Burnley, Lancashire
Historical Description
Burnley is a county borough and an important cotton manufacturing town, in the higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, in the county of Lancaster, and is represented in Parliament by one member. The municipal borough comprises portions of the townships of Burnley, Haberghameaves, Briercliffe-with-Extwistle, Reedly Hallows, Filley Close, New Laund Booth, and Ightonhill Park, embracing 4015 acres. The area of the parliamentary borough is 6213 acres. The principal industries are cotton manufacturing, machine making, engineering, paper-making, and coalmining. It is well situated for trade, being watered by the streams of the Brun (from which the town takes its name) and the Calder, tributaries of the river Ribble, and is almost encircled by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company have two lines running through the town, and there are four stations within the borough.
In 1819 the first Improvement Act for regulating and governing the town was obtained. The area was three-quarters of a mile, and 16 commissioners were by it empowered to " watch, light, cleanse, pave, and otherwise regulate the town." In 1846 another Act was passed increasing the number of commissioners to 60, and empowering them to purchase the waterworks established in 1819. In 1854 another Improvement Act was obtained with additional powers, and to purchase the powers and interest of the old gaswork company. A charter of incorporation was granted on the 24th October, 1861, and Burnley was created a parliamentary borough in 1867. A consolidating Act of Parliament was obtained in 1871 extending the boundaries of the borough, with further powers for governing. In 1883 an Act was obtained to amend and extend former Acts, and to authorise the construction of new waterworks; and in 1889 another Act conferring further powers upon the corporation with respect to their gas undertaking. Provisional orders were obtained in 1876 for street improvements; 1878, borrowing powers for gas extensions, £35,000; 1879. borrowing powers for various purposes, £21,000; 1880. for waterworks purposes, £80,000; 1883, gasworks purposes, £11,000; 1884, gas stoves, £4000; 1885, new municipal offices, £30,000, and gas purposes, £15,000; 1887, general purposes, £100,000; 1890, electric lighting; 1890, purchase of land for sewage purposes at Altham; 1890, general purposes, £100,000; 1891, local government order as to distribution of proceeds of residue of share of local taxation (customs and excise) duties; 1892, compulsory purchase of lands for street improvements.
There are eight churches in the town-the parish church, St Peter's, dating from the reign of Henry I.; Holy Trinity, built in 1836; St James' in 1849, St Paul's in 1853, St Andrew's in 1867. In 1877 the foundation stones of two new churches were laid, viz., St Stephen's and St Matthew's, and shortly after St John's. These were consecrated in 1879. In the case of the four latter the Rector of Burnley (the Rev. Canon Parker) and his family generously provided an endowment for each of £150 per annum. The parish registers of births, marriages, and deaths were commenced in 1562, and are complete to the present time. The Roman Catholics, Wesleyans, Congregationalists, Baptists, United Free Methodists, Primitive Methodists, and United Methodists have erected handsome places of worship and schools.
Upon the dissolution of the chantries in the 1st year of Edward I. The chantry lands of Burnley, among others, were-sequestrated, and sold to Sir Richard Towneley; but afterwards, by the consent of the Royal Commissioners, were conferred upon Sir Gilbert Fairbank, the last chantry priest, for his life, and after his death to the use of a schoolmaster and the support of a free grammar school for the town. Dr William Whitaker the controversial author, Alexander Nowell dean of St Paul's, and Sir Jonas Moore the mathematician and companion of Flamsteed, here received the first rudiments of their education. In consequence of a dispute with the Towneley family and the parish authorities as to the right of possession, the chantry-house, which stood in the parish churchyard, ceased to be available for a school, and in 1693 a new school was built at North Parade. This becoming dilapidated a new school of classic design was built at a short distance, and opened in 1874. The technical school, in Elizabeth Street, was erected in 1892 at a total cost of £4552. The Victoria Hospital was opened in 1886 by the late Duke of Clarence, on a suitable site off Briercliffe Road, given for that purpose by Sir John Hardy Thursby, Bart. The cost was £15,000, and the number of beds provided at the present time is 76.
In the 22nd year of Edward I. Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, obtained a charter for holding a weekly market and a fair annually on the " eve, day, and morrow of the Apostles. Peter and Paul." A market company was formed in 1829, which became a limited company in 1864, and the undertaking was sold to the Corporation of Burnley in 1865. In 1866 the foundation stone of a new market hall was laid with masonic honours, and the building, which had cost about £12,000, was opened for public use in January, 1870.
The town-hall, situated in Manchester Road, is a handsome-structure, with council chamber, committee rooms, offices, a court for the holding of the quarter sessions and the petty sessions. The building was opened in 1888, and has cost £56,600 inclusive of the site and public baths adjoining, opened in 1887. The Queen's Park, pleasantly situated at the Ridge, and comprising an area of 28 acres, was generously given by Sir John Hardy Thursby, Bart., the corporation having expended £14,000 in forming roads, erecting buildings, planting, and laying out the same. The Scott Park, on the Hood House estate, will shortly be commenced, and will have an area of about 16 acres. The cost. of the site and the laying out, &c., will be defrayed out of a bequest by the late Alderman Scott, a former mayor of the borough. In addition to these two parks there are nine recreation grounds, which have a total area of 55 acres, and are situated in various parts of the borough. The electric lighting station was opened in 1893-the cost of the building, plant, and cables amounting to about £18,000. There are five reservoirs, which have a total holding capacity of 440,000,000 gallons. The cemetery, about two miles from the centre of the town, with an area of 26 acres tastefully laid out, was opened in 1854.
The borough is divided into two drainage areas, which contain populations of respectively 78,000 and 15,000. The sewage from the larger area is treated at the Duckpits and Woodend by chemical precipitation and subsequent filtration of the clarified sewage through porous beds of land. The smaller area works are on similar lines to the works of the larger drainage area. Before the liquid is turned into the adjoining stream it is clear, colourless, and devoid of smell. The whole scheme is the conception of F. S. Button, Esq., the borough engineer. The total area of the land acquired for these purposes is about 83 acres, and the cost of constructing intercepting sewers and sewage outfall works will be about £130,000.
The Co-operative and Industrial Society is one of the most nourishing establishments in the country. The central building is in Hammerton Street, and their 54 branch shops are spread over the town. They have 11 newsrooms and a library free to members containing 5000 volumes. The number of members is 8577, capital £78,665, and the receipts are nearly £300,000 per annum.
The most notable buildings in the town are the Mechanics' Institute, the Literary Institute, with good libraries, newsrooms, and classes; the banks of four companies, two building societies, poor law offices, and the Victoria Theatre. The Burnley Union Workhouse is a fine and commodious building at Rake Head, and there are two board schools.
A steam tramway, 7 miles in length, connecting the borough of Nelson and the town of Padiham, passes through the main street of the town.
So late as the beginning of this century agriculture and a small domestic manufacture of woollen and cotton were the main occupations of the inhabitants, but about 1826 steam machinery was introduced into the latter, which has so flourished as to make the town the second largest cotton manufacturing town in the world.
There are two bi-weekly papers, the Burnley Express (Conservative) and the Burnley Gazette, (Liberal). Population of the parliamentary borough (Clitheroe division), 86,034; of the municipal borough, 51,712 , and of the civil parish, 39,550.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Lancashire | |
Civil parish | Whalley | |
Hundred | Blackburn | |
Poor Law union | Burnley |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Registers of Burnley, 1562-1653, are available to browse online.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Lancashire Archives, have images of the Parish Registers for Lancashire online.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Burnley from the following:
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Burnley are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online: