Burnley is a
market townMarket town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
in the
Burnley boroughBurnley is a local government district of Lancashire, England, with the status of a non-metropolitan district and borough. It has an area of and a population of , and is named for its largest town, Burnley. The borough is bounded by Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Pendle, Rossendale — all in Lancashire...
of
LancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England, with a population of around 73,500. It lies 21 miles (34 km) north of
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and 25 miles (40 km) east of Preston, at the confluence of the
River CalderThe River Calder is a major tributary of the River Ribble, starting in Cliviger close to Burnley in Lancashire, England and is around 24 km / 15 miles in length. Its source is very close to that of the West Yorkshire river with the same name, and that of the River Irwell. It flows through...
and
River BrunThe River Brun is a river in eastern Lancashire.Rising at the confluence of Hurstwood Brook and Rock Water at Foxstones Bridge near the village of Hurstwood, the river runs north west towards the town of Burnley.The river passes through the artificial Rowley Lake near Rowley Hall and collects...
.
The town began to develop in the early medieval period as a number of farming
hamletsA hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
surrounded by
manorManorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
houses and
royal forestA royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...
s, gaining a market over 700 years ago. However, its main period of expansion was during the
Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, when it grew into one of Lancashire's most prominent
mill townA mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories .- United Kingdom:...
s. At its peak, it was one of the world's largest producers of
cottonCotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
cloth, and a major centre of engineering.
Today, Burnley has a post-industrial economy and landscape, and is increasingly a dormitory town for
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
,
LeedsThe City of Leeds is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Leeds City Council, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. The metropolitan district includes Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell,...
and the
M65The M65 is a motorway in Lancashire, England. It runs from just south of Preston through the major junction of the M6 and M61 motorways, east past Darwen, Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and ends at Colne.-History:...
corridor.
Toponomy
The name Burnley is believed to have been derived from Brun Lea meaning 'meadow by the River Brun'. Various other spellings have been used: Bronley (1241), Brunley (1251) and commonly Brumleye (1294)
Origins
Stone AgeThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
flint tools and weapons have been found on the
moorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
around the town, as have numerous tumuli, stone circles, and some hill forts (see:
Castercliff Camp, which dates from around 600 BC). Also, modern-day Back Lane, Sump Hall Lane and Noggarth Rd follow the route of a classic ridge road running east-west to the north of the town. This indicates that the area was populated during pre-history and was probably controlled by the
BrigantesThe Brigantes were a Celtic tribe who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England, and a significant part of the Midlands. Their kingdom is sometimes called Brigantia, and it was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire...
.
Limited coin finds indicate
RomanRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
influence in the area, although no evidence of a settlement has been found in the town. However, Gorple Road (running east from
WorsthorneWorsthorne is a rural village on the eastern outskirts of Burnley in Lancashire, England. The parish of Worsthorne-with-Hurstwood has a population of 2,986. The village was known as Worthesthorn in 1202, which means thorn tree of a man named 'Weorth'....
) appears to follow the route of a
RomanRoman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the vast standing Roman army , constituted the three most impressive features of the Roman Empire. In Britain, as in other provinces, the Romans constructed a comprehensive network of paved trunk roads Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the...
one that possibly crossed the present day centre of town on the way to the fort at
RibchesterRibchester is a village and civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Ribble, northwest of Blackburn and east of Preston.The village has a long history with evidence of Bronze Age beginnings...
. It has been claimed that
earthworksIn archaeology, earthwork is a general term to describe artificial changes in land level. Earthworks are often known colloquially as 'lumps and bumps'. Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features or they can show features beneath the surface...
near here, known as Ring Stones Camp (53.793°N 2.174°W), Twist Castle (53.800°N 2.171°W) and Beadle Hill (53.803°N 2.169°W) are of Roman origin, but little archaeological information has been published to support this.
There is little evidence to show what happened in the wider area immediately after the Roman period, but it is believed to have become part of the kingdom of
RhegedRheged is described in poetic sources as one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking region of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, during the Early Middle Ages...
, before sometime later, possibly through invasion, becoming part of the kingdom of
NorthumbriaNorthumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
. Local place names
PadihamPadiham is a small town and civil parish on the River Calder, about west of Burnley and south of Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, England. It is part of the Borough of Burnley but also has its own town council with varied powers.-History:...
and Habergham show the influence of the
AnglesThe Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
, suggesting that some had settled in the area by the early 7th century, and some time after, the land became part of the hundred of
BlackburnshireBlackburnshire was a hundred, or ancient division of the county of Lancashire, in northern England. It was centred on Blackburn, and covered an area approximately equal to modern day East Lancashire....
.
The same area was historically believed to be the likely location in 937 of the
Battle of BrunanburhThe Battle of Brunanburh was an English victory in 937 by the army of Æthelstan, King of England, and his brother Edmund over the combined armies of Olaf III Guthfrithson, the Norse-Gael King of Dublin, Constantine II, King of Scots, and Owen I, King of Strathclyde...
, one of the most important, but little known, battles in British history.
There is no definitive record of a settlement until after the
Norman conquest of EnglandThe Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
. In 1122 a
charterA charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
granted the church of Burnley to the
monkA monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s of Pontefract Abbey. In its early days, Burnley was a small farming community, gaining a
corn millThe terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
in 1290, a market in 1294, and a
fulling millFulling or tucking or walking is a step in woolen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker, or walker...
in 1296. At this point, it was within the
manorManorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of
IghtenhillIghtenhill is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of 1,512. It is also considered to be a district of the town of Burnley, with boundaries that do not follow those of the parish....
, one of five that made up the
Honor of ClitheroeThe Honour of Clitheroe is an ancient grouping of manors and royal forests centred on Clitheroe Castle in Lancashire, England; an honour traditionally being the grant of a large landholding complex, not all of whose parts are contiguous...
, then a far more significant settlement, and consisted of no more than 50 families. Little survives of early Burnley apart from the
Market CrossA market cross is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, originally from the distinctive tradition in Early Medieval Insular art of free-standing stone standing or high crosses, often elaborately carved, which goes back to the 7th century. Market crosses can be found in most...
, erected in 1295, which now stands in the grounds of an annexe of
Burnley CollegeBurnley College is a further education college based in Burnley, Lancashire.- New College Site :Situated on Princess Way , Burnley in Lancashire...
.
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 HallGawthorpe Hall, a Lancashire County Council property managed by the National Trust is an Elizabethan house near the town of Padiham, in the borough of Burnley, Lancashire, England...
in Padiham and
Towneley HallTowneley Park comprises Towneley Hall, a large country house, and its surrounding estate on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire, England....
, and in 1532 St Peter's Church was largely rebuilt. Burnley's
grammar schoolA grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
was founded in 1559, and moved into its own schoolhouse next to the church in 1602. Burnley began to develop in this period into a small
market townMarket town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
. It is known that
weavingWeaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
was established in the town by the middle of the 17th century 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
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
Road at the end of the 18th century.
Industrial Revolution
In the second half of the 18th century, the manufacture of
cottonA cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
began to replace that of
woolWool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
. Burnley's earliest known factories – dating from the mid-century – stood on the banks of the
River CalderThe River Calder is a major tributary of the River Ribble, starting in Cliviger close to Burnley in Lancashire, England and is around 24 km / 15 miles in length. Its source is very close to that of the West Yorkshire river with the same name, and that of the River Irwell. It flows through...
close to where it is joined by the
River BrunThe River Brun is a river in eastern Lancashire.Rising at the confluence of Hurstwood Brook and Rock Water at Foxstones Bridge near the village of Hurstwood, the river runs north west towards the town of Burnley.The river passes through the artificial Rowley Lake near Rowley Hall and collects...
, and relied on water power to drive the
spinning machinesThe spinning jenny is a multi-spool spinning frame. It was invented c. 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology...
. The first turnpike road through Burnley was begun in 1754, linking the town to
Blackburn and
ColneColne is the second largest town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 20,118. It lies at the eastern end of the M65, 6 miles north-east of Burnley, with Nelson immediately adjacent, in the Aire Gap with two main roads leading into the Yorkshire...
, and by the early 19th century there were daily stagecoach journeys to
Blackburn,
SkiptonSkipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...
and
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, the last taking just over two hours.
The 18th century also saw the rapid development of
coal miningThe goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
: the
drift minesDrift mining is either the mining of a placer deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. Drift is a more general mining term, meaning a near-horizontal passageway in a mine, following the bed or vein of ore. A...
and shallow
bell-pitsA bell pit is a primitive method of mining coal, iron ore or other minerals where the coal or ore lies near the surface.. A shaft is sunk to reach the mineral which is excavated by miners transported to the surface by a winch and removed by means of a bucket, much like a well. It gets its name...
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 modern-day centre of the town alone.
The arrival of the
Leeds and Liverpool CanalThe Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , it crosses the Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line...
in 1796 made possible transportation of goods in bulk, bringing a huge boost to the town's economy. Dozens of new mills were constructed, along with many foundries and
ironworksAn ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...
that supplied the cotton mills and coal mines with machinery and
castCast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
and
wrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
for construction. The town became renowned for its mill-engines and the
Burnley LoomThe Lancashire Loom was a semi-automatic power loom invented by James Bullough and William Kenworthy in 1842. Although it is self-acting, it has to be stopped to recharge empty shuttles. It was the mainstay of the Lancashire cotton industry for a century....
was recognised as one of the best in the world.
Disaster struck the town in 1824, when first its only local bank (known as Holgate's) collapsed, forcing the closure of some of the largest mills. This was followed by a summer drought, which caused serious problems for many of the others, leading to high levels of unemployment and possibly contributing to the national
financial crisis of 1825The Panic of 1825 was a stock market crash that started in the Bank of England arising in part out of speculative investments in Latin America, including the imaginary country of Poyais...
.
By 1830 there were 32
steam enginesStationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars , agricultural engines used for ploughing or...
in cotton mills throughout the rapidly expanding town, an example of which, originally installed at Harle Syke Mill, is on display in the
Science Museum (London)The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
.
The Irish Potato Famine led to an influx of
IrishThe Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
families during the 1840s, who formed a community in one of the poorest districts. At one time the Park district (modern-day town centre, around Parker St.) was known as Irish Park.
In 1848 the East Lancashire Railway Company's extension from
AccringtonAccrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...
linked the town to the nation's nascent railway network for the first time. This was another significant boost to the local economy and, by 1851, the town's population had reached almost 21,000.
The
Cotton FamineThe Lancashire Cotton Famine, also known as The Cotton Famine or the Cotton Panic , was a depression in the textile industry of North West England, brought about by the interruption of baled cotton imports caused by the American Civil War. The boom years of 1859 and 1860 had produced more woven...
of 1861–1865, caused by the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, was again disastrous for the town. However, the resumption of trade led to a quick recovery and, by 1866, the town was the largest producer of cotton cloth in the world.
Burnley was incorporated as a
municipal boroughMunicipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
in 1861, and became, under the
Local Government Act 1888The Local Government Act 1888 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales...
