There is nothing in the picture, apart perhaps from the site of the advertising hoarding, which survives to give us any clues as to where we are.

However, many of you will pass the site of these old buildings, situated as they were at what has become one of the town's most important crossroads, almost every day.

If I added that Saturday afternoons, for most of the year, see a considerable increase in traffic in this area, those of you interested in the fortunes of our famous football team might guess we might not be all that far from Turf Moor.

The photo is, in fact, described in a century-old source as being of the "Old House at the entrance to the Cricket Field".

Further information is added that the building dates from circa 1660, but that is all.

This part of Burnley, where Yorkshire Street, Belvedere Road, Brunshaw Road (Harry Potts Way) and Todmorden Road all meet, has changed out of all recognition in the past 150 years or so.

The oldest of the roads, a turnpike route still retaining an old milestone, is the one which follows Yorkshire Street and Brunshaw Road, though names have changed.

At one time Yorkshire Street, from the Culvert almost to the site of the building in today's picture, was known as Eastgate and, in very recent times, the lower part of Brunshaw Road has been renamed in honour of arguably Burnley FC's most successful manager.

Todmorden Road is largely a creation of the 19th century. Originally it appears to have been called Fulledge Road. Later, Burnley Wood Road was used before the present name was adopted.

The most recent road is Belvedere Road. The name, which translates as "beautiful view", is inspired by the view over Turf Moor in the direction of Cliviger, now partly lost because of 20th Century developments.

It is generally not realised that the Turf Moor area has a very long sporting history and this, in earlier times, had little or nothing to do with either cricket or football. Turf Moor was the site of one of Burnley's two racing courses – the other was on Healey Heights.

I suppose I should add that the area had a third racing course in Padiham, lasting beyond the middle years of the 19th century.

We know Turf Moor racing course survived until the 1830s and one poster, advertising a meeting there, can be inspected at Towneley Hall.
After that, the Moor was used for military training and the officers arranged cricket matches on the lower parts of the Moor. It was in the 1880s, shortly after its foundation in 1882, that Burnley FC made Turf Moor its home.

The name Turf Moor has little to do with the vegetation on the site but with the area's association with "the Turf", in other words horseracing, or the course on which the racing was held.

It is more than likely the buildings shown in the picture came into their own during meetings as it appears one of the entrances to the course was to the right of the cottages.

There is, though, one thing which puzzles me about this picture. I have long since thought, because it was explained to me in this way, that the buildings were constructed in line with what became Belvedere Road.

Looking at this picture, it is more likely they were on what was then Brunshaw Road, opposite what was until recently the Wellington pub.

The puzzle involves the advertising hoarding. Maps confirm there was a short track which came almost up to the gable on the left of the building.

The track itself leads to a property which would have been on what became the left hand side of Belvedere Road when it was built.

It is possible there might have been just enough space for a small advertising hoarding between the building and track.

In 1827, there were sizeable gardens between the cottages, access to which appears to have been from the site of the hoarding.

Whatever is the case, the buildings are shown on the earlier maps of Burnley. The reference to 1827 is to Fishwick's map and, on it, the buildings are shown as being part of the toll bar (about which I have written before).

The site of the toll bar is confirmed on the 1841 Merryweather map and the buildings are still there on the 1912 OS map.

This latter map shows Yorkshire Street (Eastgate has gone) and Todmorden Road with tram lines, although they did not extend to Brunshaw Road. The cottages, two of them, are shown on the map, although the gardens behind have been incorporated into the Cricket Field.

Belvedere Road was constructed by 1912 and, looking at the map, I saw something which surprised me: the word "Hall" and the building which went with it on the cricket field side of Belvedere Road.

This "Hall" was almost opposite Ridge Road and a bit of research revealed it was the St Catherine's Parochial Hall, managed in 1914 by Miss Ruth Edmondson (HL Certificate, Cambridge University) who lived at 135 Woodgrove Road. I have not seen a picture of the parochial hall. Does one survive?

The building shown in today's picture must remain something of a mystery, unless readers can add to what I have written here. There are a few things relating to the cottages I have omitted from this article.

These I have mentioned before in my writings, but I don't think I have published today's picture before.