So Christopher Robin, Piglet and Winnie-the-Pooh are being evicted from the Hundred Acre Wood. From now on, it is to be known as the 40.45 Hectare Forest.

“Typical,” said Eeyore bitterly. “You might think that with world food shortages and soaring oil prices Brussels would be preoccupied by more important matters but all it care about is the size of our dreary little patch of land.”

Winnie-the-Pooh couldn't understand it either, 100 acres is

the perfect size for having an adventure, 40.46 hectares sounds scary.

So why is Brussels doing it? It has given up on changing the pint and the pound; it has said it will not meddle with miles. Carpet and timber can still be sold in yards; horses can be measured in hands. However, Brussels now insists that the acre is one anachronism too far. From 2010, the word must no longer be mentioned. Instead, all documents and advertisements will have to use metric hectares under EU directive 80/181/EEC.

It is going to be hard enough for the sub-editors at Country Life, but for farmers it will be impossible. Acres form the template of the English countryside. The term described the amount of land capable of being ploughed by a man and an ox in a single day. It is derived from Old English aecer, meaning open field, and the Latin ager and was first regulated under law by Edward 1.

As a result, the majority of fields are amalgams of acres, not hectares. Every Englishman's country or council estate uses this measurement. Half an acre sounds homely. It gives you space to grow a few vegetables, put up a swing and cultivate a lawn, while 32,000 acres of land sounds less vulgar than 50 square miles.

In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Gonzalo says: “Now I would give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.” Yeats devoted a poem to An Acre of Grass.

George Orwell cautioned against changing pints, miles and acres back in 1947, when he wrote: “Another thing I am against in advance for it is bound to be suggested sooner or later is the complete scrapping of our present system of weights and measures.”

We drink beer in pints but water by the litre, we drive in miles and run in metres. This eccentricity is a national treasure that should be cherished by the EU. So what is the problem with still using acres?

It shouldn't affect the men in Brussels unless they want to buy a holiday house in Britain. And I suggest they don't. Because if they travel through England's rolling acres, they may see some other outdated paraphernalia such as Norman churches and try to get rid of those too.

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