Perch (Channel Islands)

A fortieth of a vergée, and the working subdivision of Channel Islands land measurement.

Not to be confused with the English perch, which is a length of sixteen and a half feet and an area of 25.29 square metres when squared. The Channel Islands perch is an area in its own right, a fortieth of a vergée, and it differs between the two bailiwicks: the Jersey perch is roughly a tenth larger than the Guernsey one, which is precisely why the vergées diverge as well. Both descend from Norman French land practice rather than from English measurement, and both remain in use in island conveyancing. A Jersey garden might reasonably be described as a handful of perches, in a way no English garden has been for a century and a half.