Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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an Area or walk way for men to twist hemp into a cord .
Pepys defines it : also known as a ropery.
ropery:
1. A place where ropes are made; a rope-walk.
In early quots. as a locality in London.
1598 STOW Surv. London vii. (1603) 42 Wolfes gate in the roparie in the Parrish of Alhallowes.
rope yard; 2. A yard where ropes are made.
1664 PEPYS Diary 19 July, Down by water to Woolwich, where coming to the rope-yarde..we are told that Mr. Falconer..is just dead.
A stretch of ground appropriated to the making of ropes. Also attrib. 1672
[b. a rope of sand, something having no coherence or binding power. ]
rope:
rope: Common Teut.: OE. ráp masc., = OFris. râp (in silrâp; WFris. reap, EFris. rôp, but NFris. riap:*rêp), MDu. and Du. reep, MLG. rêp, reep, reip (LG. rêp), OHG. and G. reif, ON. reip neut. (Icel., Fær., Norw. reip, Sw. rep, reep, Da. reb, reeb, reeff, etc.), Goth. raip (in skaudaraip shoe-thong). In the Lex Salica (c 490) the Old Frankish form appears to be Latinized as reipus (only in a transferred sense), and from early Teutonic the word passed into Finnish as raippa rod, twig.]
I. 1. a. A length of strong and stout line or cordage, usually made of twisted strands of hemp, flax, or other fibrous material, but also of strips of hide, pliant twigs, metal wire, etc.
In technical use the name of rope is given to cordage above one inch in circumference, and the largest sizes are called cables. For the nautical names of special ropes, as bolt-, breast-, bucket-, buoy-rope, see the first element.
rope also: A gut, entrail, intestine. Freq. in pl.
another Pepsian.
rope[’s] end
1663 PEPYS Diary 23 June, I beat him, and then went up in to fetch my rope’s end.
1687 A. LOVELL
“A place where ropes are made; a rope-walk. In early quots. as a locality in London.”
Ropewalk would probably become the term more widely used and appears in many parts of the country, lending its name to Inns and restaurants.
For details of rope making see Terry’s annotation for Ropeyard (Woolwich)…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/5129.php