The dignitaries and invited guests inside Towneley Hall. A previously unpublished image.

Burnley's new crafts museum, which was handed over to the town on Friday, 30th April 1971, was an ideal example of the higher standards to which Lancashire should aspire in the next few years, said Sir William Mather, who performed the opening ceremony. Towneley Hall Society had achieved elegance and style in their most imaginative craft museum. Sir William was introduced by the chairman of the Towneley Hall Society (Mr. K. Nightingale), as chairman of the North-West Regional Economic Planning Council, of the Civic Trust for the North-West and of the Northern Arts and Science Foundation. The chairman thanked numerous people who had contributed in a variety of ways, especially the local firms who had given all the items of equipment free. In presenting the keys to the museum to the Mayor, Ald. E. J. Willis, the president of the society, Mr. A. M. Ascroft, praised the teamwork during three-and-a-half-years of fund raising to provide a museum which they hoped people would "enjoy for all time."