A Chaldron (Chauldron) of Coale

In England, 15th – 19th century, a unit of dry capacity used for coal. This section deals with what we might call the retail chaldron, that used in London. Section 3, below, deals with a different chaldron from Newcastle, the area which produced most of the coal. The distinction between the London and Newcastle chaldron appears at least as early as 1580. Hayes (1740, page 206) states that “8 Chaldron at Newcastle makes at London about 15 Chaldrons.”

The chalderne of sea cooles is 12 sackes of sea coole, euery sacke ought to conteyne 4 bushells watter measurs, the bushel hepid as much as yt will stand, so that the chalderne is 48 bushells in grosse. With euery 20 chalderne theris one chalderne alowance to the byer.

Geometry upon Waights and Measures calid the Art Statike.
MS Reg. 18 C. XX 1590-1620.1

By a law of 1665, 1 chaldron = 36 bushels, weighing 25 1/3 hundredweights, about 2837 pounds avoirdupois (about 1287 kilograms).

All sorts of coale commonly called sea-coals brought into the River Thames and sold, shall be sold by the chaldron containing thirty-six bushels heaped up according to the bushel sealed for that purpose in the Guildhall.

16 & 17 Charles II chapter 2, 1664-1665.

On shipboard 1 score of chaldrons was not 20, but 21 chaldrons.

The Weights and Measures Act of 18352 required all coal to be sold by weight, not by measure, an injunction repeated in the Weights and Measures Act of 18783, which nonetheless again defined the chaldron at 36 bushels.

The chaldron was abolished by the Weights and Measures Act of 1963.4

1. Hall and Nicholas, 1929, page 24.
2. 5 & 6 William IV chapter 63 sec 9. A Collection of the Public General Statutes, passed in the Fifth and Sixth Year of the Reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1835. Page 288.
3. 41 & 42 Victoria chapter 49 section 6, 1878. Public General Statutes Volume 13, pages 308-341.
4. Elizabeth II chapter 31 1963. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1964.

3
The Newcastle chaldron, used only for coal. Before 1695 its weight was taken to be 42 hundredweight (about 2134 kg). In 1695 it was standardized at = 72 heaped bushels1. One chaldron was enough to fill three wains (wagons), in which case it was reckoned as 52½ hundredweights (5880 pounds, about 2667 kilograms). If the coal was loaded on shipboard the chaldron was reckoned at 53 hundredweights (5936 pounds, about 2692.5 kilograms).

Coal was taxed by the chaldron, not by weight, so it was to the seller's advantage to make the chaldron as large as possible.

1. 6 & 7 William III chapter 10 1695.

Simmonds (1892), page 81.

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