Yards

The yard is a unit of length equal to three feet or 36 inches. Three measuring systems- the English, Imperial, and United States customary units- use the yard, and it is included in the official measuring systems of three countries today.

The origins of the yard go back over a thousand years. It is likely that the unit was originally derived from the ancient foot measurements used in Anglo-Saxon England, which in turn evolved from the Northern Cubit, a measurement which dates back to 2000BCE. The modern yard was first defined in 1305 by decree of Edward I in The Statute for Measuring Land. This document refers to the yard as an Ulna and describes it as consisting of three feet of 12 inches each. It used to be generally accepted that one yard was the distance between the tip of the nose and end of thumb even though this distance is different from person to person.

The past 700 years have seen little change in the yard, with the current definition differing from older standards by less than .1%. Today’s yard was adopted by law in England under the 1855 Weights and Measurement Act. The standard of measure is a bronze bar with gold pins defining the length of one yard. This bar is known as the Primary Standard Yard and is kept at the Standards’ Department.

It was in common use in the UK until the mid sixties when it was gradually phased out to be replaced with the meter and despite the overwhelming popularity of the Systčme International (metric system) worldwide, Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States continue to use the yard officially. However, the yard remains and popular unit of measurement around the world for certain uses. It is often convenient for certain measurements, especially for any that require division by three. Furthermore, the yard is used as the measurement for football fields in both American and Association Football.

Over the years the yard has seen many changes. Although its use has declined in recent years, it will continue to be popular for years to come, just as it has for centuries past.