A RARE 400-year-old map of Lancashire has been re-published giving a fascinating insight into life in the 17th Century.

The item was part of the first ever comprehensive atlas of Great Britain put together in 1611.

To celebrate its 400th anniversary, Cambridge University Library has digitised each of the proof maps and put them online.

The map of Lancashire shows the area of ‘Blackburne’ dwarfing nearby towns of ‘Brunley’ and ‘Clethero’.

It is also much larger than Manchester.

John Speed created the map as part of his ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine’.

It contains a single sheet for each county of England and Wales, plus a map of Scotland and each of the four Irish provinces, and paints a rich picture of the countryside at the turn of the 17th century.

The map’s influence was so great that it was used by armies on both sides of the English Civil War.

Rivers wriggle through the landscape, towns are shown as huddles of miniature buildings, woods and parks marked by tiny trees and – with contour lines yet to be invented – small scatterings of molehills denote higher ground.

Anne Taylor, from the University Library said: “The county is divided into hundreds, an archaic division of larger regions into smaller administrative divisions that was originally introduced by the Saxons.

“Given that battles from the Wars of the Roses feature so heavily in the rest of Theatre, it’s little surprise that his Lancaster map is adorned with portraits of the royal families of Lancaster and York, including Henry IV in a somewhat unusual hat.

“The Manchester of Speed’s time is less prominently featured on the map than other towns such as Blackburn or cities like Salford, which Manchester now dwarfs.

"Lailand (Leyland) also catches the eye, although not quite as readily as the sea monsters and sea gods which can be found lurking off the coast in the Irish Sea.”

She said that the atlas, bought by the University Library in 1968, was now considered priceless.