Although to many this town is a product of the industrial age Wigan is one of the oldest places in Lancashire. As far back as the 1st century AD there was a Celtic Brigantes settlement here that was taken over by the Romans who built a small town called Coccium. Little remains of those far off days but during the construction of a gasworks in the mid 19th century various burial urns were unearthed during the excavation work. The town's name comes from Wic-Ham which is probably Anglo-Saxon or Breton in origin but following the departure of the Romans the settlement lay in that part of the country that was forever fluctuating between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria so the derivation is uncertain.

The medieval age brought more settled times and by the end of the 13th century the town had not only been granted a market charter but was also sending two members to Parliament. A staunchly Catholic town Wigan fared badly during the Civil War. The Earl of Derby whose home Lathom House lay on the outskirts of the town, was a favourite with the King and this was where Charles I made his base for his attacks on Roundhead Bolton. The bitter attacks on Wigan by the Cromwellian troops saw the fortifications destroyed and both the parish church and the mott hall were looted. The Battle of Wigan Lane the last encounter between the warring forces in Lancashire is commemorated by a monument which stands on the place where a key member of the Earl of Derby's forces was killed.

Monument to the Battle of Wigan Lane

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