Towneley Park

Towneley Park is owned and managed by Burnley Borough Council and is the largest and most popular park in Burnley, Lancashire, England.[1] The main entrance to the park is within a mile of the town centre and the park extends to the south east, covering an area of some 180 hectares (440 acres). At the southern end of the park is Towneley Hall, Burnley's art gallery and museum. To the north are golf courses and playing fields and to the south 24 acres of broadleaf woodland. On the southern boundary is a working farm called Towneley Farm with pastures and plantations extending eastwards into Cliviger.

Towneley Hall
Towneley Hall from the front
LocationBurnley, Lancashire
Coordinates53.7738°N 2.2225°W / 53.7738; -2.2225
Area180 hectares
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: Towneley Hall
Designated10 November 1951
Reference no.1247299 (Hall)
Official name: Ice house at Towneley Hall
Reference no.1005089
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name: Towneley Hall
Designated1 April 1986
Reference no.1000954 (Park and Garden)
Location of Towneley Hall in Burnley

History

The hall was the home of the Towneley family from around 1200. The family once owned extensive estates in and around Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.[2] The hall not only contains the 15th-century Whalley Abbey vestments, but also has its own chapel – with a finely carved altarpiece made in Antwerp around 1525.[3] The male line of the family died out in 1878 and in 1901 one of the daughters, Lady O'Hagan, sold the house together with 62 acres (250,000 m2) of land to Burnley Corporation. The family departed in March 1902.[4]

Between 2005 and 2011 the Heritage Lottery Fund granted £3.2 million to help fund a major programme of restoration of the Park.[5]

Collection

The art gallery contains important Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite works by Burne-Jones, Waterhouse, Alma-Tadema and Zoffany.[6] Deer Pond in Towneley Park is a Local Nature Reserve.[7][8]

Traditions

According to folklore, the hall was said to have been haunted by a boggart. This spirit appeared once every seven years, just prior to the death of one of the residents. The boggart was linked to 'Sir John Towneley', who in life supposedly oppressed the poor of the district.[9] According to writer Daniel Codd, there are later stories of a strange ghostly white apparition that appears by the River Calder.[10]

  • An example of the woodland sculptures
  • Hall from the southwest
  • Foldy's cross
  • Towneley Cenotaph

See also

References
  1. "Towneley Park Management Plan". Burnley Council. Archived from the original on 31 August 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  2. "Welcome". Forest of Bowland. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  3. "Towneley Altarpiece". Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  4. Historic England. "Townley Hall (1000954)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  5. "Woman behind £3.2m. Towneley Hall transformation scheme leaves". Burnley Express. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  6. "Fiona Bruce's Britain: Towneley Hall, Burnley, Lancashire". The Telegraph. 3 September 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  7. "Deer Pond". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  8. "Map of Deer Pond". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  9. John Harland and Thomas Turner Wilkinson (1882). Lancashire Folk-lore. (Reprint E Green Publishing, 1973). p.58-59. ISBN 0854097228
  10. Codd, Daniel (2011). Paranormal Lancashire. Amberley. p.78-79, 149. ISBN 9781445606583
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