Mile mile to diverge. Owing to the importance of the surveyor's rod in deeds and surveying undertaken under Henry VIII, decreasing the length of the rod by would have amounted to a significant tax increase. Parliament instead opted to maintain the mile of 8 furlongs (which were derived from the rod) and to increase the number of feet per mile from the old Roman value. The applicable passage of the statute reads: "A Mile shall contain eight Furlongs, every Furlong forty Poles, and every Pole shall contain sixteen Foot and half." The statute mile therefore contained 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.
Mile End In around 1691 Mile End became known as Mile End Old Town because a new unconnected settlement to the west and adjacent to Spitalfields had taken the name Mile End New Town. This data combines the ethnicity data for Mile End's two wards (Mile End And Globe Town and Mile End East). Whilst there are many references to settlements in the area, excavations have suggested there were very few buildings before 1300. Mile End Road is an ancient route from London to the East. It was moved to its present-day alignment after the foundation of Bow Bridge in 1110. In