Tuesday 23rd September, 2008
John Ogilby, 1675
John Ogilby, or perhaps one of his surveyors, visited Wigan in the 1670s. He said the town was:
"...of 6 Furlongs (¾ of a mile ) extent, well built; Govern'd by a Mayor, Recorder, 12 Aldermen etc. Elects Parliament Men, hath 2 markets weekly on Monday and Friday, but the former is discontinued, and 3 Fairs annually: Noted for its Pit-Coal and Iron-Works, and several Industrious Manufactures."
Ogilby's account is brief but informative. Like others who visited the town before the Industrial Revolution, he describes Wigan as "well built". This was before the days when some areas of the town were blighted by insanitary workers' houses.
Unlike Celia Fiennes, writing some 20-30 years later, he does not overlook the less salubrious aspects of the town. He mentions coal mines and iron works and "several Industrious Manufactures". These would include bell-founders, pewterers and clock-makers, all of whom were active in Wigan at this time.
A building, probably an inn, named "Roe buck" is marked to the north of the town centre. The "Cherry Gardens" pub now stands at this location.
He does not, however, mention the impressive parish church, which would have dominated the town centre at that time.
Ogilby's main claim to fame was his publication, in 1675, of a set of road maps named "Britannia". These were published in the form of mock scrolls represented on a series of 100 plates. The relative portability of the maps and the use of a "standard mile" of 1,760 yds, in an age when "country miles" differed in length, were important factors in their success.
One of his most important contribution to map making was the use of a scale of one inch to the mile (1:63360). It was another 70 years before this became standard. Miles were subdivided into eight furlongs.
Distances seem to have been measured by counting the revolutions of a "surveyor's wheel" and a compass with sights was used to measure horizontal angles.
It was during the development of "Britannia" or to give it its full title, "Britannia volume the First: or an Illustration of the Kingdom of England and the Dominion of Wales", that Ogilby wrote the above description. He died before publishing "Volume the Second".
He seems to have led an interesting life even before becoming "His Majesty's Cosmographer and Geographic Printer" (Ogilby's description of himself). For a while he worked in Ireland. On returning to England he translated Virgil into English verse.
In 1666 he was unfortunate enough to lose his possessions in the "Great Fire of London". Later, however, he built a printing press and produced many impressive books, including Atlases.
He died in 1676, surely well satisfied with his long, industrious life.