BURNLEY

'Burnley' is a large market town in the north-east of Lancashire in north-west England with a population of 73,021.^[1] The surrounding Borough of Burnley has a population of 89,542. Burnley is the main town in the Burnley-Nelson urban area which has an estimated population of 149,796; for comparison purposes, this is approximately the same size as Huddersfield, Oxford or Poole.^[2]
The local radio station for Burnley and its surrounding area is 2BR. The local newspaper, published on Tuesdays and Fridays, is the Burnley Express.
The member of parliament for Burnley is Kitty Ussher (Labour).

Contents

History

Origins

The industrial revolution

Today

Geography

Transport

Road

Rail

Bus and coach

Shopping

Sport

Culture and Nightlife

Places of interest

Education

Twin Towns

People

Entertainment

Politics

Sport

References

Bibliography

External links

History

Origins

Burnley's origins lie in prehistoric times, as indicated by the Stone Age flint tools and weapons that have been found on the moors around the town.^[3] Local place names Padiham and Habergham show the influence of the Angles, suggesting that some had settled in the area by the early seventh-century,^[4] but there is no definitive record of settlement until 1122, when a charter granted the church of Burnley to the monks of Pontefract Abbey.^[5] In its early days, Burnley was a small farming community, gaining a corn mill in 1290, a market in 1294, and a fulling mill in 1296.^[5] At this period, it lay within the manor of Ightenhill, one of five that made up the Honor of Clitheroe, then a far more significant settlement, and consisted of no more than 50 families.^[7] Little survives of early Burnley – the name means ‘meadow by the River Brun’ ^[5] – apart from the Market Cross, erected in 1295, which now stands in the grounds of an annexe of Burnley College.^[5]
Over the next three centuries, Burnley grew in size to about 1,200 inhabitants by 1550, still centred around the church, St Peter’s, in what is now known as ‘Top o’ th’ Town’. Prosperous residents built larger houses, including Gawthorpe Hall and Towneley Hall, and in 1532 St Peter’s Church was largely rebuilt.^[10] Burnley’s grammar school was founded in 1559, and moved into its own schoolhouse next to the church in 1602.^[11] Burnley began to develop in this period into a small market town. It is known that weaving was established in the town by the middle of the seventeenth-century,^[12] and in 1617 a new Market House was built. The town continued to be centred on St Peter’s Church until the market was moved to the bottom of what is today Manchester Road at the end of the eighteenth-century.^[13]

The industrial revolution

In the second half of the eighteenth-century, the manufacture of cotton began to replace that of wool. Burnley’s earliest known factories – dating from the mid century – stood on the banks of the River Calder close to where it is joined by the River Brun, and relied on water power to drive the spinning machines, but by 1830 there were 32 steam engines in cotton mills throughout the rapidly expanding town.^[14] By 1866, the town was the largest producer of cotton cloth in the world.^[15] The eighteenth-century also saw the rapid development of coal mining: the drift mines and shallow bell-pits of earlier centuries were replaced by deeper shafts meeting industrial as well as domestic demand locally, and by 1800 there were over a dozen pits in the centre of the town alone.^[16] The first turnpike road through Burnley was begun in 1754, linking the town to Blackburn and Colne, and by the early nineteenth-century there were daily stagecoach journeys to Blackburn, Skipton and Manchester, the last taking just over two hours.^[17] For the transportation of goods in bulk, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal arrived in 1796, and in 1848 the East Lancashire Railway Company’s extension from Accrington linked the town to the nation’s nascent railway network for the first time.^[18] By 1851, the town’s population had reached almost 21,000.^[19]
Burnley became incorporated as a municipal borough in 1861, and became, under the Local Government Act 1888, a county borough outside the administrative county of Lancashire. But from a population of over 100,000 in 1911, the town's population has declined to today's figure,^[20] mirroring the decline in its traditional industries of textiles, mining and engineering. Under the Local Government Act 1972 Burnley's county borough status was abolished, and it was incorporated with neighbouring areas into the non-metropolitan district of Burnley.

Today

Burnley has lost significant portions of its traditional manufacturing base over the past twenty years. Its employment growth between 1995 and 2004 placed it 55th of England's 56 largest towns and cities,^[21] and in June 2001, the town received national attention following a series of violent disturbances arising from racial tension between elements of its white and immigrant communities.^[22] Recently, the Lancashire Digital Technology Centre has been established on land formerly occupied by the now-closed Michelin factory to provide support and incubation space for start-up technology companies, but there has been little other significant inward investment in employment.

