Yoke (unit of measurement)

A yoke was a unit of land measurement used in Kent in England at the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 for tax purposes.

[1][2][3] In early Saxon times nearly all the Weald of Kent, the land between the chalk ridges of the North and South Downs, was covered in ancient broadleaf forest but there are indications that much of what is now Penshurst had been cultivated clearings since Roman days.

The Romans left no tangible relics although we have a record of their measurement for land in the "Yokes" of Chested, Vexour, Chafford etc.

The rental record of Gillingham dated 1477 reveals that the yoke was a fiscal land division for purposes of rents and services, and had its own privileges.

By the 15th century gavelkind tenure gave rise to an accentuated dispersal of settlement in Kent, and many holdings were split and became uneconomic.