I am afraid that though I have responsibilities relating to Towneley, I did not realise the anniversary was imminent.

For this information, and for much of the content of this week's article, I have to thank Miss Susan Bourne and her colleagues at the art gallery and museum.

Who could imagine Burnley without Towneley? If anything defines the history and heritage of our town it is Towneley, its only possible rival being the parish church of St Peter.

Towneley has been with us for more than 700 years though it has only been in public hands for just over a century. After serving as the principal seat of the Towneley family for about 600 years it was bought by Burnley Corporation in 1902.

It was always the intention of the council that the hall should become an art gallery and museum for the people of Burnley. However, when Lady O'Hagan left, the building was virtually empty. In 1903 there was only a single painting in the collection. Five years later there were 10.
The Towneley altarpiece, now in the chapel, had been removed from the hall in the later 19th Century and installed in the convent of Notre Dame at Forest Row, Sussex. Similarly, the 1781 painting, "Charles Towneley and his friends ...", by John Zoffany, the most famous of the Towneley paintings, has only been at the hall since 1939 when it was returned to what had been the family seat with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund.

When Towneley came into the possession of Burnley Corporation there was no gallery, apart of course for the long gallery, at the hall. Charles Towneley (1737-1805) had planned to construct a large sculpture gallery at his seat in 1789 but this was deemed too large and too costly.

Later what Towneley called a statue room, which would have housed part of his growing collection of classical marbles, was considered and several plans survive for a project that, regrettably, was never undertaken.

We know the family had a large number of paintings in the hall when they were in residence.

Evidence of this can be seen in the long gallery and the present collection contains a number of the family portraits once displayed there. However, though the long gallery was large, it was, as one of the oldest parts of the hall, not thought suitable for a modern picture gallery.

In 1907 the lack of display space had been fully recognised. The honorary secretary of the art gallery and museum sub-committee wrote: "The want of a gallery adequately lighted is acutely felt and it is quite impossible to do justice to the valuable and interesting paintings loaned to us for exhibition. The committee has this important matter under serious consideration."

From this you can see the council had instituted annual exhibitions.
Most of the paintings were loaned from collections in both private and public hands, but display space was inadequate. The outcome was that the bedrooms on the top floor of the north wing were replaced by a purpose-built art gallery, which is still in use, and which was opened by Lord O'Hagan in 1908. Fifteen years later, supported by the Stocks Massey Bequest, the watercolour gallery, now temporarily closed, was added.

If you look at the photo you can see how the Spring and Summer Exhibition of 1908 was displayed. Not to modern taste, perhaps, but 108,992 people – the equivalent of one visit per resident – attended, demonstrating not only the extent of local support for the art gallery but also the place of Towneley Hall in local affections.

The picture on the far wall, bottom right, is "The Drums of the Fore and Aft", by E. Matthew Hall, which had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838 and, at the time of the exhibition, was in the ownership of the Corporation of Leeds. It has something of a resonance for us in that it shows a scene from the Second Afghan War of 1878-1890.

Rudyard Kipling wrote about an incident in one of the battles when two little British drummer boys were left behind after their comrades retreated during the batter of Ahmed Khel. The boys took up their instruments and, in doing so, inspired their colleagues to a great victory, though they themselves were killed. Burnley Corporation obtained permission from Kipling to recount his story in the catalogue published for the 1908 exhibition.

Much has changed at Towneley, since then, but in recent years the visitor experience, with the support of Heritage Lottery funds, has been enhanced. The hall, with its museums and art galleries, is a facility of which all with Burnley connections can be proud.