Geography

The town lies in a natural three-forked valley at the confluence of the River Brun and River Calder, surrounded by pleasant countryside which evolves into wild moorland at higher altitudes. The landmark RIBA-award winning panopticon ''Singing Ringing Tree'' was installed on the hills overlooking the town, in 2006.^[23]
To the west of Burnley lie the towns of Padiham, Accrington and Blackburn, with Nelson and Colne to the north. To the north west of the town lies the imposing and visually dramatic Pendle Hill, home of the Pendle Witches, whose summit stands 557m (1827ft) above sea level. To the east of the town lie the hills of the South Pennines, and to the south, the Forest of Rossendale.

Transport

Road

Burnley is served by Junctions 9, 10 and 11 of the M65 motorway, which runs west to Accrington, Blackburn and Preston, and northeast to Nelson and Colne. From the town centre, the A646 runs to Todmorden, the A679 to Accrington, the A671 to Clitheroe, and the A682 – Britain's most dangerous road^[24] – south to Rawtenstall and northeast to Nelson and the Yorkshire Dales.

Rail

Rail services to and from Burnley are provided by Northern Rail. The town has three railway stations, Burnley Manchester Road, Burnley Central and, on the western outskirts of the town centre, Burnley Barracks. (A fourth station, Rosegrove, serves the Rose Grove district west of Burnley.) Manchester Road station has an hourly semi-fast service west to Preston and Blackpool North and east to Leeds and York, whilst the Central and Barracks stations provide an hourly stopping service west to Blackpool South and Preston, and east to Nelson and Colne.

Bus and coach

The main bus operator in Burnley is Burnley & Pendle, although Northern Blue operate some local and coastal services and Tyrer Bus operate some tendered town services. Other services are provided by Coastlinks Express (X27 to Southport), First (589 to Rochdale, 592 to Halifax, West Yorkshire), Lancashire United (152 to Preston), Pennine (215 to Skipton), and Rossendale Transport (483 to Bury). National Express operates three coach services to London each day, and one to Birmingham.
The town has good bus links into Manchester, compensating for the lack of a direct rail link: the X43/X44 Witch Way service (operated by Burnley & Pendle) runs from Nelson to Manchester, via Burnley and Rawtenstall, using a fleet of specially-branded double-decker buses with leather seats. The fastest journeys take 59 minutes.
The town's futuristic bus station, made out of steel and glass, won the prestigious Bus Industry Award for Infrastructure in 2003.

Shopping

The town's main shopping street is St James Street, onto which Charter Walk shopping centre opens. The town centre is home to a good number of major high street multiples, including Marks and Spencer, Next and W H Smith, and a healthy mix of other shops, including specialist food shops, independent record shops and an independent bookshop. A large council-run market is open six days a week. On the edge of the town centre, three retail parks house big box stores, including Currys, Focus DIY and PC World.
A second town centre shopping centre, 'The Oval', housing 32 further units, is scheduled for construction in 2008-2010, but has yet to secure the anchor tenant needed for the project to proceed.^[25]

Sport

Burnley Football Club was founded in 1882, and have played their home matches at Turf Moor since 1883. They were one of the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888, and are now one of only four clubs to have held continuous membership of that league. Nicknamed the Clarets, in 2007-08 they play in the Championship. Other football clubs in the town include Burnley United and Burnley Belvedere, members of the West Lancashire Football League.
There are two members of the Lancashire Cricket League in the town. Burnley Cricket Club – the 2006 champions – play their home matches at Turf Moor, on a field next to the football ground, while Lowerhouse Cricket Club play at Liverpool Road.
Burnley has good sporting facilities for a town of its size. The new £29m St Peter's Centre offers swimming, squash courts and a fitness suite, while the nearby Spirit of Sport complex includes a large sports hall, and several indoor courts and synthetic pitches.^[26] For golfers, there is a municipal 9-hole golf course at Towneley Park, which also houses an 18-hole pitch and putt course. (Burnley Golf Club also welcomes visiting players.) There are tennis courts at Towneley Park, as well as at the Burnley Lawn Tennis Club, and eleven bowling greens around the town.^[27] A £235,000 skate park opened in Queens Park in 2003.

