Loading Calculator...
Please wait a moment
Please wait a moment
Convert roods to acres instantly with our free online calculator. Essential for interpreting historical British land records, heritage property deeds, genealogy research, and traditional agricultural measurements.
0.25
Acres per Rood
4
Roods per Acre
10,890 ft²
Square Feet per Rood
Formula: Acres = Roods × 0.25 | Roods = Acres × 4
| Roods | Acres | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 roods | 0.25 ac | Quarter-acre plot (common cottage garden) |
| 2 roods | 0.50 ac | Half-acre smallholding strip |
| 3 roods | 0.75 ac | Three-quarter acre allotment |
| 4 roods | 1.00 ac | One full acre (standard reference) |
| 8 roods | 2.00 ac | Small medieval croft |
| 10 roods | 2.50 ac | Typical yeoman garden plot |
| 12 roods | 3.00 ac | Small heritage paddock |
| 16 roods | 4.00 ac | Traditional smallholding |
| 20 roods | 5.00 ac | Medium heritage farm plot |
| 40 roods | 10.00 ac | Substantial tenant farm field |
| 80 roods | 20.00 ac | Large agricultural parcel |
| 100 roods | 25.00 ac | Quarter of a hide (historic estate) |
| 160 roods | 40.00 ac | Significant manor holding |
| 200 roods | 50.00 ac | Large historical estate parcel |
| 400 roods | 100.00 ac | Major landed estate division |
A rood is a historical English unit of land area equal to exactly one-quarter of an acre (10,890 square feet or approximately 1,012 square meters). The word derives from the Old English rōd, meaning a rod or pole, reflecting its origins in the rod-based measurement system. In medieval England, a rood was defined as a strip of land one furlong (220 yards) long and one rod (5.5 yards or 16.5 feet) wide. The rood served as a practical intermediate unit between the perch (too small for describing fields) and the acre (sometimes too large for describing garden plots or smaller parcels).
An acre is a unit of land area still widely used in the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries with imperial measurement traditions. One acre equals exactly 43,560 square feet (4,046.86 square meters), or 4 roods. The word comes from Old English æcer, meaning "open field," and was originally defined as the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plough in a single day. Today, acres remain the standard for measuring agricultural land, residential lots, and estates in English-speaking countries.
The rood fits into the traditional English hierarchy of land measurement: 40 perches = 1 rood, 4 roods = 1 acre, and 160 perches = 1 acre. Historical property documents frequently express areas in the format "acres, roods, perches" (abbreviated A-R-P), such as "12a 3r 20p" meaning 12 acres, 3 roods, and 20 perches. Understanding roods is therefore essential for anyone working with historical British, Irish, or colonial land records.
While the rood fell out of common use during the 20th century as metric measurements and decimal acres became standard, it remains critically important for genealogists, historians, heritage property researchers, and anyone interpreting documents from before approximately 1950. Tithe maps, enclosure awards, manorial surveys, and probate inventories all regularly employ the rood as a unit of measurement.
The formula to convert roods to acres is: Acres = Roods × 0.25 (or equivalently, Acres = Roods ÷ 4). Since 4 roods make exactly 1 acre, the conversion always produces a clean result.
Question: A historical deed describes a cottage garden as 3 roods. How many acres is that?
Question: A tithe map records a field as "5a 2r 30p" (5 acres, 2 roods, 30 perches). What is the total in decimal acres?
Question: A manorial record lists a tenant's holding as 48 roods. Convert to acres.
Note: In A-R-P notation, this would be written as "12a 0r 0p" since 48 roods divides evenly into acres.
Since 4 roods = 1 acre, simply divide the number of roods by 4. For quick estimation, half the roods and then half again. For example: 20 roods → 10 → 5 acres. This works perfectly every time because the conversion factor (0.25) is an exact fraction.
| A-R-P Notation | Decimal Acres | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0a 1r 0p | 0.250 | Cottage garden |
| 0a 2r 0p | 0.500 | Village allotment |
| 0a 3r 20p | 0.875 | Smallholder plot |
| 1a 0r 0p | 1.000 | Standard croft |
| 2a 2r 0p | 2.500 | Yeoman field strip |
| 5a 1r 10p | 5.3125 | Tenant farm field |
| 10a 3r 0p | 10.750 | Substantial farmland |
| 25a 0r 0p | 25.000 | Manor demesne parcel |
| Roods | Acres | Hectares | Sq Meters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.25 | 0.1012 | 1,012 |
| 2 | 0.50 | 0.2023 | 2,023 |
| 4 | 1.00 | 0.4047 | 4,047 |
| 8 | 2.00 | 0.8094 | 8,094 |
| 12 | 3.00 | 1.2141 | 12,141 |
| 20 | 5.00 | 2.0234 | 20,234 |
| 40 | 10.00 | 4.0469 | 40,469 |
| 100 | 25.00 | 10.117 | 101,171 |
| Unit | In Roods | In Acres | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Perch (Pole/Rod) | 0.025 | 0.00625 | Smallest standard unit (30.25 sq yd) |
| 1 Rood | 1 | 0.25 | Quarter-acre; 40 perches |
| 1 Acre | 4 | 1 | Standard reference; 4,840 sq yd |
| 1 Hide (approx.) | 480 | 120 | Varied by region; enough to support a family |
| 1 Knight's Fee (approx.) | 1,920 | 480 | Land obligation for one armed knight |
Census returns, probate records, and inheritance documents from the 17th through 19th centuries regularly describe land holdings in acres, roods, and perches. Genealogists researching family wealth, social standing, or property transfers need to convert these measurements to understand the true size and value of ancestral holdings.
