Towneley Hall, Burnley was built over many centuries, from the early-15th to the 19th, as home to the Towneley family. Historically, although many have been eminent public servants, the most famous member of the family was possibly Charles Towneley, the 18th century collector whose marbles and brasses form an important part of collections at the British Museum where he was an early trustee.

Probably the best known of the modern branches of the family have been the journalist Sir Peregrine Worsthorne (Worsthorne being the name of a village just over the hill facing Towneley Hall) and his brother Sir Simon Towneley (he changed his name to realign with the family history and lived close by Towneley at Dyneley Hall) who was Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire from 1976 to 1996

Towneley Hall Today

Towneley Hall, 2012

Having initially been acquired as an almost empty property, the collections built over the years are outstanding, ranging from furniture, textiles, local history, sculpture and paintings in the galleries at which I used to gaze for hours as a teenager living nearby (not to mention the big stuffed brown bear that was the main attraction as a child, and is still there). In recent years the National Heritage Memorial Fund has supported the purchase of an 1807 Carrara marble bust of Charles Towneley, by Joseph Nollekens, so that it could be restored to Towneley Hall the collector’s former family home.

Whether spending hours exploring the museum and galleries, or wandering through the woods, or across the parkland to the young River Calder, an afternoon at Towneley is an afternoon well spent. It is one of East Lancashire’s special gems – indeed, to my mind, supremely so. There are many marvellous countryside walks near Towneley both up into the hills and along the Cliviger Gorge. Here now is a selection from this past Monday morning.

Towneley Hall, Burnley, East Lancashire - April 2012

Towneley Hall - Looking over the lawn from the West

Townley Hall - Looking over the Italian Garden to the South Wing

The Cenotaph, Towneley Hall, Burnley - Looking east over the Italian Garden

Towneley Hall - Looking west from the hall up to Foldys Cross

Last week I mentioned some of the items on the blog that had received most attention since they were published. One of these was on Towneley Hall, Burnley.  The picture there was taken from my copy of the 1909 brochure, so I thought that today I’d put up here one of my own photos from a visit in January 2010.

Towneley Hall, Burnley, January 2010

I also referred to the glorious Hodder Valley.  The emphasis there was on the Hodder river itself, but nearby there is Stoneyhurst College, just outside the village of Hurst Green. Maybe I’ll write more about both of these great Lancashire buildings in the future, but for the present here’s another photo.

Stoneyhurst College, Hurst Green, Lancashire, August 2009

When looking through the December 2009 issue of Country Walking Magazine I was rather surprised to find Burnley, Lancashire, listed among the month’s twenty-six recommended walking routes.  Now before anyone jumps to the conclusion that this is a southerner talking out of the top of his hat about the industrial north and “dark satanic mills”, let me point out that I grew up in Burnley, went to school there, and only left on getting married and moving fifteen miles down the road to Darwen.

The photograph above is copied from the 1909 official guide to Towneley Hall which, along with other publications, has been in my Burnley local history collection for many years – actually I have a 1911 reprint, not the 1909 first printing.

Having grown up in Burnley I think I can claim the right to be balanced and fair about it, without indulging in dishonest flattery.  There are some grotty parts.  I recently went back to the Burnley Wood part of the town and was seriously unimpressed with the condition of the area.  On the other hand there are some wonderful places, and Towneley Hall with its open fields and woodland park stands out among them.  So I should not really have been surprised; it’s just that it’s relatively unusual for the message to have got home to people outside the area.

I had the enormous privilege between the ages of twelve and twenty-one of living on Woodgrove Road  overlooking Towneley Holmes.  It was from this base that in my teens I learned the joy of walking in the countryside, across the valley, up and over the hill to Worsthorne and Hurstwood; along the valley to Walk Mill, Holme and  Cliviger Gorge.  Earlier this year, due to the illness and death of a close relative, I had to spend considerable time in the area and was reintroduced to exploring this wonderful landscape – wonderful, and yet so close to the legacy of 19th century industrialisation and 20th century urban sprawl.

The Country Walking route starts in front of Towneley Hall, takes you high above the town on the moors at Crown Point (where as a 10-year-old in the early 50s I was often to be found with the family Alsatian), down past Dyneley to Walk Mill and back along the valley close to the Calder to the Towneley Hall car park – or more likely the Stables Cafe.

This really is a inspired example of how people living in so many of Lancashire’s industrial towns have always been able to get out quickly into splendid countryside.  Towneley Hall itself warrants a future article of its own.