Winchester measure

Winchester measure is a set of legal standards of volume instituted in the late 15th century (1495) by King Henry VII of England and in use, with some modifications, until the present day. It consists of the Winchester bushel and its dependent quantities, the peck, (dry) gallon and (dry) quart. They would later become known as the Winchester Standards, named because the examples were kept in the city of Winchester.

Winchester measure may also refer to:

During the tenth century, the capital city of the English king, Edgar, was at Winchester and, at his direction, standards of measurement were instituted. However, nothing is known of these standards except that, following the Norman Conquest, the physical standards (prototypes) were removed to London. In 1496, a law of King Henry VII instituted the bushel that would later come to be known by the name "Winchester". In 1588 Queen Elizabeth I, while reforming the English weight system (which, at the time, included no less than three different pounds going by the name "avoirdupois") based the new Exchequer standard on an ancient set of bronze weights found at Winchester and dating to the reign of Edward III.

These incidents have led to the widespread belief that the Winchester units of dry capacity measure, i.e., the bushel and its dependent quantities the peck, gallon and quart, must have originated in the time of King Edgar. However, contemporary scholarship can find no evidence for the existence of any these units in Britain prior to the Norman Conquest. Furthermore, all of the units associated with Winchester measure (quarter, bushel, peck, gallon, pottle, quart, pint) have names of French derivation, at least suggestive of Norman origin.

Prior to the Norman Conquest, the following units of capacity measure were used: sester, amber, mitta, coomb, and seam. A statute of 1196 (9 Richard I. c 27.) decreed: It is established that all measures of the whole of England be of the same amount, as well of corn as of vegetables and of like things, to wit, one good horse load; and that this measure be level as well in cities and boroughs as without. This appears to be a description of the seam, which would later be equated with the quarter. The word seam is of Latin derivation (from the Vulgar Latin sauma = packsaddle). Some of the other units are likewise of Latin derivation, sester from sextarius, amber from amphora. The sester could thus be taken as roughly a pint, the amber a bushel. However, the values of these units, as well as their relationships to one another, varied considerably over the centuries so that no clear definitions are possible except by specifying the time and place in which the units were used.

...
Wikipedia