BURNLEY, a market-town and chapelry in that
part of the parish of WHALLEY which is in the higher
division of the hundred of BLACKBURN, county palatine
of LANCASTER, 25 miles (N.) from Manchester,
53 (E.N. E.) from Liverpool, and 210 (N. N.w.) from
London, containing 6378 inhabitants. This place, anciently
Brunley, derives its name from the river Burn,
on which it is situated, near the confluence of that
stream with the river Calder; and, from the numerous
coins, fragments of pottery, and urns containing ashes
and burnt bones, that have been found in the neigh"
bourhood, is supposed to have been a Roman station.
Several Saxon remains have also been discovered; and
at a short distance to the east of the town is a place
called Saxifield, said to have been the scene of a battle
in the year 597. About the same period Paulinus is
stated to have visited Burnley, on a mission for converting
the natives to Christianity; and the remains of
an ancient cross, erected to commemorate his preaching,
still exist near the town, where religious rites
were usually performed prior to the erection of the
chapel. The town is pleasantly situated on a tongue
of land formed by the rivers Burn and Calder; the
greater part is of very recent erection, and the houses
are neatly built of freestone found in the neighbourhood.
The streets are well paved, and lighted with gas,
under an act of parliament obtained in 1819, for the
general improvement of the town; and the inhabitants
are abundantly supplied with water from two reservoirs,
one to the north, and the other to the south, of
the town, under the management of a company. The
barracks, standing in the adjoining township of Habergham-
Eaves, were erected in 1819, at an expense
of £5500, of which sum £2500 were subscribed by
the inhabitants. The trade was formerly confined to
the manufacture of woollen cloth and worsted goods.;
but that of cotton has been introduced, for the spinning,
weaving, and printing of which, large establishments
have been erected: on the banks of the rivers
are also several mills for grinding corn, &c., and for
fulling cloth. Coal, flag stone, and slate, are found in
abundance within a short distance. The Leeds and
Liverpool canal, which winds nearly round the town,-
has contributed greatly to the promotion of its trade.
The market, granted in the 22nd of Edward I. to
Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, is on Monday and
Saturday, the former 'being the principal; and on
every alternate Monday there is a market for cattle,
established in January 1819. Fairs are held on March
6th, Easter-eve, May 9th and 13th, July 10th, and October
11th, for horses, cloth, and pedlary; there is a
wool fair on the second Thursday in July, and a horse
fair on the third Thursday in October. Petty sessions
for the division are held here.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Chester, endowed with various
benefactions (among which is one of £400, to meet a
similar donation from the commissioners of Queen
Anne's bounty), and in the patronage of Robert Townley
Parker, Esq. The chapel, dedicated to St. Peter,
was erected soon after the Conquest; but having been
partly rebuilt and enlarged at different times, it combines
various styles of architecture: it is a spacious
structure, and contains several monuments of the
Townley family, among which is one to the memory of
Charles Townley, Esq., a celebrated patron of the fine
arts, whose collection of Grecian and Roman sculpture.
was the most select ever introduced into this country:
the Townley marbles were purchased by the trustees
of the British Museum for £20,000, which sum was
granted by parliament for that purpose. There are
places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyan
Methodists, and Roman Catholics. The free grammar
school was founded in the reign of Edward VI., and
endowed in 1578, by Sir Robert Ingham; the endowment,
originally small, has been considerably augmented
by subsequent benefactions, and now produces about
£140 per annum: the school has an interest in thirteen
scholarships founded in Brasenose College, Oxford,
by Dr.Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, London, in 1572:
the management is vested in trustees, who appoint the
master, and allow him a salary of £130 per annum,
with the privilege of charging each boy £3. 3. per annum
for writing and arithmetic. The Rev. W. Whitaker,
D.D., the learned master of St. John's College, Cambridge,
and the erudite historian of the " Original parish
of Whalley," received the rudiments of his education
in this school. An institution for the relief of
poor married women in childbirth was established in
1819; there is also a Strangers' Friend Society. The
interest of £1244. 15. three per cent, consols., given
by Mrs. Elizabeth Peel in 1800, and of £500 by Mrs.
Molly Thompson, is distributed in clothing to the poor
of Burnley and Habergham-Eaves.