Historicaleigh: Leigh On The Map

March 2, 2016 by Carole Mulroney

Leigh On The Map

We all know that Leigh supplied several ships for Drake’s Fleet to fight the Spanish Armada and we know from the records that Leigh was a ship building centre. But how did the rest of the world see us?

On 20 May 1570, Gilles Coppens de Diest at Antwerp issued Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the "first modern atlas" (of 53 maps), and Leigh (or Ley) is on this map – on the north Thames only Tilbury ? Embarkation point ? and Hadleigh ? famous Castle ? and Leigh are mentioned – so there must have been something going on here which made Leigh important enough to be on the map – could it be this very clever Belgian knew full well the capabilities of this little town?

Ironically I purchased a copy of this map at the Escorial Palace, Phillip II's seat of power in Spain from where the Armada was planned.

This article is by Carole Mulroney from https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/leigh-lives-leigh-on-sea.html