Anglo-Saxon Timber Building Measurements: Recent Results

Abstract

THE METHODS of analysis of Anglo-Saxon timber building plans and the use of the 5.03 m (16 ft. 6 in.) rod have been explored previously. The use of a shorter rod was identified tentatively at Thetford and now, at 4.65 m long, positively at Mucking. The use of both rods is discussed at Yeavering, Mucking, West Stow, Thirlings, Cowdery's Down, Northampton, Springfield Lyons, Wicken Bonhunt, Rounds, Bishopstone, Catholme and Cheddar. Nineteenth-century records in the Elbe-Weser region of Germany show rods, extant at that time, with an average length of 4.63 m. It is thus possible that the origin of the shorter Anglo-Saxon rod might be sought in the Germanic homeland of the Anglo-Saxons. The rods seem to have been divided into thirds and sixths, and the possible use of even smaller measures is considered. The implications of the widespread use of standard measures in Anglo-Saxon England are discussed. The awkwardness of the English medieval system of linear measurement may have been due to the amalgamation of elements of both of the two Anglo-Saxon systems.