Culture and Nightlife

Burnley is well-served for a town of its size. There is a 9-screen multiplex cinema in the town centre, operated by Apollo Cinemas, and a theatre called the Mechanics Institute, which plays host to touring comedians and musical acts, as well as staging amateur dramatics. A second performance space, the purpose-built £1.5m Burnley Youth Theatre, opened nearby in 2005. For art lovers, there is a small contemporary visual arts gallery, the Mid-Pennine Gallery, and - on the outskirts of Burnley - larger galleries in the town's two stately homes, Towneley Hall and Gawthorpe Hall. There are also two local museums: the town's Historical Society operates the Museum of Local History in the historic surroundings of the Weavers' Triangle, while the Queen Street Mill Textile Museum celebrates Burnley's weaving past.
Once a year, Burnley hosts the two-day Burnley National Blues Festival, one of the largest Blues festivals in the country, drawing fans from all over Britain to venues spread across the town. It also hosts an annual balloon festival in the setting of Towneley Park.
Burnley has a lively nightlife, drawing clubbers from all over the north-west. The town is dominated by the club Lava Ignite; other major bars and nightclubs include Fusion (electro, retro, ghetto, house and techno), Calamity Jane's (cowboy-themed), Smackwater Jacks, Posh, The Hellbound Rockclub @ Graffiti Club and Sanctuary Rock Bar. Burnley has a small gay scene, centred on the Garden Bar in St James Street. There are also chain-owned bars, such as Wetherspoons and Walkabout.
It is also one of the 10 most important Northern Soul Music Towns, according to ''The Northern Soul Top 500'' by Kev Roberts. Regular Northern Soul nights are well attended by an appreciative audience at the Cattle Market pub, the Keirby Park Hotel and - outside town - The Forest Inn near Fence.
A particularly popular drink in Burnley is Bénédictine, as several regiments from Burnley were stationed in the French area where it is made during World War I, and - having acquired a taste for the drink - brought it back to Lancashire. It is usually taken with a small amount of hot water and is referred to as "Bene and Hot". This is often drunk in working men's clubs, usually after 10:30pm, as it is believed that it can help settle the stomach before sleep. This trivia explains one of Burnley F.C.'s more obscure and lesser known nicknames: 'The Benedictines'.

Places of interest

★ Gawthorpe Hall

★ Pendle Hill

★ Towneley Hall

★ Turf Moor
The Pennine Way passes six miles east of Burnley; the Mary Towneley Loop, part of the Pennine Bridleway, and the Burnley Way offer riders and walkers clearly-signed routes through the countryside immediately surrounding the town.
Parts of the film Whistle Down the Wind (1961) and the television series All Quiet on the Preston Front and Juliet Bravo were filmed in the town. (For example, Burnley Fire Station was the location of Social Services in the first series of Juliet Bravo, and town's library was used for exterior shots of the Magistrates Court in the same series.)

Education

The town's oldest educational establishment was Burnley Grammar School which was founded in 1559 and provided academic education for boys for over 400 years. It was reorganised as Habergham High School (the building of which is now part of Hameldon Community College) during the move to mixed and comprehensive education in the borough in the 1980s. The later, female equivalent to the Grammar School was Burnley Girls' High School on Kiddrow Lane.
Prior to reorganisation in 2006, the education system was intertwined delicately with long-standing customs and traditions of the town. Schools and local industries formed a kind of historical symbiosis, and it was not uncommon to find families with multi-generational attachments to one school and subsequent company.
The borough of Burnley currently has five 11-16 secondary schools:

★ Blessed Trinity RC College

★ Hameldon Community College

★ Shuttleworth College

★ Sir John Thursby Community College

★ Unity College
These opened in September 2006 as part of the first wave of a nationwide 10-15 year programme of capital investment funded by the Department for Education and Skills called Building Schools for the Future. The schools currently occupy the buildings of Burnley's seven previous secondary schools; over the next four years all are to be completely rebuilt. Burnley Schools' Sixth Form, which forms a sixth element of the BSF programme, offers sixth form provision on the site of the former Barden High School.
Burnley College is the borough's main tertiary education provider, offering vocational and professional training, adult education, and a small number of degree courses, as well as some GCSE courses and a full range of A levels. It is scheduled to move to a new £70million campus off Princess Way in September 2009.
Burnley also has its own Access Point, providing Matrix-accredited, career related information, advice and guidance (IAG), and basic training to local people. This service is provided by Burnley Borough Council and aims to raise the standard of education and employability of local people. Access Point provides bespoke adult learning programmes, including literacy, numeracy and ESOL with embedded work-related skills. It also provides other forms of basic, accredited work related training, such as Food Hygiene and Health and Safety training.

