What is a piddle of land?

[fin17]

In St Mary the Virgin Church at Silchester there is a plaque with a reference to a donation of a piddle of land. All I can find is that it is a plot of land but no clue as to the acreage. Can anybody out there enlighten me further. Many thanks.

[sandyRoe]

I don't know the exact area but I'd guess it was very small. Think of the phrase; A piddling amount, meaning a little amount.

[wolf63]

I couldn't find a size but as sandyroe says it just means a small or insignificant amount.

[buildersmate]

An interesting question, to which Sandy seems to know the right answer.
See here - about a dozen line down.
http://archiver.roots...RE/2001-11/1006525444

[vulcan]

It might be 4 acres, scroll down to charities
http://www.british-hi...ort.aspx?compid=56744

[scotman]

from OED
Piddle seems to be variant of pightle

pightle local. Forms: _. 3 pichtel, pichtil, pictel, pigtel, 5 pyghtell, 5_6 pytell, 6_7 pightell, putell, 6_9 pightel, pitle, 8 pightal, 7_ pightle, (8_9 corruptly pigtail). Also _. 3 pichel, pychel, pichil, pughull, 6_8 pighill, 7_8 peighill; 6 pykkyll, 7 pickhill, pickell, 7_8 pickle. _. 7_9 picle. _. 7_8 piddle. See also pingle n.2
[Origin obscure; the form seems to be diminutive.
The two types pightel and pighel (pichel) are both found soon after 1200; the former was midl. and southern; in E. Anglia and Essex it became before 1500 pitel; pichel was northern, and appears to have given the hardened form pickel; picle was app. a phonetic variant of pitle, whence perh. also piddle through *pittle. Cf. also pingle n.2]
A small field or enclosure; a close or croft.
1210 Fines in Cur. Dom. Reg., Bucks (1835) I. 247 Croftam_que vocatur Leuernues pigtel.
12_ Deed in N. & Q. 10th ser. V. 26/2 Totam croftam illam que vocatur Wlstones pictel que jacet sub Bosco.
1250_60 Furness Coucher (Chetham Soc., new ser. XI. 444), Totam terram_in loco qui vocatur Pichtil cum una acra ad caput Pichil.
1403 Court-roll Gt. Waltham Manor, Essex, Idem dominus habet unum fossatum non scuratum erga Chalf-pyghtell.
1494 in T. Gardner Hist. Dunwich (1754) 52 My Pytell lyinge in the Parische of All Seints within the said Town.
1541 in Wigram Elstow (1885) 161 One messuage, and one pightell, with appurtenances.
1562 in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's, Bp. Stortford (1882) 55 Wood of ye pytell called thorley wyk.
1650 Brasenose Coll. Doc. E2 19 A little close or pasture called Pightle about 1 rood in area.
1730 in Rep. Comm. Inq. Charities (1837) XXXI. 141 (Cambs.) Two pightals in Bottisham, and a dolver in Braddyls.
1819 Rees Cycl., Pig-Tail,_a provincial term sometimes applied to a small strip of ground generally in the state of grass.
1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. 53 Never had that novelty in manure whitened the crofts and pightles of Court-Farm.
1843 Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. (1851) IV. 430 The pigtail of the field, a small strip in grass.
1854 Knight Once upon a Time II. 117 There was one meadow_called the Pitle (still a Norfolk word).
1893 J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. Recollect. (1894) I. i. 15 The paddocks and pightels about the town of my birth.
1220 Selby Chartul. II. 15 Unum essartum_quod vocatur Pichel.
1254_80 Ibid. 81 Cum uno pychel prati in Ower Seleby.
1275 Whalley Coucher (Chetham Soc., Old Ser. XVI. 688), Partem cujusdam terræ_quod vocatur Mikel pughull et Litel pughull.
1503 Will of Wyne (Somerset Ho.), Pykkyll otherwise called crofte.
1651 MS. Indenture (co. Derby), One land called the Pickell land.
1688 MS. Indenture, Close called_the Peighill.
1699 MS. Indenture, Also the Pickhills [elsewhere Pickills] in Brampton [co. York].
1711 in Rep. Comm. Inq. Charities (1822) VIII. 721 (Yorks.) [J. S. charged] a pighill next but three to his close [with 5s. yearly to the poor].
1737 Court Roll, Wakefield, Close called_Peighill.
1737 MS. Indenture (Rolleston, co. Stafford), A piece of meadow_lying near to an inclosure called Pickle Meer.
1641 Termes de la Ley 219 Picle or pitle_signifies with us a little small close or inclosure.
1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Pitle, Picle, a small piece of inclosed ground, generally pronounced in the first, but not unfrequently in the second form.
1638 Brasenose Coll. Mun., Covt. Burwaldescote, A piddle of pasture grownde of half an acre.
1693 Ashmole Antiq. Berks. (1723) I. Introd. 39 Two Houses, and a Piddle of Land belonging to them.