Virgate

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

About 30 acres, a quarter of a hide. The typical peasant holding in medieval England; notionally 30 acres but seldom exactly.

1 virgate = 121,405.6927 square meters (approximately).

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

About the virgate

Medieval peasants in much of England held land by the yardland, from the Old English gyrd landes. After yard came to mean three feet, scholars coined the Latin-style term virgate to keep the two senses apart. It was the plot that a team of two oxen could plough in a year.

As a fraction of the hide it was usually a quarter, notionally but seldom exactly 30 acres, so it was chiefly a tax assessment and not a surveyed area. In the Danelaw it equalled two oxgangs, and four virgates made a carucate. Some regions split it further into four nooks, with a nook sometimes divided again into a farundel.

The figure used here is 30 acres, about 121,400 square meters, a convenient benchmark. Real holdings ranged widely, and a virgate-holder was a typical villager, farming a share of the open fields in strips.

Sources: Wikipedia: Virgate; Wikipedia: Hide (unit); Domesday Book Online: Glossary

Virgate conversion chart

1 virgate expressed in every other area unit:

More Medieval English units

• rood (area)
• oxgang (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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