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Vision Of Burnley
29 Mar 1974
Central Library, Grimshaw Street, Burnley
One man's vision of Burnley set among the glorious hills of North-East Lancashire could soon revolutionise the town's image throughout the country. For the idea of Burnley as an ugly mill town amid an industrial waste land is rejected once and for all in a new painting, copies of which will soon be on display in nearly 100 towns and cities throughout the country. Commissioned by Burnley Building Society, the painting shows a panoramic view of Burnley as seen from Crown Point, and is aimed at projecting the town's image in branches throughout the United Kingdom.
The watercolour of Burnley couched between Pendle and the surrounding moors is the result of months of painstaking work by local artist and film-maker John Rickard. Entitled "Burnley and Beyond," the picture also contains a small diagram at the foot of the painting indicating Pendle, Ingleborough, Great Whernside, Pen-y-Ghent, the Forest of Bowland, Fountains Fell and Longridge Fell, the home of the building society's first office. The painting will be on show to the public along with more than 30 other watercolours by Mr Rickard, at an exhibition opening this weekend at the Central Library in Burnley.