, a
county boroughCounty borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...
outside the administrative county of Lancashire. By the 1880s the town was manufacturing more looms than anywhere in the country.
The Burnley Electric Lighting Order was granted in 1890, giving the Burnley Corporation (which already controlled the water supply and the making and sale of gas) a monopoly on generating and selling
electricityElectricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
in the town. Building of the coal-powered Electricity Works began in 1891 in Grimshaw St, close to the canal (site of modern-day Tesco) and the first supply was inaugurated on 22 August 1893, initially to generate electricity for street lights.
The start of the 20th century saw Burnley's textile industry at the height of its prosperity. By 1910, there were approximately 99,000
power loomA power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...
s in the town, and it reached its peak population of over 100,000 in 1911. However, the First World War heralded the beginning of the collapse of the English textiles industry and the start of a steady decline in the town's population.
The World Wars
In the First World War almost 4,000 men died, approximately 15% of the male working-age population. 250 volunteers, known as the Burnley Pals, made up Z Company of 11th Battalion, the
East Lancashire RegimentThe East Lancashire Regiment was, from 1881 to 1958, an infantry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of two 30th and 59th Regiments of Foot with the militia and rifle volunteer units of eastern Lancashire...
, a battalion that as a whole became known by the far more infamous name of the
Accrington PalsThe Accrington Pals was a British First World War Pals battalion of Kitchener's Army raised in and around the town of Accrington in Lancashire. When the battalion was taken over by the British Army it was officially named the 11th Battalion, The East Lancashire Regiment.Recruiting was initiated by...
.
Victoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
es were awarded to two soldiers from the town,
Hugh ColvinHugh Colvin VC , born in Burnley, Lancashire was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.He was 30 years old, and a Second Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, The...
and
Thomas WhithamThomas Whitham VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...
, along with a third to resident (and only son of the chief constable)
Alfred Victor SmithAlfred Victor Smith VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....
. A memorial to the fallen was erected in 1926 in
Towneley ParkTowneley Park comprises Towneley Hall, a large country house, and its surrounding estate on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire, England....
.
In between the wars came the
great depressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1930s.
In the Second World War, two
Distinguished Service OrderThe Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
s and eight
Distinguished Conduct MedalThe Distinguished Conduct Medal was an extremely high level award for bravery. It was a second level military decoration awarded to other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to non-commissioned personnel of other Commonwealth countries.The medal was instituted in 1854, during the Crimean...
s, along with a large number of lesser awards, were awarded to servicemen from the town. At Heights Farm was a
bombing decoyStarfish sites, or bombing decoy sites, were deliberately created simulations of burning towns that were constructed in Britain during World War II. The name came from the code name for one of the sites, "Starfish", itself from the original code, SF, for Special Fire.Starfish sites were used to...
nicknamed "Manchester on the moors". Burnley escaped the bombing, largely due to the town being near the limit of German bomber range, and its proximity to higher value targets in Manchester. Although the
blackoutA blackout during war, or apprehended war, is the practice of collectively minimizing outdoor light, including upwardly directed light. This was done in the 20th century to prevent crews of enemy aircraft from being able to navigate to their targets simply by sight, for example during the London...
was enforced, most of the aircraft in the sky above the town would have been friendly and on training missions, or returning to the factories for maintenance. Aircraft crashes did occur, however: In September 1942 a P-38 Lightning from the 14th Fighter Group
USAAFThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
crashed near
ClivigerCliviger is a civil parish within the Borough of Burnley, in Lancashire, England. It is situated to the southeast of Burnley, and northwest of Todmorden and has a population of 2,350...
, and Black Hameldon Hill claimed a
HalifaxThe Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...
from
No. 51 Squadron RAFNo. 51 Squadron of the Royal Air Force most recently operated the Nimrod R1 from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire until June 2011. Crews from No. 51 Squadron are currently training alongside the US Air Force on the Boeing RC-135, which is planned to enter service with the RAF over the next seven years...
in January 1943 and also a B-24 Liberator from the
491st Bombardment GroupThe 491st Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Army Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the II Bomber Command, stationed at McChord Field, Washington. It was inactivated on 8 September 1945....
USAAFThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
in February 1945. Lucas Industries set up shadow factories, producing a wide range of electrical parts for the war effort. Notably they were involved with the Rover Company's failed attempts (and
Rolls-RoyceRolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
's later successful ones) to produce
Frank WhittleAir Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...
's pioneering
jet engineA jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
design, the
W.2|-See also:-Bibliography:*Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-163-9*Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II. London. Studio Editions Ltd, 1998...
(
Rolls-Royce Welland-Bibliography:* Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II. London. Studio Editions Ltd, 1989. ISBN 0-517-67964-7-External links:*...
) in
BarnoldswickBarnoldswick is a town and civil parish within the West Craven area of the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is built in the shadow of Weets Hill, and Stock Beck, a...
. Magnesium Elektron's factory in Lowerhouse became the largest
magnesiumMagnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
production facility in Britain. An unexpected benefit of the conflict for the residents of Burnley occurred in 1940. The Old Vic Theatre Company and the Sadler's Wells Opera and Ballet Companies moved from London to the town’s Victoria Theatre. Burnley's main war memorial stands in Place de Vitry sur Seine next to the central library.
Post-World War II
There were widespread celebrations in the town in the summer of 1960, when Burnley FC won the old
first divisionThe First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
to become Football League champions.
The Queen paid an official visit to the town in summer 1961, marking the 100th anniversary of Burnley's borough status. The rest of the
decadeA decade is a period of 10 years. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek dekas which means ten. This etymology is sometime confused with the Latin decas and dies , which is not correct....
saw large scale
redevelopmentRedevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.-Description:Variations on redevelopment include:* Urban infill on vacant parcels that have no existing activity but were previously developed, especially on Brownfield land, such as the redevelopment of an industrial site...
in the town. Many buildings were demolished including the market hall, the cattle market, the Odeon cinema and hundreds of houses. New construction projects included the Charter Walk shopping centre, Centenary way and its
flyoverAn overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
, the Keirby Hotel, a new central bus station, Trafalgar flats, and a number of office blocks. The town's largest coal mine, Bank Hall colliery, closed in April 1971 resulting in the loss of 571 jobs. The area of the mine has been restored as a park.
Under the
Local Government Act 1972The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
Burnley's
county boroughCounty borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...
status was abolished, and it was incorporated with neighbouring areas into the
non-metropolitan districtNon-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a so-called "two-tier" arrangement...
of
BurnleyBurnley is a local government district of Lancashire, England, with the status of a non-metropolitan district and borough. It has an area of and a population of , and is named for its largest town, Burnley. The borough is bounded by Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Pendle, Rossendale — all in Lancashire...
.
In 1980 Burnley was connected to the motorway network, through the construction of the first and second sections of the
M65The M65 is a motorway in Lancashire, England. It runs from just south of Preston through the major junction of the M6 and M61 motorways, east past Darwen, Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and ends at Colne.-History:...
. Although the route, next to the railway and over the former Clifton colliery site, was chosen to minimize the clearance of occupied land, Yatefield, Olive Mount and Whittlefield Mills, the Barracks, and several hundred more terrace houses had to be demolished. Unusually this route passed close to the town centre and had a partitioning effect on the districts of Gannow,
IghtenhillIghtenhill is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of 1,512. It is also considered to be a district of the town of Burnley, with boundaries that do not follow those of the parish....
, Whittlefield, Rose Grove and Lowerhouse to the north. The 1980s and '90s saw massive expansion of
IghtenhillIghtenhill is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of 1,512. It is also considered to be a district of the town of Burnley, with boundaries that do not follow those of the parish....
and Whittlefield. Developers such as
BovisBovis Homes Group plc is a second tier national British housebuilding company based in New Ash Green, Kent. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
,
BarrattBarratt Developments PLC is one of the largest residential property development companies in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1958 as Greensitt Bros. but control was later assumed by Sir Lawrie Barratt. It was originally based in Newcastle upon Tyne but is now located at David Wilson's former...
and Wainhomes built large
housing estateA housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
s, predominantly on
greenfield landGreenfield land is a term used to describe undeveloped land in a city or rural area either used for agriculture, landscape design, or left to naturally evolve...
.
In the summer of 1992, the town came to national attention following rioting on the Stoops and Hargher Clough council estates in the south west of the town.
The turn of the
millenniumA millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
brought with it some improvement projects, notably the "Forest of Burnley" scheme, which planted approximately a million trees throughout the town and its outskirts, and the creation of the Lowerhouse Lodges local
nature reserveA nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
.
In June 2001, during a
period of wider unrestIn 2001, three unrelated riots occurred in England, these happened in localised areas of Oldham in May, the Manningham district of Bradford in June and the Harehills district of Leeds in July - all within forty miles of each other in central northern England....
, the town again received national attention following a series of violent disturbances arising from racial tension between elements of its white and Asian communities.
October 2009 saw the official opening of Burnley's first purpose-built
mosqueA mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
. The £1.5M privately funded Jamia Masjid Ghausia Mosque in Daneshouse was the culmination of 10 years of fundraising in the local and wider
MuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
communities.
Governance
Burnley has three tiers of government: Local government responsibilities are shared by
Burnley Borough CouncilBurnley is a local government district of Lancashire, England, with the status of a non-metropolitan district and borough. It has an area of and a population of , and is named for its largest town, Burnley. The borough is bounded by Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Pendle, Rossendale — all in Lancashire...
and
Lancashire County CouncilLancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It currently consists of 84 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, who won control of the council in the local council elections in June 2009, ending 28 years of...
; at a national level the town gives its name to a seat in the
United Kingdom parliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
and as a result is subject to the
European ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
. While the town itself is unparished, the rest of the borough has one further, bottom tier of government, the parish or town council.
Local:Borough
| Composition of Burnley Borough Council (as of May 2010) |
| Party |
Group Leader |
Seats |
Change |
|
|
Charlie Briggs |
24 |
+1 |
|
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
|
Julie Cooper |
14 |
+2 |
|
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
|
Peter Doyle |
5 |
-1 |
|
British National PartyThe British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
|
Sharon Wilkinson |
2 |
-2 |
| Total Seats |
45 |
Burnley Borough Council has been governed since
2008Elections to Burnley Council in Lancashire, England were held on 1 May 2008. One third of the council was up for election and the Liberal Democrat party gained overall control of the council from no overall control....
by the Liberal Democrats, led since
2010Elections to Burnley Council in Lancashire, England were held on 6 May 2010. One third of the council was up for election plus a by-election in the queensgate ward following the death of Liberal Democrat councilor Bill Bennett...
by Charlie Briggs. The
mayorIn many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
– a ceremonial post, which rotates annually – is currently Tony Lambert (
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
).
The borough comprises 15
wardsA ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
, 12 of which – Bank Hall, Briercliffe, Brunshaw, Coal Clough with Deerplay, Daneshouse with Stoneyholme, Gannow, Lanehead, Queensgate, Rosegrove with Lowerhouse, Rosehill with Burnley Wood, Trinity, and Whittlefield with Ightenhill – fall within the town itself. The remaining three – Cliviger with Worsthorne, Gawthorpe, and Hapton with Park, cover the neighbouring town of
PadihamPadiham is a small town and civil parish on the River Calder, about west of Burnley and south of Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, England. It is part of the Borough of Burnley but also has its own town council with varied powers.-History:...
and a number of villages.
