Towneley Park

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Towneley Hall
Towneley Hall edit.jpg
Towneley Hall from the front
Location Burnley, Lancashire
Coordinates 53°46′26″N2°13′21″W / 53.7738°N 2.2225°W / 53.7738; -2.2225
Area180 hectares
ArchitectVarious including Wyattville
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameTowneley Hall
Designated10 November 1951
Reference no. 1247299 (Hall)
Official nameIce house at Towneley Hall
Reference no. 1005089
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameTowneley Hall
Designated1 April 1986
Reference no. 1000954 (Park and Garden)
Location map United Kingdom Burnley.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Towneley Hall in Burnley

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, a grade I listed building housing 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.

Contents

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 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 for £17,600. The family departed in March 1902. [3]

Between 2005 and 2011, the Heritage Lottery Fund granted £2.1 million to help fund a major programme of restoration of the Park, [4] which is grade II listed. [3]

Towneley Hall

The hall is a grade I listed building. [5]

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. [6]

Collections

The art gallery contains important Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite works by Burne-Jones, Waterhouse, Alma-Tadema and Zoffany, [7] watercolours by Turner and local artist Noel H. Leaver, a collection of Lancashire furniture, the Whalley Abbey vestments, natural history and local social and military history relating to the Towneley family. The Deer Pond in Towneley Park is a Local Nature Reserve. [8] [9]

Traditions

According to folklore, the hall was 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. [10] According to writer Daniel Codd, there are later stories of a strange ghostly white apparition that appears by the River Calder. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Townley</span> English art collector and antiquarian (1737–1805)

Charles Townley FRS was a wealthy English country gentleman, antiquary and collector, a member of the Towneley family. He travelled on three Grand Tours to Italy, buying antique sculpture, vases, coins, manuscripts and Old Master drawings and paintings. Many of the most important pieces from his collection, especially the Townley Marbles are now in the British Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. The marbles were overshadowed at the time, and still today, by the Elgin Marbles.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnley</span> Town in England

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 21 miles (34 km) north of Manchester and 20 miles (32 km) east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Calder, Lancashire</span> Tributary of the River Ribble in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whalley Abbey</span> Former Cistercian abbey in Lancashire, England

Whalley Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Whalley, Lancashire, England. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey was largely demolished and a country house was built on the site. In the 20th century the house was modified and it is now the Retreat and Conference House of the Diocese of Blackburn of the Church of England. The ruins of the abbey are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Towneley family</span>

The Towneley or Townley family are an English family whose ancestry can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon England. Towneley Hall in Burnley, Lancashire, was the family seat until its sale, together with the surrounding park, to the corporation of Burnley in 1901. Towneley Hall is now a Grade I listed building and a large museum and art gallery within Towneley Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuerden Hall</span> Historic site in Lancashire, England

Cuerden Hall is a country mansion in the village of Cuerden near Preston, Lancashire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. The Hall was formerly a family home between 1717 and 1906, and used by the Army until the 1960s. In 1985 it became a Sue Ryder neurological care centre. The Hall was sold to Manchester business man Colin Shenton in 2020 who is restoring it to its original purpose as a family home. The parkland and wider estate are known as Cuerden Valley Park. Cuerden Valley Park is now owned and managed by Cuerden Valley Park Trust which was a charity established in 1986, to ensure the longevity and management of the parkland itself. The Trust is made up for 650 acres of land; 1 reservoir, 15 ponds, 3 reed beds; over 5km of the river Lostock and 5 nature reserves.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Towneley Colliery</span>

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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. 1 2 Historic England. "Townley Hall [park] (1000954)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  4. "Woman behind £3.2m. Towneley Hall transformation scheme leaves". Burnley Express. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  5. Historic England. "Towneley Hall [hall] (1247299)". National Heritage List for England .
  6. "Towneley Altarpiece" . Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  7. "Fiona Bruce's Britain: Towneley Hall, Burnley, Lancashire". The Daily Telegraph. 3 September 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  8. "Deer Pond". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  9. "Map of Deer Pond". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  10. John Harland and Thomas Turner Wilkinson (1882). Lancashire Folk-lore. (Reprint E Green Publishing, 1973). pp. 58–59. ISBN   0854097228
  11. Codd, Daniel (2011). Paranormal Lancashire. Amberley. pp. 78–79, 149. ISBN   9781445606583