Twin Towns

Burnley is twinned with:

★ Vitry-sur-Seine (''since 1958'')

★ Jhelum (''since 2007'') — ''unofficial''^[28]

People

Entertainment

Probably the most famous Burnley figure in the field of entertainment is actor and gay activist Sir Ian McKellen. Other actors from the town include Julia Haworth and Malcolm Hebden ''(Coronation Street)'', Richard Moore and Lisa Riley ''(Emmerdale)'', and Alice Barry and Jody Latham ''(Shameless)'', and film actor Lee Ingleby. Paul Abbott, creator of ''Shameless'', was born in the town. Within the television industry, producer and executive Peter Salmon and Tony Livesey, Sport Editor on BBC1's ''North West Tonight'' and presenter of the breakfast show on BBC Radio Lancashire, were also born in Burnley.
Musicians include Bernie Calvert, Bobby Elliott and Eric Haydock ''(The Hollies)'', Dunstan Bruce, and Danbert Nobacon, Alice Nutter, Lou Watts and Boff Whalley ''(Chumbawamba)'', as well as classical composer John Pickard.
The nineteenth-century author and clergyman Silas Hocking wrote his most famous work, ''Her Benny'' (1879), while living in the town.

Politics

Shahid Malik, Member of Parliament for Dewsbury, was born in Burnley, as was James Yorke Scarlett, commander of the Heavy Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava.

Sport

Burnley's sporting figures include England and Lancashire cricketer James Anderson, England and Everton Women's goalkeeper Rachel Brown, Bury FC manager Chris Casper, professional poker player John Falconer, Commonwealth Games Gold Medal-winning gymnast Craig Heap, and Neil Hodgson, 2003 World Superbike champion. Ron Greenwood, former manager of the England football team, was born in nearby Worsthorne.

References

1. Office for National Statistics. 2001 census. Accessed 6 September, 2007.
2. Office for National Statistics. Accessed 6 September, 2007.
3. Brian Hall, ''Burnley: A Short History'', Burnley Historical Society, 2002, p.4
4. Hall, ibid., p.5
5. Hall, ibid., p.6
6. Hall, ibid., p.6
7. Hall, ibid., p.7
8. Hall, ibid., p.6
9. Hall, ibid., p.6
10. Hall, ibid., p.8
11. Hall, ibid., p.9
12. Hall, ibid., p.11
13. Hall, ibid., p.13
14. Hall, ibid., p.14
15. www.burnley.gov.uk. Accessed 6 September, 2007.
16. Hall, ibid., p.15
17. Hall, ibid., p.16
18. Hall, ibid., p.17
19. Hall, ibid., p.18
20. www.visionofbritain.org.uk. Accessed 6 September, 2007.
21. skip Institute for Public Policy Research. Accessed 6 September, 2007.
22. Burnley Task Force report. Accessed 6 September, 2007.
23. www.panopticons.uk.net. Accessed 6 September, 2007.
24. www.bbc.co.uk, 24 June, 2007. Accessed 6 September, 2007
25. "Debenhams Pulls Out!", ''Burnley Express'', 19 December 2006. Accessed 7 September 2007.
26. www.burnley.gov.uk. Accessed 7 September 2007.
27. www.burnley.gov.uk. Accessed 7 September 2007.
28. Minutes of Burnley Borough Council meeting, 14 February 2007. Accessed 21 August 2007.

Bibliography

★ Walter Bennett, ''The History of Burnley'', 4 vols., Burnley Corporation, 1946-1951

★ Ken Bolton & Roger Frost, ''Burnley'', Francis Frith, 2006 ISBN 1-84589-131-7

★ Brian Hall, ''Burnley: A Short History'', Burnley Historical Society, 2002

★ Mike Townend, ''Burnley'', Tempus Publishing, 2004 ISBN 0-7524-1566-2

★ Mike Townend, ''Burnley Revisited'', Tempus Publishing, 2006 ISBN 0-7524-3996-0

External links

★ Burnley Borough Council

★ Burnley in 1890 | Old Ordnance Survey Maps

★ Burnley in 2007 | Photographs of Burnley town centre and surrounding area

★ The Leeds and Liverpool canal in Burnley

★ Visit Burnley