Even as late as 1871 the actual areas of many places had not yet been calculated by the Ordnance Survey people.
In the population table relating to the populations of parishes and Registration Districts in the 1871 census the area is also given and those with estimated areas (as opposed to ones determined by Ordnance Survey) are indicated.
In the corresponding table in the 1831 census the areas of almost all places are estimates and none are given for Welsh counties - presumably because they were not available.
I know my contribution relates to areas rather than distances, but I would be loath to trust any distances given in sources compiled before the construction of the railways. The distances given for the lengths of railways being I suspect far more accurate than those given for roads.
On a related issue in 1944 when the Allies were planning the liberation of France one of the major problems facing the Allies was that of preparing maps of the landing beaches which had not been surveyed since the 1890s and which were discovered to be inaccurate. The maps used were constructed from aerial photographs supplemented with information collected by the French resistance and photographs of the coastline collected (following a radio appeal) from people who had holidayed in the Normandy before the war.
David
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Dr David Alan Gatley
Faculty of Arts, Media and Design
Staffordshire University
College Road
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
01782-294780
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________________________________
From: From: Local-History list on behalf of Hideaki Inui
Sent: Sat 24/05/2008 23:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [LOCAL-HISTORY] measuring the ways
To All
I would be most grateful if you could inform me of how the parishioners or inhabitants in mid-17th
century rural England measured the distance between their own parishes and the market towns?
Regards,
H.I
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