I bought the image at a recent postcard fair held at Hoghton, near Preston. As soon as I saw it I knew it was destined for the collection as it shows a number of small features to the street scene, as we would call it now, of Manchester Road which I have not been able to discuss before.

The card itself was printed in Saxony, Germany, in the Wrench Series but is not typical of continental cards produced at the time. By that I mean many of the German cards printed before the First World War, and made available to the British market, were tinted; that is they were black and white monochrome photos overprinted with colour. Often the colour is inappropriate. For instance, our grey slate roofs are often printed blue or green and the colour of our local stone comes out as a consistent brown rather than the light, sandy colour or the almost sooty black with which we are familiar.

All that said, the German postcards are often very clear giving details which are sometimes missing on more locally-printed examples. The one published today was taken before 1910. In that year the London City and Midland Bank, now the HSBC, at the corner of Red Lion Street and Manchester Road was built. As you can see this site is occupied by a shop, which for a number of years, was run by Mrs Sarah Hargreaves as a grocers. If you look carefully you might be able to see an advert for coffee in the Red Lion Street window. Mrs Hargreaves also had a corn milling business in Bridge Street.

On the extreme left of the picture you will be able to see the row of single-storey shops. This is one of the features, about this card, that interests me because, on an old card, one would normally expect to see the Savoy on this site. The latter was not built until 1922, so let us have a look at what occupied the site before then.

Before the town centre moved from near St Peter's Church to its present site (towards the end of the 18th Century) there was no Manchester Road. When a street was constructed it was named Market Street as it ran into the wide part of St James's Street which, in those days, was operating as a market square. A little higher up, the name of the street changed to Foundry Street but the bridge which carries Manchester Road over the Calder is still known as Market Street Bridge.

Where Red Lion Street is today there was once Red Lion Croft, an area of grazing land. On the upper side, residential property was built, most of which was converted into shops and business premises but on the lower side, in 1817 to 1819, Burnley's lock up prison was constructed.
This became necessary after a number of post-Napoleonic War disturbances which took place in the streets of Burnley. The remnant of the lock up can still be seen behind the Swan Hotel but this gloomy-looking facility was not put to its original use for very long as the local police had cells at Keighley Green from about 1840.

The land which we are looking at was quickly converted into shops and we are fortunate that we can read two of the four names of these businesses on the postcard. The first, which although I cannot make the name out on the picture, was that of Joshua Duckworth, who was a tobacconist. He lived at 20 Holly Mount in St Matthew's Street.

The next name can be read from the card and is that of Ralph Mason, the tripe dressers, and after his business is that of Peter Eastwood, the carriage and, later, motor proprietors and funeral undertakers. Eastwood's moved to the small building next to the Swan Hotel and, recently, the Burnley Civic Society has restored the wall which can be seen from St James's Street.

The last of the four shops is clearly that of a butchers. The name of the business cannot be read but it was that of the long-established firm of Harry Holdsworth & Son, which had started at 4 St James's Street moving to these premises, so far as I can tell, in the 1890s.
Burnley had very few single-storey shop premises in the town centre in Victorian times although I can think of a number in the market and Hammerton Street areas.

The ones you can see cause local historians some considerable trouble because, although there were four shops only three numbers applied to them. The conclusion I have arrived at is that if Holdsworth's were at number 10, and the site of the later bank is 12-14 Manchester Road, the premises occupied by Mason's and Eastwood's must originally have been one building which would have been number 8.

Though mere speculation, this solution is possible. If you look at the picture, the fronts of Mason's and Eastwood's look not to be as wide as the other shops in the row. In addition, the businesses, the sale of tripe and essentially a booking office, did not need much floor space.

Of course, when the London City and Midland Bank was built in 1910, the much taller row changed quite considerably. The bank was designed by well-known architect T. B. Whinney and built in the Queen Anne style of red brick, with some stone, but in contrast to the rest of the row. It is a familiar building to us but, in its early days, I would not be surprised to learn that a number of local residents would not have approved.

Another point of interest in today's picture can be seen on the extreme right. We are used to seeing the Burton Building at this location. When the photo upon which today's card is based was taken the Bull Hotel still occupied this site.

This picture is the only one in my collection which shows the arched entrance into the crowded rear yard at the Bull.

In most views of this building there is usually a tram or another large vehicle preventing a complete appraisal of the building. Here we can see it very clearly.

As you will appreciate I was very pleased to be able to buy the image published today. The card was for sale with the comment "Very Fine" on the back and I won't disagree with that.