Old property deeds, land registry entries, and title abstracts in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland frequently use A-R-P notation. Anyone buying, selling, or researching heritage properties must convert these historical measurements to modern decimal acres or hectares for accurate comparison and valuation.
Tithe maps, enclosure awards, and agricultural surveys from the 18th and 19th centuries record field sizes in roods. Historians studying crop yields, land use patterns, farming economics, or the impact of the enclosure movement need to convert these figures to compare them with modern agricultural data.
Solicitors, archivists, and land historians working with manorial records, parish boundaries, or disputed property claims encounter roods in original documents. Accurate conversion is essential for resolving boundary disputes, verifying historical claims, and creating modern cadastral records from old survey data.
This is an exact relationship, not an approximation. Dividing by 4 gives you a perfect conversion every time.
Historical records use "acres-roods-perches" format (e.g., "7a 2r 15p"). Convert each part separately: acres stay as-is, roods × 0.25, perches × 0.00625.
While the standard English rood equals 0.25 acres, some Scottish and Irish records used slightly different local definitions. Verify the regional context of your document.
A rood is an area unit (0.25 acres). A rod (also called pole or perch) is a length unit (5.5 yards or 16.5 feet). They share etymology but measure entirely different things.
Roods to acres: multiply by 0.25 (or divide by 4). Acres to roods: multiply by 4. Getting the direction wrong quadruples or quarters your answer incorrectly.
"3a 2r 15p" does NOT mean 3.215 acres. The roods and perches must be converted to decimal fractions first: 3 + (2×0.25) + (15×0.00625) = 3.59375 acres.
One rood equals exactly 0.25 acres, or one-quarter of an acre. This means 4 roods make up 1 full acre. The rood was designed as a convenient quarter-division of the acre in the traditional English land measurement system.
A rood is a historical English unit of land area equal to one-quarter of an acre (10,890 square feet or approximately 1,012 square meters). It was widely used in Britain from medieval times through the 19th century for measuring agricultural land, recording property boundaries, and dividing estates. The term comes from Old English and is related to the word "rod."
The rood is no longer used in modern land measurement, having been replaced by acres, hectares, and square meters. However, it still appears frequently in historical property deeds, tithe maps, enclosure awards, manorial records, and census returns from the 18th and 19th centuries. Anyone researching historical land records will encounter roods regularly.
Multiply the number of roods by 0.25 (or divide by 4). For example, 10 roods × 0.25 = 2.5 acres. Since 4 roods equal exactly 1 acre, the conversion is always a clean division by 4. For mixed A-R-P notation, convert each component separately and add them together.
One rood equals 10,890 square feet. Since an acre is 43,560 square feet and a rood is one-quarter of an acre, dividing 43,560 by 4 gives 10,890 square feet. This is equivalent to 1,210 square yards or approximately 1,012 square meters.
In the traditional English system: 40 perches (poles/rods) = 1 rood, 4 roods = 1 acre, and therefore 160 perches = 1 acre. Old property descriptions often use the format "X acres, Y roods, Z perches" (abbreviated A-R-P) to express land area precisely. One perch equals 30.25 square yards.
Roods appear in tithe maps and apportionments (1836-1851), enclosure awards (1750-1850), manorial court rolls, probate inventories, old Ordnance Survey records, census returns listing farm sizes, and property deeds from the 17th through 19th centuries across England, Wales, Ireland, and former British colonies including Australia and Canada.
Historical property records use the format "A-R-P" meaning acres-roods-perches. For example, "3a 2r 15p" means 3 acres, 2 roods, and 15 perches. To convert to decimal acres: 3 + (2 × 0.25) + (15 × 0.00625) = 3.59375 acres. Always remember that roods max at 3 (since 4 roods = 1 acre) and perches max at 39 (since 40 perches = 1 rood).
This calculator uses the standard English rood definition where 1 rood = 0.25 acres (one-quarter of a statute acre). Some historical Scottish, Irish, or colonial records may use locally defined variants that differ slightly. For legal purposes, always verify the specific definition used in your source documents with a qualified land historian, archivist, or solicitor.