If you are a NWKFHS member, please login, if not, please join today.

If you are a NWKFHS member, please login, if not, please join today.

Font size: +
Featured

Great Storm of 1703 by Daniel Defoe.

The Federation's Bulletine available to all family historians that subscribers see https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/. The June edition contains an article'The Great Storm of 1703' by Wayne Shepherd. Our area of South East London and North West Kent was damaged. Daniel Defoe mentions that part of the wall to Greenwich Park having been blown down, see below.

In the storm Daniel Defoe refers to the damage to Greenwich Park wall 100 rods. He was a brickmaker so may be using this term as an area of brickwork compared to its use as a measurement of length.

The length is the way the Greenwich 1986 survey has used i.e 100 rods at 16.5ft or 5.5yds = 550yds or 503m (they round it to 500m).

References.

Oxford Dictionary on Historic Principals.

1 rod = measurement of length 5.5yds = 16.5ft. A pole or perch a measurement of area. Rod is a measurement of area a square perch or pole (1477). A measurement of brickwork (1663).

Rood is a linear measurement = a rod pole or perch. Locally varying from 6 to 8 yrds. 

1851 Census finding aid update.
STRAYS INDEX.

Related Posts