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I've never seen these words before, are they actually to be found outside Wikipedia? If so, please give citations! Nortonius ( talk) 16:56, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
A virgate is an ancient English measure of land area, which is used in two slightly different ways, as a fiscal measure in Domeday Book and as something closer to a spatial measure in later usage. It contained 20 customary acres.
Every manor is described as containing a certain number of hides or carucates. This was a fiscal assessment. In the Danelaw, it is carucates; elsewhere hides. Each were divisible, carucates into 8 bovates and hides into 4 virgates. occasionally division into 120 acres is apparent.
Hides were identical to manses, cassati, and similar terms, by which the sizes of estates were described in Saxon charters. They were also used to determine the amount of Danegeld, and military service for which the manor was responsible. However this system was obsolescent by the 12th cnetury, when military service was measured in knights fees. The number of hides (and thus virgates) have a general relationship to the extent of the area under cultivation, but there is no precise arithmetic relationship.
Domesday Book also specified the number of ploughs in each manor, usually dividing them between those in demesne and those of (numbered) manorial tenants. In this context, a plough should not be regarded merely as an agricultural implement, but as including a team of eight oxen to pull it. The land that could be cultivated by suich a team was known as a carucate (or ploughland). It was also divided into four virgates, or in some areas into 8 bovates (oxgangs). This was a practical land measure, as a peasant often had one virgate (English yardland) or just half a virgate of land. A virgate could be divided into four nocati (nooks in English) and these occasionally each into 4 farundels (possibly English farthingales).
These measures varied in size, but a carucate usually contained 120 customary acres. That begs the question of how much a customary acres. The customary acres was similar in size to a statute acre, but its precise size varied from place to place. It could be larger or possibly smaller than a statute acre.
The above is my view of the system. However, it is possible that some of this constitutes WP:OR, I leave it for others to judge this and copy this into the article, if considered appropriate. I am very aware that my studies in local hisotry have largely been in the West Midlands, where what I have described fits what I observe in documents. It might be better to have a single article, such as Ancient English land measure and to redirect articles on hide (unit), carucate, virgate, bovate, etc. to that article. I agree with the comments about what a team could plough in a year being misleading, as land was only ploughed in winter, but it might be better to refer to the amount that one team could keep in cultivation. Since usally one of the three open fields was fallow, this means that 80 ploughing days were needed each year works, which works out at six days per week for nearly 13 weeks. Peterkingiron ( talk) 18:50, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
The sources that I have added to the article, while supporting the text as far as they go, do not justify everthing currently in the text. I entirely agree with the tag that a citation is needed, but have moved it to the next sentence, which also needs a citation. What I have put is correct, but I cannot find a good authority among my books. I think I had this from Vingradoff, The customary acre, but am not sure. I am in even more difficulty with farundell. I have come across the latter in two contexts:
I have found nooks in manorial surveys and other records in Worcestershire, for example in Wolverley. Peterkingiron ( talk) 15:32, 31 January 2010 (UTC)
of virgate the land measure are fine. Two meanings—one about medieval English tax assessments and another about modern botanical jargon—have no business being on the same page. FORK. — LlywelynII 00:56, 15 April 2015 (UTC)
![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||
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I've never seen these words before, are they actually to be found outside Wikipedia? If so, please give citations! Nortonius ( talk) 16:56, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
A virgate is an ancient English measure of land area, which is used in two slightly different ways, as a fiscal measure in Domeday Book and as something closer to a spatial measure in later usage. It contained 20 customary acres.
Every manor is described as containing a certain number of hides or carucates. This was a fiscal assessment. In the Danelaw, it is carucates; elsewhere hides. Each were divisible, carucates into 8 bovates and hides into 4 virgates. occasionally division into 120 acres is apparent.
Hides were identical to manses, cassati, and similar terms, by which the sizes of estates were described in Saxon charters. They were also used to determine the amount of Danegeld, and military service for which the manor was responsible. However this system was obsolescent by the 12th cnetury, when military service was measured in knights fees. The number of hides (and thus virgates) have a general relationship to the extent of the area under cultivation, but there is no precise arithmetic relationship.
Domesday Book also specified the number of ploughs in each manor, usually dividing them between those in demesne and those of (numbered) manorial tenants. In this context, a plough should not be regarded merely as an agricultural implement, but as including a team of eight oxen to pull it. The land that could be cultivated by suich a team was known as a carucate (or ploughland). It was also divided into four virgates, or in some areas into 8 bovates (oxgangs). This was a practical land measure, as a peasant often had one virgate (English yardland) or just half a virgate of land. A virgate could be divided into four nocati (nooks in English) and these occasionally each into 4 farundels (possibly English farthingales).
These measures varied in size, but a carucate usually contained 120 customary acres. That begs the question of how much a customary acres. The customary acres was similar in size to a statute acre, but its precise size varied from place to place. It could be larger or possibly smaller than a statute acre.
The above is my view of the system. However, it is possible that some of this constitutes WP:OR, I leave it for others to judge this and copy this into the article, if considered appropriate. I am very aware that my studies in local hisotry have largely been in the West Midlands, where what I have described fits what I observe in documents. It might be better to have a single article, such as Ancient English land measure and to redirect articles on hide (unit), carucate, virgate, bovate, etc. to that article. I agree with the comments about what a team could plough in a year being misleading, as land was only ploughed in winter, but it might be better to refer to the amount that one team could keep in cultivation. Since usally one of the three open fields was fallow, this means that 80 ploughing days were needed each year works, which works out at six days per week for nearly 13 weeks. Peterkingiron ( talk) 18:50, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
The sources that I have added to the article, while supporting the text as far as they go, do not justify everthing currently in the text. I entirely agree with the tag that a citation is needed, but have moved it to the next sentence, which also needs a citation. What I have put is correct, but I cannot find a good authority among my books. I think I had this from Vingradoff, The customary acre, but am not sure. I am in even more difficulty with farundell. I have come across the latter in two contexts:
I have found nooks in manorial surveys and other records in Worcestershire, for example in Wolverley. Peterkingiron ( talk) 15:32, 31 January 2010 (UTC)
of virgate the land measure are fine. Two meanings—one about medieval English tax assessments and another about modern botanical jargon—have no business being on the same page. FORK. — LlywelynII 00:56, 15 April 2015 (UTC)