There are a few clues as to the nature of the business and where it was located but I wonder how many of the older readers can find answers to these questions and a final one, the name of the firm?

You will have exceptional knowledge of pre-war Burnley to get all three right. I don't think I could have managed such a feat without a previous owner of this card giving me some vital information by writing it on the back. If you get only one of the questions right you have done pretty well. Two, and you have my admiration.

However, before I put you out of misery let me describe the general area of the town in which this photo was taken. The postcard dates from the 1920s and is of only one double fronted shop in a part of town, though reviled by some, I have enjoyed visiting for many years.

You can see the shop is built of stone. Which still stands today and though stone cleaned, some renovation work has been carried out on the building a few years ago, no use has been found for it and the shop seems to of been abandoned. This is a great pity as the picture shows the structure once has a viable use. Indeed the photo reminds us we should not only take into account the current condition of a building: we should try to understand what it has been rather than what it has become.

I visited the site recently. It was early evening and I wanted to check not on the front of the building, as I already knew, but on the back as I had worked out the shop was in use by the owners at the time the photo was taken, a rear access to the building was used for another part of the business carried on there.

Don't get me wrong - there was nothing illegal about this additional activity. At the time it were perfectly normal, thousands of Burnley people were involved – even my own father could be numbered among them. Not at this location but he did work for the firm whose premises these were at different, and better known, town centre premises.

When I investigated the rear of the building, I was surprised by the distance it was from the street at the back. At one time the building, together with the others on the short row of which it is part, must have had a considerable garden. Like many such urban gardens it was built over some time ago but the thought passed my mind that I was not far from Orchard Bridge and the Meadows. It is probable the land here was once very productive though the large extension, which almost totally covered the old garden, gave little or no hint of this except for the vigour of a few weeds growing nearby.

These days the narrow back street, like the property it serves, has seen better times. I recall reading what Walter Bennett wrote about it in his famous History of Burnley. He says the street was given its name at a time when people were proud of, and thankful for, the product from which the name was derived. Close to the site there was a small works where the product, something which changed all our lives, was made. In these circumstances it is not surprising the name should have been used though I, from a different generation, had previously been at a loss as to why the name had been chosen.

Walking along the back street, some of the properties abandoned, others not in good condition, I could not avoid noticing the rubbish which had accumulated behind walls which had once defined gardens and rear yards.
Pigeons had taken up residence in a large red brick property opposite an attractive stone building originally an inn, but once a Christian Reading Science Room and now back in the licensed trade as a club.

I had a brief chat with a man outside the club. He pointed out that if that part of Burnley had been in Manchester most of these fine buildings would have been brought back into use – the pigeon colony a fine hotel, the houses and shops restored.

In the above I have given you several clues as to where we are. I will not go through them but tell you the shop in today's picture is 137 St James's Street, Burnley. Notice the three golden balls, the sign of the pawnbroker, between the two windows on the top floor of the building. The sign is a clue also and it should have put into your mind, perhaps, Burnley's most well known firm of pawnbrokers of olden days, Richard Webster Ltd.

My father Walter Frost, could have worked for his father in the small family business but chose to work for Webster's, mainly at their Bridge Street store. I know he also worked at the Gannow shop but could have worked at the 137 St James's Street as well. You can see the business purported to be a jewellers and outfitters but the pawn department here was at the back, in Gas Street.

Could I recommend you have a look at Lower St James's Street? That is the name they want to use these days, though it is only lower in the sense it is nearer the river! I was very pleased to see that, though a lot still needs to be done, the area is coming back from what recently appeared to be a disease terminal to trade and commerce.

There are a number of interesting shops there already. They deserve our support and, as the town centre becomes increasingly dominated by the national chains, what better area could there be for local business into which it can expand making the whole district more attractive for all of us?