Foot (unit)

===England===
[[File:Imperial measurement standards, Greenwich.JPG|thumb|The unofficial public [[imperial units|imperial measurement]] [[standard (metrology)|standards]] erected at the [[Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Royal Observatory]] in [[Greenwich, England|Greenwich]] in the 19th century]]
{{See also|Yard}}

The [[Neolithic]] '''long foot''', first proposed by archeologists [[Mike Parker Pearson]] and Andrew Chamberlain, is based upon calculations from surveys of [[Stonehenge#Stonehenge 1 (c. 3100 BC)|Phase 1 elements at Stonehenge]]. They found that the underlying diameters of the stone circles had been consistently laid out using  multiples of a base unit amounting to 30 '''long feet''', which they calculated to be 1.056 of a modern [[#International foot|international foot]] (thus 12.672 inches or 0.3219 m). Furthermore, this unit is identifiable in the dimensions of some stone [[lintels]] at the site and in the diameter of the "southern circle"  at nearby [[Durrington Walls]]. Evidence that this unit was in widespread use across southern Britain is available from the [[Folkton Drums]] from  [[Yorkshire]] ([[neolithic]] artifacts, made from chalk, with circumferences that exactly divide as [[integers]] into ten long feet) and a similar object, the [[Lavant drum]], excavated at [[Lavant, West Sussex|Lavant]], Sussex, again with a circumference divisible as a whole number into ten long feet.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Teather |first1=Anne |display-authors=etal|title=Getting the Measure of Stonehenge |journal=[[British Archaeology]] |date=February 8, 2019 |issue=165 |pages=48–51}}</ref>

The measures of [[Iron Age Britain]] are uncertain and proposed reconstructions such as the [[Megalithic Yard]] are controversial. Later [[Welsh legend]] credited [[Dyfnwal Moelmud]] with the establishment of [[Welsh units|their units]], including a foot of 9 inches. The Belgic or North German foot of {{convert|335|mm|abbr=on|1}} was introduced to England either by the [[Belgae|Belgic Celts]] during their invasions prior to the Romans or by the [[Anglo-Saxons]] in the 5th and 6th century.

[[Roman units]] were introduced following [[Roman conquest of England|their invasion]] in AD&nbsp;43. Following the [[Roman withdrawal from Britain|Roman withdrawal]] and [[Saxon invasion of England|Saxon invasions]], the Roman foot continued to be used in the construction crafts while the Belgic foot was used for land measurement. Both the Welsh and Belgic feet seem to have been based on multiples of the [[barleycorn (unit)|barleycorn]], but by as early as 950 the English kings seem to have (ineffectually) ordered measures to be based upon an iron yardstick at [[Winchester]] and then [[London]]. [[Henry I of England|Henry I]] was said to have ordered a new standard to be based upon the length of his own arm and, by the {{circa|lk=no|1300}} Act concerning the [[Composition of Yards and Perches]]<ref name="Britain1762">{{cite book|author=Great Britain|title=The statutes at large: from the Magna Charta, to the end of the eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, anno 1761 (continued to 1807)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iPQuAAAAIAAJ&q=Compositio+ulnarum+et+perticarum&pg=PA400|access-date=November 30, 2011|volume=1|year=1762|publisher=Printed by J. Bentham|page=400}}</ref> traditionally credited to [[Edward I of England|Edward&nbsp;I]] or [[Edward II of England|II]], the statute foot was a different measure, exactly {{sfrac|10|11}} of the old (Belgic) foot. The [[barleycorn (unit)|barleycorn]], [[inch]], [[ell (unit)|ell]], and [[yard]] were likewise shrunk, while [[rod (unit)|rod]]s and [[furlong]]s remained the same.<ref name="1977zupko">{{cite book | last = Zupko | first = Ronald Edward | author-link = Ronald Edward Zupko | title = British Weights and Measures: A History from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century | publisher=University of Wisconsin Press | year = 1977 | isbn = 978-0-299-07340-4 | pages = 6, 10, 20 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pWUgAQAAIAAJ }}</ref> The ambiguity over the state of the [[mile]] was resolved by the 1593 [[Act against Converting of Great Houses into Several Tenements and for Restraint of Inmates and Inclosures in and near about the City of London and Westminster]], which codified the [[statute mile]] as comprising 5,280&nbsp;feet. The differences among the various physical standard yards around the world, revealed by increasingly powerful [[microscope]]s, eventually led to the 1959 adoption of the [[#International foot|international foot]] defined in terms of the meter.