Local:County
Lancashire County CouncilLancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It currently consists of 84 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, who won control of the council in the local council elections in June 2009, ending 28 years of...
was controlled by
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
from 1981 until the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
won control in the
local council elections in June 2009Lancashire County Council held elections on 4 June 2009. The United Kingdom government department Department for Communities and Local Government on the issue of moving the elections to the same date as the European Parliament election, 2009...
. The borough is represented on the council in six divisions: Burnley Central East, Burnley Central West, Burnley North East, Burnley Rural, Burnley South West, and Padiham & Burnley West. In 2009 Liberal Democrats won five of the six county seats and the
British National PartyThe British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
has a single councillor. The election of BNP candidate Sharon Wilkinson to the council seat of Padiham and Burnley West made her the BNP's first County Councillor.
National
The town elects a single
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, which since the general election in 2010 has been
Gordon BirtwistleGordon Birtwistle is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He is the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Burnley, England, from May 2010. He currently serves as PPS to Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury...
(Liberal Democrats).
Richard ShawRichard Shaw was a British Liberal Party politician.-Early life:Shaw was born in Burnley, Lancashire and educated at Burnley Grammar School and St Peter's School, York-Career:...
was the town's first
MPA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in
1868The 1868 United Kingdom general election was the first after passage of the Reform Act 1867, which enfranchised many male householders, thus greatly increasing the number of men who could vote in elections in the United Kingdom...
. Arguably its most notable MP was former leader of the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
and
Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
Laureate Arthur HendersonArthur Henderson was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and he served three short terms as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1908–1910, 1914–1917 and 1931-1932....
. All but one of the seven MPs elected by
BurnleyBurnley is a borough constituency centred on the town of Burnley in Lancashire, which is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
between the First World War and 2010 have been from the Labour party.
Europe
Burnley lies within the
North West EnglandNorth West England is a constituency of the European Parliament. For the 2009 elections it elects 8 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.-Boundaries:...
European Parliament constituency, which elects nine MEPs by proportional representation – currently three
ConservativeThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, two
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, one Liberal Democrat, one
UKIPThe United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
and one
BNPThe British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
.
Geography & Climate
The town lies in a natural three-forked
valleyIn geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...
at the
confluenceConfluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of the
River BrunThe River Brun is a river in eastern Lancashire.Rising at the confluence of Hurstwood Brook and Rock Water at Foxstones Bridge near the village of Hurstwood, the river runs north west towards the town of Burnley.The river passes through the artificial Rowley Lake near Rowley Hall and collects...
and the
River CalderThe River Calder is a major tributary of the River Ribble, starting in Cliviger close to Burnley in Lancashire, England and is around 24 km / 15 miles in length. Its source is very close to that of the West Yorkshire river with the same name, and that of the River Irwell. It flows through...
, surrounded by open fields, with wild
moorlandMoorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
at higher altitudes. To the west of Burnley lie the towns of
PadihamPadiham is a small town and civil parish on the River Calder, about west of Burnley and south of Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, England. It is part of the Borough of Burnley but also has its own town council with varied powers.-History:...
,
AccringtonAccrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...
and
Blackburn, with
NelsonNelson is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 28,998 in 2001. It lies 4 miles north of Burnley on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal....
and
ColneColne is the second largest town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 20,118. It lies at the eastern end of the M65, 6 miles north-east of Burnley, with Nelson immediately adjacent, in the Aire Gap with two main roads leading into the Yorkshire...
to the north. The centre of the town stands at approximately 118 metres (387 ft) above
sea levelMean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
and 30 miles (48 km) east of the
Irish SeaThe Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
coast.
Areas in the town include:
Burnley WoodBurnley Wood is a district of Burnley, Lancashire. In broad terms it lies between Parliament Street in the north and Stoney Street in the south, and from the railway in the west to Todmorden Road in the east.-History:...
, Rose Hill,
Harle SykeHarle Syke is a small village within the parish of Briercliffe, situated three miles north of Burnley, Lancashire, England. It was the home to eleven weaving firms, working out of seven mills. Queen Street Mill closed in 1982, and was converted to a textile museum, preserving it as a working mill...
,
HaggateHaggate is a small village within the parish of Briercliffe, situated three miles north of Burnley, Lancashire. The village is mostly built around a small crossroads, with routes towards Burnley, Nelson and Todmorden. The first buildings in the village date from the 16th century, when the Hare and...
, Daneshouse,
StoneyholmeStoneyholme is a district of Burnley, Lancashire, England, situated immediately north of the town centre. It is bounded by the M65 motorway to the west, and by the railway and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the east, and consists of predominately pre-1919 terraced housing.Stoneyholme developed...
, Burnley Lane, Heasandford, Brunshaw, Pike Hill, Gannow,
IghtenhillIghtenhill is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of 1,512. It is also considered to be a district of the town of Burnley, with boundaries that do not follow those of the parish....
, Whittlefield, Rose Grove, Habergham, and Lowerhouse. Although Reedley is considered to be a
suburbThe word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of the town, it is actually part of the neighboring borough of
PendlePendle is a local government district and borough of Lancashire, England. It adjoins the Lancashire boroughs of Burnley and Ribble Valley, the North Yorkshire district of Craven and the West Yorkshire districts of Calderdale and the City of Bradford...
.
To the north west of the town, and home of the Pendle Witches, is the imposing
Pendle HillPendle Hill is located in the north-east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Clitheroe and Padiham, an area known as Pendleside. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill, separated from the Pennines to the...
, which rises to 557 metres (1,827 ft), beyond which lie
ClitheroeClitheroe is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is 1½ miles from the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists in the area. It has a population of 14,697...
and the
Ribble ValleyRibble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Clitheroe. Other places include Whalley, Longridge and Ribchester. The area is so called due to the River Ribble which flows in its final stages...
. To the south west, the Hameldon Hills rise to 409 metres (1,342 ft), on top of which are the
Met OfficeThe Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
north west
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
weather radarWeather radar, also called weather surveillance radar and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, estimate its type . Modern weather radars are mostly pulse-Doppler radars, capable of detecting the motion of rain droplets in addition to the...
, a
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio transmitter, and a number of
microwaveMicrowaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
communication towers. This site was the first place in the UK chosen for an unmanned weather radar, beginning operation in 1979; it is one of 18 that cover the British Isles. Also since 2007 the three turbines of the Hameldon Hill wind farm have stood on its northern flank. To the east of the town lie the 511 metres (1,677 ft)
Boulsworth HillBoulsworth Hill is a large expanse of moorland, the highest point of the South Pennines of south-eastern Lancashire, England, separating the District of Pendle from Calderdale....
and the moors of the
South PenninesSouth Pennines is a region of moorland and hill country in northern England lying towards the southern end of the Pennines. It is bounded to the west by the Forest of Rossendale and the Yorkshire Dales to the north...
, and to the south, the Forest of Rossendale. On the hills above the
ClivigerCliviger is a civil parish within the Borough of Burnley, in Lancashire, England. It is situated to the southeast of Burnley, and northwest of Todmorden and has a population of 2,350...
area to the south east of the town stands
Coal CloughCoal Clough Wind Farm is one of the oldest onshore wind farms in England. The wind farm, which was built for Scottish Power, currently produces electricity from 24 Vestas WD34 wind turbines. It has a total nameplate capacity of 9.6 MW of electricity, enough to serve the average needs of...
wind farmA wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
, whose white turbines are visible from most of the town. Built in 1992 amidst local controversy, it was one of the first wind farm projects in the UK. Nearby, the landmark
RIBARiba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
-award winning
PanopticonPanopticons is an arts and regeneration project of the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network managed by Mid Pennine Arts. It involved the construction of series of 21st-century landmarks, or Panopticons , across East Lancashire, England, as symbols of the renaissance of the area...
Singing Ringing TreeThe Singing Ringing Tree is a wind powered sound sculpture resembling a tree set in the landscape of the Pennine mountain range overlooking Burnley, in Lancashire....
, overlooking the town from the hills at Crown Point, was installed in 2006.
Due to its hilly terrain and mining history,
ruralRural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
areas of modern Burnley encroach the
urbanAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
ones to within a mile of the town centre on the south, north west and north east.
The
Pennine WayThe Pennine Way is a National Trail in England. The trail runs from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and the Northumberland National Park and ends at Kirk Yetholm, just inside the Scottish border. The path runs along the Pennine hills, sometimes...
passes six miles (10 km) east of Burnley; the
Mary Towneley LoopThe Mary Towneley Loop is a circular route that forms part of the Pennine Bridleway National Trail, along the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire....
, part of the
Pennine BridlewayThe Pennine Bridleway is a new National Trail under designation in Northern England.It runs roughly parallel with the Pennine Way but provides access for horseback riders and cyclists as well as walkers. The trail is around long; through Derbyshire to the South Pennines, the Mary Towneley Loop...
, the
Brontë WayThe Brontë Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in the northern counties of West Yorkshire and Lancashire, England, United Kingdom.-Length:The Brontë Way runs for 69 km...
and the
Burnley WayThe Burnley Way is a 40 mile long distance footpath in Lancashire, England. As a circular walk it can be walked from any point, but it is considered to start and finish at the Weavers' Triangle Visitor Centre in Burnley. It covers a range of terrain from canal towpaths to open moorland.The...
offer riders and walkers clearly-signed routes through the countryside immediately surrounding the town.
Burnley has a
temperateIn geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
maritimeAn oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
climate, with relatively cool summers and mild winters. There is regular but generally light
precipitationIn meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
throughout the year, contributing to a relatively high
humidityHumidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
level. While snowfall occasionally occurs during the winter months, the temperature is rarely low enough for it to build up on the ground in any quantity. The town is believed to be the first place in the UK where regular rainfall measurements were taken (by
Richard TowneleyRichard Towneley was an English mathematician and astronomer from Towneley near Burnley, Lancashire. He was one of a group of seventeenth century astronomers in the north of England, which included Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree and William Gascoigne, the pioneer astronomers who laid the...
, beginning in 1677).
Demography
The
United Kingdom Census 2001A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
showed a total resident population for Burnley of 73,021. The town is the main population centre in the Burnley-Nelson urban area, which has an estimated population of 149,796; for comparison purposes, this is about the same size as
Huddersfield Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
,
OxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
or
PoolePoole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...
.
The racial composition of the borough is 91.77% White and 7.16% South Asian or South Asian / British, predominantly from
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. The largest religious groups are
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
(74.46%) and
MuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
(6.58%). 59.02% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 are classed as economically active and in work.
The town is noticeably
segregatedRacial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
, with the majority of its Asian residents living in the neighbouring Daneshouse and
StoneyholmeStoneyholme is a district of Burnley, Lancashire, England, situated immediately north of the town centre. It is bounded by the M65 motorway to the west, and by the railway and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the east, and consists of predominately pre-1919 terraced housing.Stoneyholme developed...
districts. In total, the size of its Asian community is much smaller than those in nearby towns such as Blackburn and Oldham.
