The archive is extensive and we aim to make as many of these images available online as soon as possible.
We have Upcoming Events to raise awareness of the collection and our project and photographs of community events held at Burnley Central Library in the 1960's to 1980's are now on display at the library to celebrate the creation of the new Community Hub/Reference Library.
APRIL 2022 **GOOD NEWS** UPDATE: Our archive rooms are now fully operational although we continue to take a cautious approach. We WELCOME NEW VOLUNTEERS, all that is needed are some basic computer skills and an interest in local history.
PENDLE AND WEST CRAVEN images in the Surrounding Districts pages will also now include images from 1963 to 1970 which are scanned from negatives (in addition to those scanned from photographs). These image stories are being transcribed from Nelson Library newspaper film rolls.
50 Years Ago
Don't waste the canal, is the advice of Mr Holgate, who sits by a stretch that runs under Manchester Road.
It's the end of an era as the last coal barge makes its way along a stretch of the 200-year-old Leeds and Liverpool canal today, 11th August 1972. But a waterway which has served the North so well over the years can still be used to advantage. Who says so? Mr Barry Holgate of Howard Street, Burnley, who has just completed a thesis on the canal while at Chorley Teacher Training College. With fellow student Mr P. Dorrington, he has also made a film on its history, development and decline.
The canal which runs through the centre of Burnley was built between 1772 and 1816. Nobody can doubt the economic value the canal has been to the area, but it has also become a hazard. Mr Holgate, who will be taking up a teaching post at Huncoat County Primary School next term went on to say: "The Burnley stretch was the most expensive to construct and certainly had a great effect on the development of the town. The mills started along the canal and the town grew inside the horseshoe. It was not until the railways started that the canal began to decline."
