The yard (symbol: yd)[3][4] is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches.

The term, yard derives from the Old English gerd, gyrd etc., which was used for branches, staves and measuring rods.

[5] It is first attested in the late 7th century laws of Ine of Wessex,[6] where the "yard of land" mentioned[6] is the yardland, an old English unit of tax assessment equal to 1⁄4 hide.

[5] A unit of three English feet is attested in a statute of c. 1300 (see below), but there it is called an ell (ulna, lit.

This has led some to derive the yard of three English feet from pacing; others from the ell or cubit; and still others from Henry I's arm standard (see below).

[citation needed] One official British report writes: The standard of measure has always been taken either from some part of the human body, such as a foot, the length of the arm, the span of the hand, or from other natural objects, such as a barleycorn, or other kind of grain.

But the yard was the original standard adopted by the early English sovereigns, and has been supposed to be founded upon the breadth of the chest of the Saxon race.

In it, Edgar the Peaceful directed the Witenagemot at Andover that "the measure held at Winchester" should be observed throughout his realm.

)[14][15] The statutes of William I similarly refer to and uphold the standard measures of his predecessors without naming them.

And that all Clothes named Check-Kersie and Straits, which shall be made after the said Feast shall contain being wet between seventeen and eighteen Yards, with the Inches as is aforesaid, and in Breadth one Yard at the least at the Water; and being well scowred, thicked, milled and fully dried, shall weigh xxiv.

Item, That every ordinary kersie mentioned in the said act shall contain in length in the water betwixt xvi.

1. c. 10 An act for the reformation of sundry abuses in clothes, called Devonshire kerjies [sic] or dozens, according to a proclamation of the thirty-fourth year of the reign of our sovereign lady the Queen that now is.

)[29] (2) and each and every of the same Devonshire kersies or dozens, so being raw, and as it cometh forth off the weaver's loom (without racking, stretching, straining or other device to encrease the length thereof) shall contain in length between fifteen and sixteen yards by the measure of yard and inch by the rule,...One of the oldest yard-rods in existence is the clothyard of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors.

[26][30] In the early 15th century, the Merchant Taylors Company was authorized to "make search" at the opening of the annual St. Bartholomew's Day Cloth Fair.

[35] A copy of it, but with upright cheeks between which other measuring rods could be placed, was made for the Exchequer for commercial use.

4. c. 74) An Act for ascertaining and establishing Uniformity of Weights and Measures stipulates that:[38] In 1834, the primary Imperial yard standard was partially destroyed in a fire known as the Burning of Parliament.

In 1838, a commission[n 5] was formed to reconstruct the lost standards, including the troy pound, which had also been destroyed.

[44] The other 35 yard standards were distributed to the cities of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, as well as the United States and other countries (although only the first five had official status).

[47] Subsequent measurements revealed that the yard standard and its copies were shrinking at the rate of one part per million every twenty years due to the gradual release of strain incurred during the fabrication process.

A measurement made in 1895 determined the length of the meter at 39.370113 inches relative to the imperial standard yard.

In the United States the term "fat quarter" is used for a piece of fabric which is half a yard in length cut from a roll and then cut again along the width so that it is only half the width of the roll, thus the same area as a piece of one quarter yard cut from the full width of the roll; these pieces are popular for patchwork and quilting.

[60] For purposes of measuring cloth, the early yard was divided by the binary method into two, four, eight and sixteen parts.