Oxgang

Medieval EnglishHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

About 15 acres, an eighth of a hide: the area an ox could plow in a season. Actual sizes varied by region.

1 oxgang = 60,702.84634 square meters (approximately).

Approximate value. Standards for the oxgang varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About the oxgang

Oxgang means the land an ox could go over, from Old English oxangang. Its Latin twin, bovata or bovate, comes from the word for ox, and a peasant holding one was called an oxganger or bovater. The unit belonged mainly to the Danelaw, the part of England settled by Vikings, where Domesday Book records it in Latin as bovata.

Eight oxgangs made a carucate, the ploughland of a full eight-ox team, so two oxgangs equalled a virgate. Wikipedia gives an English average of about 15 acres, and says elsewhere that it could be as little as 15 and averaged roughly 20, depending on soil and local custom. The figure used here is 15 acres, close to 60,700 square meters.

Scotland kept a parallel system in which eight oxgangs formed a ploughgate. The word survives in place names such as Oxgangs, a suburb of Edinburgh, and Oxgang in Kirkintilloch.

Sources: Wikipedia: Oxgang; Wikipedia: Carucate; Domesday Book Online: Glossary

Oxgang conversion chart

1 oxgang expressed in every other area unit:

More Medieval English units

• rood (area)
• virgate (area)
• hide (area)
• barleycorn (length)
• palm (length)
• span (length)
• cubit (length)
• ell (length)
• moment (time)
• baker's dozen (counting & quantity)
• small gross (counting & quantity)

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