In early 2010, the
Lancashire TelegraphThe Lancashire Telegraph, formerly the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It has two separate geographic editions each day – one for the boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, and one for Burnley, Pendle, and...
reported that Burnley topped
Home OfficeThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
figures for the highest number of burglaries per head in England and Wales between April 2008 – April 2009. This claim (minus the dates) was repeated during one of the questions in the first of the televised 2010 general election debates. However, in May 2010 the NPIA Local Crime Mapping System (believed to be the source of the data in the report) listed a 49.5% drop in this rate on the previous year.
Burnley has some of the lowest property prices in the country, with numerous streets appearing in the annual mouseprice.com most affordable streets in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
&
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
report. These streets are concentrated in areas of terrace housing in poorer neighbourhoods adjacent to the
town centreThe town centre is the term used to refer to the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town.Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations...
. Between 2005 and 2010 approximately £65m of government funds was invested into these areas through the
Elevate East Lancashire housing market renewal company (replaced by Regenerate Pennine Lancashire in 2010).
| Year |
1911 |
1921 |
1931 |
1939 |
1951 |
1961 |
1971 |
2001 |
| Population |
106,322 |
103,157 |
89,258 |
85,400 |
84,987 |
80,559 |
76,489 |
73,021 |
Sources:
www.visionofbritain.org.uk |
Economy and industry
Burnley's traditional employment base has been in decline for several decades. The last deep coal mine, Hapton Valley Colliery, closed in February 1981 and the last steam-powered mill,
Queen Street MillQueen Street Mill is in Harle Syke, a suburb to the north-east of Burnley, Lancashire. It was built in 1894 for The Queen Street Manufacturing Company. It closed on 12th March 1982 and was mothballed...
, in 1982. Over the next two decades, Burnley's two largest manufacturers both closed their factories: Prestige in July 1997 and
MichelinMichelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...
in April 2002. The town has struggled to recover: its employment growth between 1995 and 2004 placed it 55th of England's 56 largest towns and cities, and as of 2007 it was the 21st most deprived local authority (out of 354) in the United Kingdom. 13% of its working age population currently claims
incapacity benefitIncapacity Benefit is a United Kingdom state benefit that is paid to those below the State Pension age who cannot work because of illness or disability and have made National Insurance contributions. It is administered by Jobcentre Plus...
(national average 7%). The largest employment sector in the town is now public administration, education and health (31.2%), followed by manufacturing (21.9%).
Home shopping firm Shop Direct announced in January 2010 that it was to close its Burnley call centre with the loss of 450 jobs. The company, which owns
LittlewoodsLittlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...
, Additions Direct, Very, Empire Stores and Marshall Ward, had been in the town for over 30 years, originally as Great Universal Stores but now known as GUS plc.
Modern economic developments have been industrial estates and
business parkA business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
s with the following currently in Burnley: Heasandford, Rossendale Road, and Healeywood Industrial Estates; Network 65, Shuttleworth Mead, Smallshaw & Chestnut, Elm Street, and Gannow Business Parks; and Burnham Gate Trading Estate. A further large business park, provisionally called Burnley Bridge, is being developed on a site near
HaptonHapton is a village and civil parish in the borough of Burnley, in the English county of Lancashire. The village is west of Burnley town centre, and has a railway station on the East Lancashire Line. It has a population of 3,769...
formerly belonging to Hepworth Plastics.
Key manufacturing employers today are in highly specialised fields: Gardner Aerospace,
Safran AircelleSafran is a French conglomerate involved in defense, aerospace propulsion and equipment, and security. It is the result of a merger between the propulsion and aerospace equipment group SNECMA and the defense conglomerate SAGEM. Its headquarters are located in Paris.The name Safran, literally...
(aerospace),
GEGê are the people who spoke Ge languages of the northern South American Caribbean coast and Brazil. In Brazil the Gê were found in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Piaui, Mato Grosso, Goias, Tocantins, Maranhão, and as far south as Paraguay....
subsidiary Unison Engine Components (aerospace),
AMS NeveAMS Neve Ltd was the result of the amalgamation in 1992 of AMS with Neve Electronics.-Background:Neve Electronics was a British manufacturer of mixing consoles that originated in the work of Rupert Neve in the 1960s...
(professional audio), and
TRW AutomotiveTRW Automotive , headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, USA, is a major global supplier of automotive systems, modules and components to automotive original equipment manufacturers and related aftermarkets....
and Futaba-
TennecoTenneco is a $6.2 billion Fortune 500 company that has been publicly traded on the NYSE since November 5, 1999 under the symbol TEN...
UK (automotive components). The town has also had a long association with
Endsleigh InsuranceEndsleigh Insurance is a Cheltenham-based UK insurance intermediary specialising in the student and graduate markets. It is the preferred insurer for several unions and professional associations....
Services, providing its main training facility and an important call centre. In 2004, the
Lancashire Digital Technology Centre was established on land formerly occupied by the now-closed
MichelinMichelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...
factory to provide support and incubation space for start-up technology companies.
Burnley is a sub-regional shopping destination, and is ranked in a similar position to nearby Blackburn in most consumer spending and footfall rankings. The town's main shopping area is St James Street, along with the nearby Charter Walk Shopping Centre. The
YMCAThe Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
claimed to have opened the largest
charity shopA charity shop, thrift shop, thrift store, hospice shop , resale shop or op shop is a retail establishment run by a charitable organization to raise money.Charity shops are a type of social enterprise...
in the UK in 2009, when they took over the former
WoolworthsWoolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...
store in the town centre. This former Woolworths store has now been split into two large stores housing Peacocks and 99p Stores. The shopping centre was sold in 2001 by
Great Portland EstatesGreat Portland Estates plc is a British property development and investment company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index...
to Sapphire Retail Fund, which is 50% owned by
the Reuben BothersDavid and Simon Reuben are well known British businessmen and philanthropists. In the Forbes magazine List of billionaires 2011, ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK, the brothers were placed second with an estimated fortune of £5.5 billion...
. In August 2010 the centre's future was thrown into doubt when Sapphire Retail Fund entered administration as a result of being unable to refinance its debts. The centre was bought in March 2011 by London-based Addington Capital.
The town centre is home to a large number of
high streetHigh Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
multiples, including Marks and Spencer,
W H SmithWHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
, New Look,
NextNext plc is a British retailer marketing clothing, footwear, accessories and home products with its headquarters in Enderby, Leicestershire, England. The company has over 550 stores throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and 50 franchise branches in Europe, Asia and the Middle East...
,
Miss SelfridgeMiss Selfridge is a nationwide UK high street store which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. Miss Selfridge got its name when Charles Clore, the owner of Selfridges at the time, saw a window display in the Bonwit Teller store in New York which...
,
River IslandRiver Island is one of Britain's best known high street fashion brands and can be found in most cities across the UK. The brand also has stores in Singapore, Turkey, Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the Middle East.-History:...
,
HMVHis Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
,
TopshopTopshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...
, Burton,
Dorothy PerkinsDorothy Perkins, whose trading name was inspired by a rambler rose of the same name, is a large British women's clothing retailer, active mostly in the United Kingdom.- History :...
, Evans,
Ernest JonesErnest Jones is a British jeweller and watchmaker. Established in 1949, its first store was opened in Oxford Street, London. Ernest Jones specialises in upmarket diamonds and watches, stocking brands such as Gucci and Emporio Armani....
,
ArgosArgos is the largest general-goods retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland with over 800 stores. It is unique amongst major retailers in the UK in that it is a catalogue merchant...
,
ClarksC. and J. Clark International Ltd, trading as Clarks, is a British, international shoe manufacturer and retailer based in Street, Somerset, England...
,
JD SportsJD Sports Fashion plc, more commonly known as just JD, is a sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England with shops throughout the United Kingdom and with one in Ireland...
, JJB, Wilkinson,
T J HughesT J Hughes is a British discount department store brand. As an individual chain of shops T J Hughes emerged in Liverpool in 1925 and continued to trade until entering liquidation in 2011...
,
SupercutsSupercuts is a hair salon franchise with over 2,000 locations across the United States. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1975, by Geoffrey M. Rappaport and Frank E. Emmett. The company's first location, which is still in existence, is in Albany, California. Its headquarters...
and Scotts, along with 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, four
retail parkIn the United Kingdom, a retail park is a grouping of many retail warehouses and superstores with associated car parking. Its North American equivalent is a power centre. Retail parks are found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in highly accessible locations and are aimed at households...
s house stores including
CurrysCurrys is an electrical retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland and is owned by Dixons Retail plc. It specialises in selling home electronics and household appliances, with 295 superstores and 73 high street stores...
,
Argos ExtraArgos is the largest general-goods retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland with over 800 stores. It is unique amongst major retailers in the UK in that it is a catalogue merchant...
,
Sports DirectSports Direct International plc is a British retailing group. Founded in 1982 by former county squash coach Mike Ashley, the company is now the UK's largest sporting retailer through a number of retail subsidiaries and sports equipment brands. Although now a publicly traded company on the London...
,
T.K. MaxxT.K. Maxx is a retailer with stores throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Poland. The company is part of the TJX Companies which also owns other 'off-price' retail chains such as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls in the United States and Winners in Canada...
, Staples,
HalfordsHalfords Group plc is a leading retailer of car parts, car enhancements and bicycles operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Czech Republic and more recently in Poland, although it is currently pulling out of the latter two countries...
, Comet and
PC WorldPC World is OWNED BY THE GOVERNMENT one of the WHER MA MEMORY STICK ?!?!??! United Kingdom's largest chains of mass-market computer superstores. It is part of Dixons Retail plc. PC World operates under the brand name PC City in Spain, Italy and Sweden....
; there are also a number of
mill shopsAn outlet store or factory outlet is a brick and mortar or online retail store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowing customers to watch the production process like in the...
. A second town centre shopping centre, 'The Oval', is due to begin construction early 2011 and has secured
PrimarkPrimark is a clothing retailer, operating over 223 stores in Ireland , the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium...
and Next as the
anchorsIn retail, an anchor store, draw tenant, anchor tenant, or key tenant is one of the larger stores in a shopping mall, usually a department store or a major retail chain....
. Other stores which have at one time or another been linked to the development include Waterstones, GAP, Debenhams and BHS.
There are also branches of the DIY superstore Homebase, and various
supermarketA supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s including Sainsbury's, Tesco Extra,
AsdaAsda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
, Iceland,
NettoNetto is a Danish discount supermarket operating in several European countries. Netto is owned by Dansk Supermarked Group, which in turn is partly owned by A.P. Møller-Mærsk Group.Netto also operates an express version of the store, known as Døgn Netto...
,
FarmfoodsFarmfoods is a Scottish supermarket chain operating throughout the United Kingdom. Farmfoods predominately sells frozen food and also grocery items.- History :...
and
AldiALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...
on the edges of the town centre, as well as a second Farmfoods, second Iceland, two Tesco Express stores and a Co-op superstore in suburban areas.
