Tatham Bridge and the 1675 Ogilby Atlas | |
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The Bridge Inn has stood beside the Wenning for many centuries, but the nearby bridge dates only from the mid nineteenth century, and is not the elegant structure which attracted J.M.W. Turner as a mid-ground feature - with the Inn - for his painting of Hornby Castle which graces our home page; it is not even in the same place. The old bridge was removed, and its replacement installed, to accommodate the railway line from Wennington junction to Lancaster, opened in 1850.
Neither has the route which is now the B6480 always been the main road. The Ogilby strip map of the route from York to Lancaster, published in 1675 as part of his Britannia atlas, shows it passing the inn, crossing Tatham Bridge, following what is now Monks Gate past St. James church, and staying north of the river all the way to Hornby.
Ogilby's publication - revolutionary in its day - and his York-Lancaster route in particular, were featured in an episode of Map Man, a TV series presented by explorer Nicholas Crane. He was puzzled by the ways the Tatham-Hornby part of the route had changed, and a good portion of the program is devoted to this section. You can watch the whole progam by clicking here, but if you only want the Tatham bit, start 18 minutes in.
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