 2, ch. 92, Art. 1, sec. 11187), and South Dakota (Rev. Code, 1919, Vol 2, Part 22, ch. 8, Art 1, sec. 10374).

2. McClurg/Shoemaker.
The Building Estimator's Reference Handbook. 17th edition.
Chicago: Frank R. Walker Company, 1970.

Page 1644.

sources

Laws of the State of New Mexico, Statutes, 1915, ch. 116, section 5836. “A perch of masonry work, or stone, is hereby declared to consist of sixteen and one-half feet cubic measure.” Similar laws existed in Colorado (1921) and Idaho (1883).

Laws of the State of Delaware, Revised Code, 1915, ch. 82, section 2931. “2. A perch of stone shall contain, when measured in the wall, twenty-four and three-quarters cubic feet; when measured in square piles on the ground, twenty-seven cubic feet; when measured in cars, thirty-one and one-half cubic feet. All stone to be measured in the wall when practicable.”