As well as traditional motor dealerships from
VolkswagenVolkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
, Ford,
VauxhallVauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...
,
RenaultRenault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
and Nissan, the town is home to the second
Motorpoint car supermarketA car supermarket, also called a multi-make car dealer or auto superstore, is a large motor car retail outlet. It may sell a mixture of used and new cars from various brands, especially new-to-three year old mass-market and ex-fleet vehicles...
in the UK, as well as the only UK dealership of
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
supercarSupercar is a term used most often to describe an expensive high end car. It has been defined specifically as "a very expensive, fast or powerful car"...
manufacturer
GumpertGumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur GmbH is a German, Altenburg-based company manufacturing supercars. The first model produced was the Gumpert Apollo, followed by the Apollo Sport in 2007. Gumpert also offer the Apollo Race. The founder and owner of Gumpert is Roland Gumpert, former Director of Audi Sport...
.
Road
Burnley is served by Junctions 9, 10 and 11 of the
M65 motorwayThe M65 is a motorway in Lancashire, England. It runs from just south of Preston through the major junction of the M6 and M61 motorways, east past Darwen, Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and ends at Colne.-History:...
, which runs west to
AccringtonAccrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...
,
Blackburn and Preston (where it connects to the
M6The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
), and northeast to
NelsonNelson is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 28,998 in 2001. It lies 4 miles north of Burnley on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal....
and
ColneColne is the second largest town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 20,118. It lies at the eastern end of the M65, 6 miles north-east of Burnley, with Nelson immediately adjacent, in the Aire Gap with two main roads leading into the Yorkshire...
. From the town centre, the A646 runs to
TodmordenTodmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....
, the A679 to
AccringtonAccrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...
, the
A671The A671 is a road in the North West of England, that runs between Oldham, Greater Manchester and Worston, near Clitheroe, Lancashire. Major towns on the route include Rochdale and Burnley. The road is approximately long...
to
ClitheroeClitheroe is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is 1½ miles from the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists in the area. It has a population of 14,697...
, and the A682 (a nearby rural section of which has been classified as Britain's most dangerous road) south to
RawtenstallRawtenstall is a town at the centre of the Rossendale Valley, in Lancashire, England. It is the seat for the Borough of Rossendale, in which it is located. The town lies 18 miles north of Manchester, 22 miles east of the county town of Preston and 45 miles south east of Lancaster...
and north east to
NelsonNelson is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 28,998 in 2001. It lies 4 miles north of Burnley on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal....
and the
Yorkshire DalesThe Yorkshire Dales is the name given to an upland area in Northern England.The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria...
. The
A56The A56 is a road in England which extends between the city of Chester in Cheshire and the village of Broughton in North Yorkshire. The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections, and traverses environments as diverse as the dense urban sprawl of inner city Manchester and the...
dual carriagewayA dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
skirts the western edge of the town, linking to the
M66 motorwayThe M66 is a motorway in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England. It is long and provides part of the route between the M62 and M60 motorways and the M65, with the rest being provided by the A56.-Route:...
heading towards
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and the
M62The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...
.
Rail
Rail services to and from Burnley are provided by
Northern RailNorthern Rail is a British train operating company that has operated local passenger services in Northern England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-Abellio, is a consortium formed of Abellio and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems...
. The town has four railway stations,
Burnley Manchester RoadBurnley Manchester Road is a railway station serving the town of Burnley, Lancashire.-History:On 12 November 1849, the Manchester and Leeds Railway opened a single line branch – doubled in 1860 – from Todmorden to Burnley. The first station in the town, which was at Thorney-bank, was replaced by...
,
Burnley CentralBurnley Central railway station is a station in the town of Burnley, Lancashire and is on the East Lancashire Line. It is managed by Northern Rail, which also provides its passenger service....
,
Burnley BarracksBurnley Barracks railway station is on the East Lancashire Line 800 metres west of Burnley Central railway station. Following the singling of the track in 1986, Burnley Barracks has one platform in use...
and
Rose GroveRose Grove railway station serves the western area of Burnley in Lancashire, England, 11 miles east of Blackburn railway station.The Caldervale Line and the East Lancashire Line join at Gannow Junction near Rose Grove, but there are no direct services between here and Burnley Manchester Road...
. A fifth station,
HaptonHapton railway station serves the village of Hapton west of Burnley Central railway station on the East Lancashire Line operated by Northern Rail. It is unmanned...
, serves
PadihamPadiham is a small town and civil parish on the River Calder, about west of Burnley and south of Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, England. It is part of the Borough of Burnley but also has its own town council with varied powers.-History:...
and
HaptonHapton is a village and civil parish in the borough of Burnley, in the English county of Lancashire. The village is west of Burnley town centre, and has a railway station on the East Lancashire Line. It has a population of 3,769...
to the west of the town, but inside the borough. Manchester Road station has an hourly semi-fast service west to
PrestonPreston railway station serves the city of Preston in Lancashire, England and is a major station on the West Coast Main Line.It is served by Northern Rail, Virgin Trains, and TransPennine Express services, plus First ScotRail overnight sleeper services between London and Scotland.-Station layout...
(the nearest station on the
West Coast Main LineThe West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
) and
Blackpool NorthBlackpool North railway station is the main railway station serving the seaside resort of Blackpool in Lancashire, England. It is the terminus of the main Blackpool branch line from Preston....
, and east to Leeds and
YorkYork railway station is a main-line railway station in the city of York, England. It lies on the East Coast Main Line north of London's King's Cross station towards Edinburgh's Waverley Station...
, whilst the Central and Barracks stations provide an hourly stopping service west to
Blackpool SouthBlackpool South railway station is a single platform stop at the end of the Fylde coast branch line from Kirkham, in Lancashire, England. It is unmanned and has an hourly service daily, except winter Sundays....
and Preston, and east to Nelson and
ColneColne railway station serves the Lancashire mill town of Colne which is situated close to Pendle Hill. The station, which is managed by Northern Rail, is the terminus of the East Lancashire Line. Trains from Blackpool South run through Preston and Blackburn to Burnley and Colne.Currently the...
.
There are also plans for direct trains to Manchester by reinstating a section of track at the Hall Royd Junction of the
Caldervale LineThe Caldervale Line is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool...
(known as the
TodmordenTodmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....
curve). This will allow for direct train travel to
Manchester VictoriaManchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is the city's second largest mainline railway station. It is also a Metrolink station, one of eight within the City Zone...
, reducing the journey time to approximately 45 minutes. On 31 October 2011 it was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that the scheme had been granted the money as part of the Regional Growth Fund and would go ahead.
Bus and coach
The main bus operator in Burnley is Transdev Burnley & Pendle, with Tyrer Bus operating some tendered town services. Other services are provided by Coastlinks Express (X27 to
SouthportSouthport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
),
FirstFirstGroup plc is a public transport company, registered in Scotland at its headquarters in Aberdeen, operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and the United States...
(589 to
RochdaleRochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, 592 to
HalifaxHalifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...
), Transdev Lancashire United (152 to Preston), Pennine (215 to
SkiptonSkipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...
), and
Rossendale TransportRossendale Transport is a bus operator running within the Borough of Rossendale and into surrounding areas, including Rochdale, Bury, Manchester, Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn and Todmorden...
(483 to
BuryBury is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, east of Bolton, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northwest of the city of Manchester...
).
National ExpressNational Express Coaches, more commonly known as National Express, is a brand and company, owned by the National Express Group, under which the majority of long distance bus and coach services in Great Britain are operated,...
operates three coach services to
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
each day, and one to
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
.
The town has good bus links into
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, compensating for the lack of a direct rail link. The X43/X44
Witch Way serviceThe Witch Way is the current name for the long-standing bus route X43, which runs between Manchester and Nelson, England. The service is currently operated by Transdev Burnley & Pendle.The route has operated continuously since 1948...
(operated by Burnley & Pendle) runs from
NelsonNelson is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 28,998 in 2001. It lies 4 miles north of Burnley on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal....
to Manchester, via Burnley and
RawtenstallRawtenstall is a town at the centre of the Rossendale Valley, in Lancashire, England. It is the seat for the Borough of Rossendale, in which it is located. The town lies 18 miles north of Manchester, 22 miles east of the county town of Preston and 45 miles south east of Lancaster...
, using a fleet of specially branded
double-decker busA double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or 'decks'. Global usage of this type of bus is more common in outer touring than in its intra-urban transportion role. Double-decker buses are also commonly found in certain parts of Europe, Asia, and former British colonies and protectorates...
es. The fastest journeys take 59 minutes.
The town's new
bus stationBurnley Bus Station serves the town of Burnley, Lancashire, England. The bus station was funded by both the Lancashire County Council and Burnley Borough Council. The station was re-built in 2002 at a cost of £3m and consists of 11 stands, a travel centre and electronic passenger boards...
, designed by Manchester-based
SBS Architects, won the UK Bus Award for Infrastructure in 2003.
Canal
The
Leeds and Liverpool CanalThe Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , it crosses the Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line...
passes through the town, skirting its centre. Along the Burnley section there are number of notable features:
The 1120 metres (3,675 ft) long and up to 18.25 metres (60 ft) high, almost perfectly level embankment known as the 'Straight Mile'. Built between 1796 and 1801 (before the invention of the
Steam shovelA steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...
), to avoid the need for locks, it is regarded as one of the original seven wonders of the
BritishGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
waterwayA waterway is any navigable body of water. Waterways can include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...
s.
The 511 metres (1,677 ft) long Gannow Tunnel, notable because its route, through thick impermeable clays and shale that had been extensively mined, made it one of the most difficult tunnelling projects of the Canal Age.
The much more modern (1980) Whittlefield motorway aqueduct is believed to be the first time a canal aqueduct was constructed over a motorway in the UK.
Since 2009, the
Reedley Marina has provided a 100-berth facility, popular with pleasure boaters, on the northern edge of town.
Air
Although Burnley does not have an
airportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
, there are four international airports within an hour's travel of the town. These are Manchester Airport at 31 miles (50 km),
Liverpool John Lennon AirportLiverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport serving the city of Liverpool and the North West of England. Formerly known as Speke Airport, RAF Speke, and Liverpool Airport the airport is located within the City of Liverpool adjacent to the estuary of the River Mersey some southeast...
at 41 miles (66 km), Leeds Bradford Airport at 24 miles (39 km), and
Blackpool AirportBlackpool International Airport is an international airport on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, England, in the Borough of Fylde, just outside the Borough of Blackpool. It was formerly known as Squires Gate Airport....
at 33 miles (53 km).
