☙

rood

1

In England, 10—20ᵗʰ century, a unit of land area, = 1210 square yards (approximately 1011.7 square meters). Originally a piece of land 1 rod wide and 40 rods long, a quarter of an acre.

2

In Scotland, a unit of land area, = 40 square falls = 13,690 square English feet, about 1271.84 square meters. But within a burgh, 20 square feet. Also spelled rude.

sources

The mesur off the rude.

The rude off lande in baronyis sal conten vj elne, that is to say, xviij fut off a mydlyn mane; the rude off the land in the burghe mesurit off a midlyng mane sal be xx fut.

The rude of land in baronys shall contain 6 ells, that is to say, 18 feet of a middling man. The rood of land in the burgh measured by a middling man shall be 20 feet.

Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland. Vol I. A.D. 1124-1424.
Fragments of Old Laws, no. 54. Page 186.
Edinburgh: Printed for the Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1868.

A Roode of land within Burgh, is esteemed of old to bee 20 foote: that is, 5 foote in length, and 4 foote in breadth.

Hunter (1624), page 6.

3

In Britain, at least as early as the 17ᵗʰ century – 18ᵗʰ century, a measure of work done by masons or slaters. In Scotland = 36 square ells, the same as a fall, = 342.25 square feet. In England = walling having a surface area of 63 square feet.

sources

OF THE ROOD OF WORKE

A Rood of land containes 240 Ells of measure: But a Roode of worke, wrought by Masons or Sclaiters, containes but 36 [square] Ells: that is, if any piece of worke bee found to bee 18 Ells in length, and 2 Ells in breadth, it makes a Roode.

12. Ells in length, and 3 Ells in breadth is a Roode.

9. Ells in length, and 4 in breadth is a Roode.

8. Ells in length, and 4 Ells and a halfe in breadth is a Roode.

6. Ells in length, and 6 Ells in breadth is a Roode.

Hunter (1624), page 6.

Masons measure their Work sometimes by the Foot solid, sometimes by the Foot superficial, and in some places they measure their Walling by the Rood, that is, 21 Feet long and 3 Feet high, which is 63 square Feet.

William Hawney.
The Complete Measurer: or, The Whole Art of Measuring. 14ᵗʰ edition.
London: Printed for J. and F. Rivington, L. Hawes and W. Clarke and R. Collins, etc., 1775.
Page 232.