Burnley

Perhaps the most noticeable change here would be that the ornate gas lamps have long since gone. The central dome dominates the building. However, it was originally intended that there should be a much higher tower with two flanking domes, but these were not built because some council members baulked at the cost. The façade of the Town Hall is perhaps too busy; but notice that it contains a number of niches. These were going to be filled with statues of Burnley’s worthies, but again this project has not been completed.
An extract from from"Burnley Town and City Memories".

This picture gives us a brief glimpse into the daily life of some of Burnley’s people. Notice the woman, right, with the umbrella near the bollard at the top of Saunder Bank. In the middle of the road two young men, one with a bike, chat together. In front of them a little girl may have been asked to stand there by the photographer for the benefit of the composition, but one wonders if she is aware of what she is doing! The cart, left, was the usual way of carrying light loads around the town centre, but the carters often had difficulty on Manchester Road.
An extract from from"Burnley Town and City Memories".

This is an unusual photograph of Burnley’s parish church in that it is taken from the north, where the trees make photography difficult. The photographer has managed to get round this problem by making use of one of the upstairs windows of the Old Grammar School. St Peter’s occupies the original site of the community that eventually became Burnley, which perhaps dates from the Dark Ages. This was a relatively easy position to defend because the river almost surrounds the site. We can see the Church Street Road Bridge to the left, and the land upon which the church is built slopes down quite steeply to the river. To the right of the tower stands St Peter’s Church School, Burnley’s oldest school.
An extract from from"Burnley Town and City Memories".

A hint of the heavily-wooded banks of the Brun can be seen on the left of this picture. It was here, in what was called the ‘steepland of St Peter’s’, that Burnley Grammar School was founded in 1559, though there had been a ‘song school’ at St Peter’s many years before that. A flag flies from what is a wonderful vantage point, and the tower itself reminds us that St Peter’s has a very good peal of bells.
An extract from from"Burnley Town and City Memories".

This photograph shows how the church was extended in the 1850s — at this time there was great demand for pews in St Peter’s. It would have been difficult to extend the building, because its site was constrained by the Brun, so the solution was to construct galleries. The Master window, in the middle, is dedicated to the memory of Robert Mosley Master: when he left Burnley after thirty years in 1855, he became Archdeacon of Manchester.
An extract from from"Burnley Town and City Memories".