Post by brigantia on Aug 24, 2019 15:02:31 GMT
In local land sales of 1769 and 1825 we find the sizes of fields expressed in "days work" e.g., "Lot 2: five closes of arable, meadow and pasture ground, containing twenty-three days work" But what is a "Days work" in acres? Has anybody read any studies on this?
I found that In the Middle Ages one Acre was the amount of land that could be ploughed with one Ox in ONE DAY'S WORK, later defined as an area as one furlong (furrow long) by the width one chain [ca. half a hectare].
But I propose that an Acre that is not always a Days work: Comparing the sale of dairy farm at Exley Head I find that "one days work" is definitely NOT there one acre. We suspect that, since ploughing never takes place with rough pasture, the unit of "days work" is an abstraction. We propose that "a day's work" indicates not only the length by breadth, but also the quality of soil and perhaps also the difficulty of working it , e.g. very steep slope. we do see an advantage in an auction for such language makes it much easier to bid on (bearing in mind that auctioneer's assessors always exaggerate quality!) However I cannot be sure since they go by field names, and most field names are lost, and also no map of that date. Maps over later years show the sizes of fields sometimes changed with division or unification. In my study of Exley Head, using a lot of guesswork, a days work seems to vary between half an acre to quarter of an acre. Or is my mathematics upside down? Has anybody read any studies? It's complicated, What do you think ?
Thank you, David Kidd.
I found that In the Middle Ages one Acre was the amount of land that could be ploughed with one Ox in ONE DAY'S WORK, later defined as an area as one furlong (furrow long) by the width one chain [ca. half a hectare].
But I propose that an Acre that is not always a Days work: Comparing the sale of dairy farm at Exley Head I find that "one days work" is definitely NOT there one acre. We suspect that, since ploughing never takes place with rough pasture, the unit of "days work" is an abstraction. We propose that "a day's work" indicates not only the length by breadth, but also the quality of soil and perhaps also the difficulty of working it , e.g. very steep slope. we do see an advantage in an auction for such language makes it much easier to bid on (bearing in mind that auctioneer's assessors always exaggerate quality!) However I cannot be sure since they go by field names, and most field names are lost, and also no map of that date. Maps over later years show the sizes of fields sometimes changed with division or unification. In my study of Exley Head, using a lot of guesswork, a days work seems to vary between half an acre to quarter of an acre. Or is my mathematics upside down? Has anybody read any studies? It's complicated, What do you think ?
Thank you, David Kidd.