Towneley Park is owned and managed by Burnley Borough Council and is the largest and most popular park in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

, England. 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 . 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.

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 The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. The hall not only contains the 15th-century Whalley Abbey vestments, but also has its own chapel – with a finely carved

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...

made in Antwerp around 1525. 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 of land to Burnley Corporation for £17,600. The family departed in March 1902. Between 2005 and 2011, the Heritage Lottery Fund granted £2.1 million to help fund a major programme of restoration of the Park.

Collections

The art gallery contains important Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite works by Burne-Jones,

Waterhouse Waterhouse may refer to: People *Waterhouse (surname) Places * Waterhouse, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Waterhouse Island (disambiguation) * Waterhouse district of Kingston, Jamaica ** Waterhouse F.C., a football club based in the Waterho ...

, Alma-Tadema and Zoffany. watercolours by Turner and local artist Noel H. Leaver, a collection of Lancashire furniture, The Whalley Abbey vestments, natural history, local social and military history, the Towneley Family. The Deer Pond in Towneley Park is a Local Nature Reserve.

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. According to writer Daniel Codd, there are later stories of a strange ghostly white apparition that appears by the River Calder.Codd, Daniel (2011). ''Paranormal Lancashire''. Amberley. p.78-79, 149.

Gallery

File:TotemTowneley.JPG, An example of the woodland sculptures File:Towneley Hall.jpg, Hall from the southwest File:Folyds Cross 1520.JPG, Foldy's cross File:StatueTowneley.JPG, Towneley Cenotaph

References

External links