The photo is of property long demolished (c1890) but the cottages were known by a name which gives us a clue as to where they were. The name was Store Room Cottages, a row of four or five houses which seem to have slipped from the pages of local history.

There are a number of other clues which might help us with location.
The stretch of water which runs across the lower part of the photo is part of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and, if you look at the picture, you will be able to see the canal seems to be narrowing to the left.
This usually indicates we are near a bridge and this is the case here.
The name might surprise you but I think that, when I tell you it was originally called Old Warehouse Bridge, you will agree it is not so very different to the name by which the cottages were once known.

Notice the trees behind. These once constituted a piece of woodland, no trace of which survives today, but about which I would like to know more. The woodland is shown very clearly, and regularly planted, on the 1827 Fishwick map, the 1841 Merryweather map and the first (1844) OS map of Burnley. Considering these maps, particularly the latter, I think it is possible the woodland became detached from one of Burnley's more important landed estates when the canal was built. The question, of course, is what estate might that be?

The photo was not taken in the centre of town but adjacent to one of the roads which lead out of town. This area – in the early days of the canal (the 1790s) – became something of a canal community with its own warehouse and boatyard. Indeed, the cottages may have been built to accommodate people whose livelihood was, to a greater or lesser extent, dependent on the canal. It was not until 1801 that the canal builders had finished their work in Burnley. In that year Burnley Embankment and Gannow Tunnel were completed but, before then, the canal company needed facilities for the loading and unloading of goods and maintenance of their barges.

The warehouse was built, in 1795 or 1796, on the land upon which the photographer who took today's picture was standing. The building was known as the "Old Warehouse" as it was Burnley's first, though the other three in the town, at Finsley Gate, Manchester Road and Rosegrove, were not long to follow.

A warehouse clearly has to have easy access to the canal and a road. The latter was a turnpike leading east out of Burnley in the direction of Yorkshire and crossed the canal by a bridge to the north of the warehouse. On the other side of the road was the boatyard. There was direct access to the canal and even today the boatyard, which is shown on the Fishwick map of 1827, can still be identified. Some of you might recall it as a stoneyard. If you have not worked out where we are, I will put you out of your misery.

We are in Colne Road at the point where the road crosses the canal. As I indicate above, the cottages in the picture were demolished in c1890 but were replaced by Knightsbridge Terrace which was built in 1896. The present terrace occupies part of the detached woodland which was once part of the Bank Hall Estate.

The cottages, as you can see, were built in at least two stages. A cottage like the one to the left, which has a mullioned window, would usually be older than the ones to the right, which have single windows.
However, this week you have the advantage of me in that I feel sure the picture you have in front of you will be clearer than the one I am using. I could be that you will be able to determine whether the cottage to the left is older by looking carefully at the stonework where the dwellings join. However, it is possible the cottages date from the time when the canal was built. They are shown on the 1827 map, the nearest in date I have in my collection.

I started this article by declaring the picture was interesting for what it does not show rather than what it does. Not much of that interesting patch of woodland can be seen but, on the extreme left, you might be able to see a small part of the building in Colne Road. In the days when the cottages were built the only structures in this area of what is now Burnley were Danes House and the Ebenezer Chapel. This latter we know today as Burnley Lane Baptist Chapel.

Not shown, but very close to the chapel, was Bell's Garden. This ran from Burnley Old Lane (now Hebrew Road) to the canal and consisted of five planted areas which functioned as a small market (and possibly pleasure) garden operated by Benjamin Bell who had a small grocer's shop at the top of the site (i.e. Hebrew Road).

These urban "gardens" are of great interest to me and, in Burnley, there was once a number of them. Did you know, for example, that the site of the present Town Hall was once a gooseberry garden where, because of experiments at the site, the modern gooseberry was born?
That is a story for another article – if I can find an appropriate photo!

Roger Frost would like to thank Mr and Mrs Terry and Stephanie Sutcliffe for permission to use the photo published today.