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Cheshire acre

In Cheshire, Staffordshire and south Lancashire, England, ? – 19ᵗʰ century, a unit of land area = 10,240 square yards. Also called the Forest acre and the Staffordshire acre.

sources

1

In a lecture delivered at Chester in February, 1883, by Mr. Robert Holland, of Frodsham, an admirable example of the rare combination of agriculturist and antiquary, the following sentences occur, and may here be quoted:

“The rood, as it is called (i.e. rod), of eight lineal yards, is the foundation of all measurement in Cheshire. Such piece-work as hedging and ditching, draining, putting up rails, etc., is done at so much per rood. Square or land measure is as follows : 64 square yards, that is 8 by 8, 1 square rood ; 40 square roods, or 2,560 square yards, 1 quarter; 4 quarters, or 10,240 (square) yards, 1 acre. This Cheshire acre is in constant use throughout the county, and also in south Lancashire. Farmers cannot understand statute acres at all, but always reckon their fields by the Cheshire acre. Mowing, reaping, spreading manure, etc., are always 'set,' that is, let, at so much per Cheshire acre. I feel very sure that a good many mistakes are made every year in filling up the agricultural returns by farmers putting down Cheshire instead of statute acres. Practically the Cheshire acre is very convenient, and labourers can reckon their work to a nicety, for 101 yards stridden each way is quite near enough to an acre for the payment of piecework.” [101 X 101 = 10,201].

Alfred Neobard Palmer and Edward Owen.
A History of Ancient Tenures of Land in North Wales and the Marches.
Printed for the authors, 1910.
Page 13, footnote 1.

2

[A 10240-square-yard erw, a Welsh land measure] is the customary measure in the hundreds of Dewi's Land, Kemmaes, and Kilgaron, in Pembrokeshire; the south of Cardiganshire, parts of Caermarthenshire, and Glamorganshire. In the latter it is called erw Llan Giwg. By parers and burners the rod of this measure is called pren wyth. This erw is the same quantity as the Staffordshire acre.

Walter Davies.
General View of the Agriculture and Domestic Economy of South Wales… Volume II.
London: Printed by B. McMillan, Bow-Street, Covent Garden: For Sherwood, Neely & Jones, Paternoster-Row; Tudor and Heath, Monmouth; etc., 1815.
Pages 503 & 504.

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