Wigan

Related Category: British and Irish Political Geography

(wĭg´ən), city (1991 pop. 88,725) and metropolitan district, N England, located in the Manchester metropolitan area on the Douglas River. Wigan has a wide variety of industries, including electrical engineering, food processing, mail order, and the manufacture of paper, glass, fiber products, and textiles.

In the Middle Ages, Wigan was an important market town. It was long noted for the manufacture of pottery and pewter and for bell founding. There were ironworks in the 19th cent. Wigan is thought to have been the site of the Roman station Coccium. Its Church of All Saints has a Norman tower.