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meer

In the county of Derby, England, a unit of length used by a miner taking possession of a claim to a vein of lead ore. It was in various times and places = 29, 31 or 32 yards. See the sources.

sources

When a miner has found a new vein of ore in the King's-field, provided it be not in an orchard, garden, high-road, or church-yard, he may obtain an exclusive title to it, on application to the barmaster. The method of giving possession, is, in the presence of two jurymen, marking out in a pipe, or rake-work, two meers of ground, each containing twenty-nine yards; and in flat work, fourteen yards square.

Stephen Glover, publisher; Thomas Noble, editor.
The History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby….
Derby: Printed by Henry Mozley and Son, 1831.
Vol. 1, page 55.

The term meer denotes a customary measure of land containing lead ore, to which a Derbyshire miner is entitled when he finds a metallic vein. Formerly a Derbyshire meer in the Low Peak contained 29 yards in length, and in the High Peak 31 yards in length, the breadth of a meer in both districts being from skirt to skirt, whether the vein consisted of a rake, pipe-work, or flat-work. Add. MS. 6681, p. 926. Now, however, by the recent statute, 14 & 15 Vict. c. 94, art. 18, so far as relates to the High Peak, every meer of ground shall contain 32 yards in length. See Tapping's High Peak Min. Cus. pp; 19, 104.

From the Glossary in
Thomas Tapping.
The Rhymed Chronicle of Edward Manlove...
London: Shaw and Sons, 1851.

Manlove's poem originally appeared as:

Edward Manlove.
The Liberties and Customs of the Lead-Mines within the Wapentake of Wirksworth in the County of Derby.
London: 1653.