Sport
The town's sporting scene is dominated by
Burnley Football ClubBurnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
, which was founded in 1882. The club has played its home matches at
Turf MoorTurf Moor is a football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire. It is the home ground of Burnley Football Club, which has played there since moving from its Calder Vale ground in 1883. The stadium, which is situated on Harry Potts Way, named so after the club's longest serving Manager, has a capacity of...
since 1883, where attendance currently averages 20,000. The club is very well supported in the town, in fact holding the record for the highest ratio of match attendance to town population in the country. It was one of the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is one of only three English league clubs to have been champions of all four professional league divisions (along with
WolvesWolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...
and
PrestonPreston North End Football Club is an English professional football club located in the Deepdale area of the city of Preston, Lancashire, currently playing in the third tier of English league football, League One...
). Nicknamed the Clarets, they played the 2009/10 season in the Premier League, 33 years since they last played in the top flight of English football, and 50 years since they won it (List of English football champions). Burnley's current manager,
Eddie HoweEdward "Eddie" Howe is an English former footballer and manager of Burnley. A defender before retirement who spent much of his career at Bournemouth, he was the youngest manager in the Football League when appointed Bournemouth manager in January 2009.-Playing career:Howe began his professional...
, is one of the youngest managers in the Football League.
There are two members of the Lancashire Cricket League in the town.
Burnley Cricket ClubBurnley Cricket Club, based at Turf Moor in Burnley, Lancashire, is a cricket club in the Lancashire League.The club was a founder member of the Lancashire League in 1892. Its captain for the 2011 season is Steve Brunt and its professional is Imad Wasim...
play their home matches at Turf Moor, their ground being adjacent to the football ground, while
Lowerhouse Cricket ClubLowerhouse Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Liverpool Road in Burnley. For the 2011 season its captain is Charlie Cottam, and its professional is South African Francois Hasbroek. The club won the league for the first time in 2005, captained by...
play at
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
Road. The Burnley-born England Cricketer
James AndersonJames Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
started his career at
Burnley Cricket ClubBurnley Cricket Club, based at Turf Moor in Burnley, Lancashire, is a cricket club in the Lancashire League.The club was a founder member of the Lancashire League in 1892. Its captain for the 2011 season is Steve Brunt and its professional is Imad Wasim...
.
Burnley is also home to
Burnley Rugby ClubBurnley Rugby Club is a rugby union club that currently plays in the North Lancs 1 league . The club was founded in 1926 as Calder Vale Rugby Club but the 2002 - 03 season saw the name of 75 years changed to help raise Burnley's rugby profile locally and beyond...
(formerly Calder Vale Rugby Club 1926–2001). They field three senior sides, with teams at most junior age groups, and play at Holden Road, the site of Belvedere and Calder Vale Sports Club.
Burnley briefly had a
speedwayMotorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
team in 1929 at Towneley Stadium, but withdrew from competition in mid-season, never to be seen again.
Burnley has good public sporting facilities for a town of its size. The £29m St Peter's Centre (opened in 2006) offers
swimmingA swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
,
squash courtsSquash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
and a
fitness suiteThe word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
, while the nearby Spirit of Sport complex includes a large sports hall, and several indoor courts and outdoor synthetic pitches. There is an outdoor athletics track at Barden Lane, where the
Burnley Athletic Club meets. For golfers, there are both 9-hole and 18-hole municipal golf courses at
Towneley ParkTowneley Park comprises Towneley Hall, a large country house, and its surrounding estate on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire, England....
, along with an 18-hole
pitch and puttPitch and putt is an amateur sport, similar to golf. The maximum hole length for international competitions is with a maximum total course length of . Players may only use three clubs; one of which must be a putter...
course. (The private
Burnley Golf Club also welcomes visiting players.) There are tennis courts at Towneley Park, and at the
Burnley Lawn Tennis Club, as well as eleven
bowling greensBowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...
around the town, and a £235,000 skate park at Queens Park, which opened in 2003. There are also
basketball,
caving and
judo clubs in the town. In 2001, the private
Crow Wood centre was established in countryside on the edge of the town, offering a combination of spa and fitness facilities, and racquet and equestrian sports.
Museums and Galleries
In Burnley itself there is a small contemporary visual arts gallery, the
Mid-Pennine Gallery, while on the outskirts of the town there are larger galleries in two
stately homeA stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...
s,
Towneley HallTowneley Park comprises Towneley Hall, a large country house, and its surrounding estate on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire, England....
, which was bought by Burnley
CorporationA corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
in 1901, and
Gawthorpe HallGawthorpe Hall, a Lancashire County Council property managed by the National Trust is an Elizabethan house near the town of Padiham, in the borough of Burnley, Lancashire, England...
in
PadihamPadiham is a small town and civil parish on the River Calder, about west of Burnley and south of Pendle Hill, in Lancashire, England. It is part of the Borough of Burnley but also has its own town council with varied powers.-History:...
, which is owned by Lancashire County Council and managed by the
National TrustThe National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. There are also two local
museumA museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
s: the Weavers' Triangle Trust operates the Visitor Centre and Museum of Local History in the historic surroundings of the
Weavers' TriangleThe Weavers' Triangle is located on the western side of Burnley town centre in Lancashire. This ribbon development of predominantly 19th Century industrial buildings is clustered around the Leeds and Liverpool Canal...
, while the
Queen Street Mill Textile MuseumQueen Street Mill is in Harle Syke, a suburb to the north-east of Burnley, Lancashire. It was built in 1894 for The Queen Street Manufacturing Company. It closed on 12th March 1982 and was mothballed...
celebrates Burnley's weaving past.
Parks
There are several large parks in the town, including
Towneley ParkTowneley Park comprises Towneley Hall, a large country house, and its surrounding estate on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire, England....
, once the
deer parkA medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.-History:...
for the 15th century Towneley Hall, and three winners of the
Green Flag AwardThe Green Flag Award is the benchmark national standard for parks and green spaces in the United Kingdom. The scheme was set up in 1996 to recognise and reward green spaces in England and Wales that met the laid down high standards...
, including Queens Park, which hosts a summer season of
brass bandA brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
concerts each year, and Thompson Park, which has a boating lake and miniature railway.
Activities
There is a modern 24-lane ten pin bowling centre on Finsley Gate, operated by 1st Bowl. A 9-screen
multiplex cinemaA multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens, typically three or more. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an...
opened in 1995 (with 3
3DA 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
screens as of 2010), operated by
Apollo CinemasApollo Cinemas is a locally focused, independently owned multiplex cinema operator in the United Kingdom. Its stated mission is to welcome, engage and delight local audiences with a variety of onscreen entertainment and well designed, comfortable cinemas...
. The town's
theatreTheatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, named after its former use as the
Mechanics Institute, hosts touring comedians and musical acts and amateur dramatics. A second performance space, the purpose-built £1.5m
Burnley Youth Theatre, opened nearby in 2005.
The Amnesty International Burnley group opened in 2011; meetings are held every month. The group mission is to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.
Festivals
Each year, Burnley hosts the two-day
Burnley National Blues Festival, one of the largest
BluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
festivals in the country, drawing fans from all over Britain to venues spread across the town. In the 1970s, it was also an important venue for
Northern SoulNorthern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
; several local pubs still hold regular Northern Soul nights. In recent years, the town has also hosted an annual
balloon festivalBurnley Balloon Festival is a balloon festival held in Towneley Park, Burnley. The annual festival, first held in 2003, is usually put on in late July and is regarded as one of the biggest balloon events in the UK....
in
Towneley ParkTowneley Park comprises Towneley Hall, a large country house, and its surrounding estate on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire, England....
. A
funfairA funfair or simply "fair" is a small to medium sized travelling show primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is...
is usually held around the second weekend in July at Fulledge Recreation Ground, which is also the venue for the town's main
Guy Fawkes NightGuy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding...
celebration.
Nightlife
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
nightclubA nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
s include Barcode,
Playhouse (formerly Fusion),
Koko's, The Mix, Pharaoh's, Posh, Red Room, Rewind,
Sanctuary Rock Bar and
Smackwater Jacks. There are also chain-owned bars, such as
WetherspoonsJ D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...
and Walkabout.
Curzon Street in Burnley was also the site of the legendary
Angels (nightclub)Angels was a nightclub and music venue in Burnley, England. It became most famous during the early 1990s with the rise of the house music scene, drawing visitors from across the country...
.
Burnley has a small gay scene, centred on the Guys as Dolls bar in St James Street.
The local brewery,
Moorhouse'sMoorhouse's is an independent brewery founded in 1865 by William Moorhouse in Burnley in Lancashire, UK as a producer of mineral waters and low alcohol beers known as hop bitters. It first produced cask ales in 1978.-History:...
, was founded in 1865, produces a range of award winning beers – including the very popular Pride of Pendle and Blond Witch – and currently operates six pubs in the area.
More
BénédictineBenedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
is drunk in one local
working men's clubWorking men's clubs are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the United Kingdom, particularly the North of England, the Midlands and many parts of the South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.-...
, the Burnley Miners' Club, than anywhere else in the world, after a local regiment stationed in
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
during
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
brought back a taste for the drink. This unusual fact was used in a question on 4th series of the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Show
QIQI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
. The Burnley Miners Club now has its own Benedictine Lounge.
Media
Local radio for Burnley and its surrounding area is currently provided by
2BRTwo Boroughs Radio is a commercial radio station in East Lancashire. It broadcased from studios in the Lomeshaye Industrial Estate in Nelson, then in August 2010 2BR moved to Accrington based 'The Studios' with Sister Station 107 The Bee- About :The station broadcasts from the Pendle Forest...
and
BBC Radio LancashireBBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC Local Radio service for the county of Lancashire, in North West England. It began as BBC Radio Blackburn on 26 January 1971 on 96.4FM, then adding 854 kHz AM in 1972 and changing to its current name on 4 July 1981...
.
There are two local
newspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s: the
Burnley ExpressFor the cricketer with the same nickname, see James Anderson .The Burnley Express is a newspaper for Burnley and Padiham, England and surrounding area. It is printed twice weekly on Tuesday and Friday - which is the larger edition. It has been in print since 1877 and is now part of the Johnston...
, published on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the daily
Lancashire TelegraphThe Lancashire Telegraph, formerly the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It has two separate geographic editions each day – one for the boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, and one for Burnley, Pendle, and...
, which publishes a local edition for Burnley and
PendlePendle is a local government district and borough of Lancashire, England. It adjoins the Lancashire boroughs of Burnley and Ribble Valley, the North Yorkshire district of Craven and the West Yorkshire districts of Calderdale and the City of Bradford...
. There are also two free advertisement-supported newspapers called
The Citizen and The Reporter, both of which are posted to homes throughout the town.
Burnley was one of seven sites chosen to be part of
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's
The Big Art projectThe Big Art Project is a UK-wide public art initiative funded by the Channel 4 and Arts Council England. The four part TV series was first broadcast on Sunday 10 May 2009 on Channel 4...
in which a group of 15 young people from all over the town commissioned artist
GreyworldGreyworld are a collective of London based artists who are interested in public-activated art, sculpture and interactive installations. Although often varied in their materials, their work is typically subtle and environmentally reflective, often allowing participants the opportunity to play...
to create a piece of
public artThe term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
. The artwork, named "Invisible", is a series of UV paintings placed all around the town centre displaying "public heroes".
