Burnley's origins are prehistoric, as shown by Stone Age flint tools and weapons that found on the moors around the town.[3] Local place names Padiham and Habergham show the influence of the Angles, suggesting that some had settled in the area by the early 7th century,[3] but there is no definitive record of settlement until 1122, when a charter granted the church of Burnley to the monks of Pontefract Abbey.[3] In its early days, Burnley was a small farming community, gaining a corn mill in 1290,[4] a market in 1294, and a fulling mill in 1296.[3] At this point, it was within the manor of Ightenhill, one of five that made up the Honour of Clitheroe, then a far more significant settlement, and consisted of no more than 50 families.[3] Little survives of early Burnley – the name means ‘meadow by the River Brun’[3] – apart from the Market Cross, erected in 1295, which now stands in the grounds of an annexe of Burnley College.[3] Over the next three centuries, Burnley grew in size to about 1,200 inhabitants by 1550, still centred around the church, St Peter’s, in what is now known as "Top o’ th’ Town". Prosperous residents built larger houses, including Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham and Towneley Hall, and in 1532 St Peter's Church was largely rebuilt.[3] Burnley’s grammar school was founded in 1559, and moved into its own schoolhouse next to the church in 1602.[3] Burnley began to develop in this period into a small market town. It is known that weaving was established in the town by the middle of the 17th century[3] and in 1617 a new Market House was built. The town continued to be centred on St Peter’s Church until the market was moved to the bottom of what is today Manchester Road at the end of the 18th century.[3]
[edit] Industrial Revolution and after
In the second half of the 18th century, the manufacture of cotton began to replace that of wool. Burnley’s earliest known factories – dating from the mid-century – stood on the banks of the River Calder close to where it is joined by the River Brun, and relied on water power to drive the spinning machines, but by 1830 there were 32 steam engines in cotton mills throughout the rapidly expanding town.[3] By 1866, the town was the largest producer of cotton cloth in the world.[5] The 18th century also saw the rapid development of coal mining: the drift mines and shallow bell-pits of earlier centuries were replaced by deeper shafts meeting industrial as well as domestic demand locally, and by 1800 there were over a dozen pits in the centre of the town alone.[3] The first turnpike road through Burnley was begun in 1754, linking the town to Blackburn and Colne, and by the early 19th century there were daily stagecoach journeys to Blackburn, Skipton and Manchester, the last taking just over two hours.[3] For the transportation of goods in bulk, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal arrived in 1796, and in 1848 the East Lancashire Railway Company’s extension from Accrington linked the town to the nation’s nascent railway network for the first time.[3] By 1851, the town’s population had reached almost 21,000.[3]
The Weavers' Triangle, with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in the foreground
Burnley became incorporated as a municipal borough in 1861, and became, under the Local Government Act 1888, a county borough outside the administrative county of Lancashire. But from a population of over 100,000 in 1911, the town's population has declined to today's figure,[6] mirroring the decline in its traditional industries of textiles, mining and engineering. The Queen paid an official visit to the town in summer 1961, marking the 100th anniversary of Burnley's borough status. Under the Local Government Act 1972 Burnley's county borough status was abolished, and it was incorporated with neighbouring areas into the non-metropolitan district of Burnley.
In June 2001, the town received national attention following a series of violent disturbances arising from racial tension between elements of its white and immigrant communities