Filmography
Parts of the film
Whistle Down the WindWhistle Down the Wind is a 1961 British film, directed by Bryan Forbes, screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, from the novel by Mary Hayley Bell.-Plot:...
(1961), and the television series
All Quiet on the Preston FrontAll Quiet on the Preston Front was a BBC comedy drama about a group of friends in the fictional Lancashire town of Roker Bridge, and their links to the local Territorial Army infantry platoon. It was created by Tim Firth.-Episodes:Three series were made...
and
Juliet BravoJuliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
, were filmed in the town. (For example, Burnley
Fire StationA fire station is a structure or other area set aside for storage of firefighting apparatus , personal protective equipment, fire hose, fire extinguishers, and other fire extinguishing equipment...
was the location of Social Services in the first series of
Juliet Bravo, and
Burnley Public Library was used for exterior shots of the
magistrates' courtA magistrates' court or court of petty sessions, formerly known as a police court, is the lowest level of court in England and Wales and many other common law jurisdictions...
in the same series.) Numerous locations in the town were used in the 1996–1998 BBC comedy drama
Hetty Wainthropp InvestigatesHetty Wainthropp Investigates is a genteel British crime–comedy drama television series which aired from 1996 to 1998 on BBC One. The series starred Patricia Routledge as the title character , Derek Benfield as her patient husband Robert, Dominic Monaghan as their lodger Geoffrey Shawcross...
.
Queen Street MillQueen Street Mill is in Harle Syke, a suburb to the north-east of Burnley, Lancashire. It was built in 1894 for The Queen Street Manufacturing Company. It closed on 12th March 1982 and was mothballed...
textile museum was used for a scene in the
2010 Oscar winningThe 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2010 and took place February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, Academy Awards ...
film The King's Speech, and for scenes in the 2004
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
dramatisation of
Elizabeth GaskellElizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
's
North and South, as well as
Life on MarsScientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars owing to the planet's proximity and similarity to Earth. Fictional Martians have been a recurring feature of popular entertainment of the 20th and 21st centuries, but it remains an open question whether life currently exists on...
(S1 E3; 2006). It has also featured in the following
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentaries:
Fred DibnahFrederick "Fred" Dibnah MBE , born in Bolton, was an English steeplejack and eccentric with a keen interest in mechanical engineering who became a cult television personality....
's
Industrial Age (E2; 1999), Adam Hart-Davies'
What the Victorians Did for UsWhat the Victorians Did for Us is a 2001 BBC documentary series that examines the impact of the Victorian era on modern society. It concentrates primarily on the scientific and social advances of the era, which bore the Industrial Revolution and set the standards for polite society today.-Rule...
(E1; 2001), and
Jeremy PaxmanJeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
's
The VictoriansThe Victorians - Their Story In Pictures is the name of a 2009 British documentary series which focuses on Victorian art and culture. The four part series is written and presented by Jeremy Paxman and debuted on BBC One at 9:00pm on Sunday 15 February 2009...
(2009), as well as
Who Do You Think You Are? (
Bill OddieWilliam "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....
episode),
Flog It and
UKTV HistoryYesterday is a television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom as part of the UKTV network of channels. The channel originally launched on 30 October 2002 and relaunched in its current format on 2 March 2009. The channel is available on satellite through Sky, cable services primarily through...
's
The Re-Inventors (2006).
Towneley Hall featured in the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
comedy drama
Casanova (2005) and the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
antiquesAn antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
quizA quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which the players attempt to answer questions correctly. In some countries, a quiz is also a brief assessment used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.Quizzes are usually scored in points and many...
Antiques Master is currently filmed there.
The canal embankment featured in the 2007
ITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
documentaryA documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
Locks and Quays (S2 E9) and two families in Burnley have been featured in the
ITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
series
60 Minute Makeover60 Minute Makeover is a British popular daytime home interior design television programme broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom.-Overview:...
(S6 E28 and S7 E70).
Education
Burnley Grammar SchoolBurnley Grammar School was latterly, a state-funded selective boys grammar School, situated in Byron Street in Burnley, England. However during its long history, it moved between a number of sites in the town.-History:...
was first established in St Peter's Church in 1559, with its first headmaster a former
chantryChantry is the English term for a fund established to pay for a priest to celebrate sung Masses for a specified purpose, generally for the soul of the deceased donor. Chantries were endowed with lands given by donors, the income from which maintained the chantry priest...
priest, Gilbert Fairbank. In 1602, one of the governors, John Towneley, paid for a new
schoolA school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
house to be built in the churchyard; the school moved again in 1876 to a new building on Bank Parade, which can still be seen today. The first technical school, in Elizabeth Street, was erected in 1892. The equivalent school for girls, Burnley Girls' High School, was established in 1909 on a site in Ormerod Road (along with the Technical School and Art School) later moving to Kiddrow Lane in the 1960s. The tripartite system of Education established by the
Education Act 1944The Education Act 1944 changed the education system for secondary schools in England and Wales. This Act, commonly named after the Conservative politician R.A...
affected Burnley in the following ways: Heasandford Technical High School for Girls and Towneley Technical High School for Boys were established (Burnley Technical High School was formed in 1956 by the merger of the two), as were Barden, Burnley Wood, Rosegrove & St. Mary's (Roman Catholic) Secondary Modern Schools.
The borough completed the move to
comprehensive educationA comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
in 1981,
Secondary SchoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s: Habergham (mixed), Ivy Bank (mixed), Gawthorpe (mixed), Townley (mixed), Barden (boys), Walshaw (girls), St Theodores RC (boys), St Hilda's RC (Girls).
Further educationFurther education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
: Habergham and St Theodores
Sixth FormIn the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
s and Burnley College (all mixed).
In 2003 a plan was devised to replace all the secondary schools and further education establishments in the town as part of the first wave of a nationwide programme funded by the Department for Education and Skills called
Building Schools for the FutureBuilding Schools for the Future is the name of the previous UK Government's investment programme in secondary school buildings in England. The program is very ambitious in its costs, timescales and objectives, with politicians from all English political parties supportive of the principle but...
. Funding was secured in 2004 and in 2006 the new schools opened (in the buildings of their predecessors).
Today there are five 11–16
secondary schoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s:
Shuttleworth College moved into new buildings in 2008, Sir John Thursby in 2009, and Blessed Trinity, Hameldon and Unity in 2010.
Thomas Whitham Sixth Form, which forms a sixth element of the BSF programme, offers sixth form provision at its Burnley campus (opened 2008) on Barden Lane.
Burnley CollegeBurnley College is a further education college based in Burnley, Lancashire.- New College Site :Situated on Princess Way , Burnley in Lancashire...
is the borough's main
tertiary educationTertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...
provider, offering vocational and professional training,
adult educationAdult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
, and a small number of degree courses, as well as some GCSE courses and a full range of A levels. It moved to a new £80 million campus (in partnership with the
University of Central LancashireThe University of Central Lancashire is a university based in Preston, Lancashire, England.The university has its roots in The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge which was founded in 1828. In 1992 it was granted University status by the Privy Council...
) off Princess Way in 2009. The Mohiuddin Trust charity subsequently purchased the former College site for £2m, and plan to open the
Mohiuddin International Girls' College in October 2010, initially for 500 students. The
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
based Trust, (whose other education projects are mainly based in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
) has stated that the college will offer mainstream education for women aged 16+ of both UK and foreign origin, with some
boardingA boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
provision. Should the college expand to its maximum planned capacity of 1500 students it will be the largest Muslim faith school in England.
Attainment
The town's educational attainment is below the national average at all levels. In 2009, 78% of children at the end of
Key Stage 2Key Stage 2 is the legal term for the four years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6, when pupils are aged between 7 and 11. The term is applied differently in Northern Ireland where it refers to pupils in Year 5, Year 6 and...
achieved at least Level 4 in English (national average 80%), and 77% in Mathematics (national average 79%). At the end of
Key Stage 3Key Stage 3 is the legal term for the three years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9, when pupils are aged between 11 and 14...
, the numbers achieving at least Level 5 were 67% in English (national average 74%), and 67% in Mathematics (national average 76%). 54.3% of students at the end of
Key Stage 4Key Stage 4 is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other exams, in maintained schools in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland—normally known as Year 10 and Year 11 in England and Wales, and Year 11 and Year 12 in Northern Ireland, when pupils are...
achieved at least 5 A*-C grades at GCSE (national average 69.8%). In 2007, three of the schools where listed in the bottom 5% nationally for adding value between the end of Key Stage 2 and the end of Key Stage 4. During 2008/09 two were in
OfstedThe Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....
special measuresSpecial measures is a status applied by Ofsted and Estyn, the schools inspection agencies, to schools in England and Wales, respectively, when it considers that they fail to supply an acceptable level of education and appear to lack the leadership capacity necessary to secure improvements...
, the last losing this status in June 2010.
A 2010 report commissioned by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and compiled by
ExperianExperian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and operational headquarters in Nottingham, England and Costa Mesa, California, US...
ranked the
borough'sBurnley is a local government district of Lancashire, England, with the status of a non-metropolitan district and borough. It has an area of and a population of , and is named for its largest town, Burnley. The borough is bounded by Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Pendle, Rossendale — all in Lancashire...
workforce as having the worst GCSE results in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(in terms of the percentage of pupils gaining 5 or more grade A*-C).
Art
Keith CoventryKeith Coventry is a British artist and curator. In September 2010 his Spectrum Jesus painting won the £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize.-Early life:...
, the winner of the 2010 John Moores Painting Prize, was born and educated in the town. He is one of the leading lights of the YBA (Young British Artists) movement of the 1990s, along with
Damien HirstDamien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
and
Tracey EminTracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
, and his work appears in many important public collections, including the
Tate-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
galleries.
Entertainment
Probably the best-known Burnley figure in the field of entertainment is
actorAn actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and gay rights activist
Sir Ian McKellenSir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
, who was born in the town in 1939. Other actors born in the town include
Mary MackenzieMary Mackenzie was an English actress. One of her earliest credited TV roles was in 1950 on BBC's Sunday Night Theatre, as Miriam in an adaptation of H. G. Wells' The History of Mr Polly, a role she returned to in the 1959 BBC serialization.-Early and personal Life :Mackenzie was born and lived in...
,
Irene SutcliffeIrene Sutcliffe is an English actress. She is best known for playing Maggie Clegg in ITV's Coronation Street, a role she played from 1968 until 1975...
and
Julia HaworthJulia Louise Haworth is an English actress best known as Claire Peacock on ITV's Coronation Street, a role she has played since 2003...
(Coronation StreetCoronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
),
Richard MooreRichard Moore is an English actor known for playing Jarvis Skelton on ITV's Emmerdale from 2002-2005.-Early and personal life:Moore was born in 1940, and lived in Burnley, Lancashire during his early life...
(EmmerdaleEmmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
),
Alice BarryAlice Barry is an English actress.Her first regular television role was playing Peggy Hargreaves in Clocking Off. She regularly appeared in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights and Bob & Rose, and has had minor roles in Linda Green and The Royal.She has more recently appeared in Shameless as Lillian Tyler,...
and
Jody LathamJody Lee Latham is an English actor, best known for his roles as Phillip "Lip" Gallagher in the British Channel 4 series Shameless, Calum McKenzie in the ITV series The Fixer, and Rob Grayson in the BBC Soap opera EastEnders....
(Shameless),
Kathy Jamieson Kathy Jamieson is an English actress. Her first notable TV appearance was as "Maggie Brady" in educational historical drama How We Used To Live. She has appeared in British films including Business as Usual and Butterfly Kiss...
,
Hannah HobleyHannah Hobley is an English actress and classical singer. She is best known for playing Chantelle "Telle" Garvey in ITV's Benidorm Her character featured in the pilot episode, and was a regular for the first 3 seasons before leaving with love interest "The Oracle"...
(BenidormBenidorm is an award-winning British television comedy-drama that is produced by Tiger Aspect for ITV and written by Derren Litten, co-writer of The Catherine Tate Show, exploiting the working-class stereotype of this popular tourist destination....
),
Natalie GumedeNatalie Gumede is an English actress and former dancer. She is best known for playing China in BBC Three's Ideal who, along with her friend Asia , is one of Moz's regular clients. Her character featured in the pilot episode, and was a regular in the first three seasons...
(IdealIdeal is a British comedy-drama, or dark comedy originally broadcast on digital channel BBC Three, created by Graham Duff and produced by BBC Comedy North and Baby Cow Productions. It stars Johnny Vegas as small-time cannabis dealer Moz....
) and film actor
Lee InglebyLee Ingleby is a British film, television, and stage actor.He is perhaps best known for his roles as Detective Sergeant John Bacchus in the BBC Drama George Gently and as Stan Shunpike in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban...
.
ScreenwriterScreenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
Paul AbbottPaul Abbott is a BAFTA award-winning English television screenwriter and producer. Abbott has become one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain today, following his work on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless,...
, creator of
ShamelessShameless is a British television drama series set in Manchester on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004...
, television producer and executive Peter Salmon and comedian Jeff Brown were also born in Burnley. Also
Coronation StreetCoronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
regular
Malcolm HebdenMalcolm Hebden is an English television and stage actor best known for his role as Norris Cole in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.-Early life:...
grew up in the town.
MusicianA musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s born in the town include
Danbert NobaconDanbert Nobacon was a vocalist and occasional keyboard player in the Leeds based anarchist band Chumbawamba...
, Alice Nutter, Lou Watts and
Boff WhalleyAllan Mark "Boff" Whalley is the lead guitarist for the band Chumbawamba.-Early life and education:Whalley was born Allan Mark Whalley in 1961 in Burnley, Lancashire...
(all of
ChumbawambaChumbawamba is a British musical group who have, over a career spanning nearly three decades, played punk rock, pop-influenced music, world music, and folk music...
),
Eric HaydockEric Haydock was the original bass guitarist with The Hollies from December 1962 until 1966. Although considered a great bassist, he was replaced in 1966 by Bernie Calvert, after disputes related to the conduct of the band's managers.-External links:*...
(
bassistA bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
in
The HolliesThe Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
), classical composer
John PickardJohn Pickard , is a British classical composer.Pickard was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England. He studied music and composition at the University of Wales, under Welsh composer William Mathias, and later in The Netherlands under Louis Andriessen and in 1989 was awarded a PhD in composition...
and the DJ
Anne SavageAnne Savage is a UK hard dance DJ.-Early life:Savage was born in Burnley, Lancashire and raised in the Ribble Valley. She attended, the private Westholme School. She took classical guitar lessons at an early age. In the late 1980s she played guitar in a punk band called 53rd State.-Career:Savage...
.
The 19th century author and clergyman
Silas HockingSilas Kitto Hocking was an Cornish novelist and Methodist preacher. He was born at St Stephen-in-Brannel, Cornwall, to James Hocking, part owner of a tin mine, and his wife Elizabeth. In 1870 he was ordained as a minister...
wrote his most famous work,
Her Benny (1879), while living in Burnley. Crime writer
Stephen BoothStephen Booth is an English crime-writer. He is the author of the Derbyshire-set Cooper and Fry series.-Early and Personal Life:...
is another native of the town, as is journalist and broadcaster
Tony LiveseyAnthony Livesey is a British journalist and broadcaster who currently presents a late night show on BBC Five Live. The show runs from 22.30 to 1:00 from Monday to Thursday.-Early life:...
and visual artist
Keith CoventryKeith Coventry is a British artist and curator. In September 2010 his Spectrum Jesus painting won the £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize.-Early life:...
.
Young British soprano
Hollie SteelHollie Steel is a singer and performer from Huncoat, Lancashire, England. At the age of ten she was one of ten finalists on the third series of the ITV reality show Britain's Got Talent....
was also born in Burnley.
Politics and the church
Phil WillisGeorge Philip Willis, Baron Willis of Knaresborough is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, and was Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough from 1997 until retiring at the 2010 general election...
,
Liberal DemocratThe Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough, and Sir Vincent Fean, HM ambassador to
LibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, were born in Burnley, as was the 16th century
CatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
martyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
Robert NutterRobert Nutter was an English Catholic martyr. He was beatified in 1987....
.
Suffragette"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
Ada Nield ChewAda Nield Chew was a British suffragette.Ada Nield was born on a farm near Butt Lane in North Staffordshire on 28 January 1870, daughter of Willam and Jane Nield. She left school at the age of eleven to help her mother take care of house and family...
died in Burnley in 1945.
Baron WaddingtonDavid Charles Waddington, Baron Waddington, GCVO, DL, QC, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1968 to 1990, and was then made a life peer...
of Read, the
Home SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
during the
Poll Tax RiotsThe UK Poll Tax Riots were a series of mass disturbances, or riots, in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge , introduced by the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...
and former
Lord Privy SealThe Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state...
and
Leader of the House of LordsThe Leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The role is always held in combination with a formal Cabinet position, usually one of the sinecure offices of Lord President of the Council,...
, was also born in Burnley, as was the 16th century theologian
William WhitakerWilliam Whitaker was a prominent Anglican theologian. He was Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a leading divine in the university in the latter half of the sixteenth century.-Early life and education:...
.
Military
James Yorke ScarlettGeneral Sir James Yorke Scarlett, GCB was a British general and hero of the Crimean War.-Early life:The son of the 1st Baron Abinger, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Scarlett entered the army as a cornet in 1818 and in 1830 became a major in the 5th Dragoon Guards...
, commander of the
Heavy BrigadeA heavy brigade is a formation made up from 'Heavy' Cavalry; i.e. Dragoon Guards and Dragoons.The Heavy Brigade was a British heavy cavalry unit commanded by General Sir James York Scarlett at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War...
at the
Battle of BalaclavaThe Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Anglo-French-Turkish campaign to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea...
. 2nd Lieutenant
Hugh ColvinHugh Colvin VC , born in Burnley, Lancashire was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.He was 30 years old, and a Second Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, The...
VC and Private
Thomas WhithamThomas Whitham VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...
VC who both served during
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Burnley and the Royal Family
Charles, Prince of WalesPrince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
occasionally visits the town to undertake inspections on the youth programme that the
Prince's TrustThe Prince's Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales to help young people. They run a range of training programmes, provide mentoring support and offer financial grants to build the confidence and motivation of disadvantaged young people...
has in place to help 350 disadvantaged 14–25 year olds get their lives back on track in the borough. Prince Charles has set Burnley at the top of his priority list for his charity. The prince has focused his
regenerationUrban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
efforts on deprived parts of the country since a bid to improve
HalifaxHalifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...
in the 1980s. Prince Charles' interest in Burnley stems from a visit in 2005, when he saw first-hand the work being done to regenerate the town, at the time describing Burnley as a "remarkable town".
Science and industry
Engineer Sir
Willis JacksonWillis Jackson, Baron Jackson of Burnley FRS was a British technologist and electrical engineer.-Background and education:Born in Burnley, he was the only son of Herbert Jackson and his wife Annie Hiley...
was born and educated in the town.
James DrakeSir James Drake CBE was a Chartered Civil Engineer who is regarded as the pioneer of the national motorway network in the United Kingdom...
a pioneer of British motorways was also born here. 17th century mathematician Sir Jonas Moore was from
HighamHigham is a village in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, south of Pendle Hill. The civil parish is named "Higham with West Close Booth". The village is north-east of Padiham and about south west of Nelson along the A6068 road. At the 2001 census Higham had a population of 808 in 338...
but is believed to have been educated at the Grammar School. Scottish
cardiologyCardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...
pioneer
Sir James MackenzieSir James Mackenzie FRS was a Scottish cardiologist, pioneer in the study of cardiac arrhythmias.-Biography:James Mackenzie was born in Scone, where his father was a farmer...
lived and practiced medicine in the town for more than a quarter of a century.
Sport
Burnley's sporting figures include England and Lancashire
cricketerA cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....
James AndersonJames Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
, England and Everton Women's goalkeeper
Rachel BrownRachel Laura Brown is an English footballer, currently playing as goalkeeper for Everton Ladies and England Women. She is also the goalkeeper on Five's Superstars and works for Everton's Community Project.-Early Life:...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and Tranmere Rovers midfielder
Adnan AhmedAdnan Farooq Ahmed is a professional footballer who plays for Bradford Park Avenue in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. Ahmed is a British Asian of Pakistani descent...
, Ex-
Bury FCBury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team currently play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.-Formation of the club and the...
manager
Chris CasperChristopher Martin "Chris" Casper is an English former footballer and football manager who played in the Premier League for Manchester United and in the Football League for A.F.C. Bournemouth, Swindon Town and Reading...
,
Commonwealth GamesThe Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....
Gold Medal-winning gymnast
Craig HeapCraig Heap is a retired Commonwealth Games Gold medal winning gymnast who has represented England over 100 times in various international gymnastic competitions...
,
AntipodeanIn geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points that are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line running through the centre of the Earth....
racing driver
Fabian CoulthardFabian Coulthard is a professional race car driver, currently racing for Walkinshaw Racing known commercially as Bundaberg Racing Team in the Australian V8 Supercar series....
and
Neil HodgsonNeil Stuart Hodgson is a former British motorcycle racer who won the 2000 British Superbike Championship, and the 2003 Superbike World Championship titles. Neil then went on to have a moderately successful 4 years in the American Superbike Championship, with a best 5th place championship finish...
, 2003 World Superbike champion.
Ron Greenwood, former manager of the
England football teamThe England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
, was born in
WorsthorneWorsthorne is a rural village on the eastern outskirts of Burnley in Lancashire, England. The parish of Worsthorne-with-Hurstwood has a population of 2,986. The village was known as Worthesthorn in 1202, which means thorn tree of a man named 'Weorth'....
.
Further reading
- 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
- Mike Townend, Burnley, Tempus Publishing, 2004 ISBN 0-7524-1566-2
- Mike Townend, Burnley Revisited, Tempus Publishing, 2006 ISBN 0-7524-3996-0
General information
Maps and photographs