This was how the Burnley Express described the opening of what was Burnley's fourth public park showing, perhaps, how little has changed, at least with regard to our weather.

In fact, one could argue Ightenhill Park is 100 years old this year.

This century can be claimed on the grounds it was in 1908 the then Lord Shuttleworth offered five acres of land on his Gawthorpe Estate for an open air space. Shortly after, Burnley Corporation bought another four or five acres from Lord Shuttleworth and, when the park opened on June 25th, 1912, it covered 6¾ acres out of the final c9½ acres to which the park came to extend.

The initial project was for the land to the south of Ightenhill Park Lane. It was here the park was constructed on land previously used for grazing.

There was a later project, completed in 1913, to construct bowling facilities on the north side of Park Lane. These joined the already existing private tennis club, founded in 1887, though there were major improvements to the courts in 1926 by which time Burnley Corporation was the owner of this land as well.

Ightenhill Park was the work of G.H. Pickles, Burnley's borough engineer and surveyor, and the parks superintendent, Robert Murray. They constructed a facility which was, and to a large extent remains today, typical of the smaller semi-rural or suburban parks of the day.

Ightenhill Park, unlike most of Burnley's parks, was built on relatively flat land. It was described, at the time, as being "purely artificial", meaning the designers could not make use of already existing natural feature like a stream or rising land.

Scott Park, opened in 1895, takes advantage of a stream and, in its early years, boasted a very impressive fountain. The later Thompson's Park (1930) made spectacular use of the River Brun and it should be remembered both Scott Park and Thompson's Park had previously been private parks, the first as part of the Hood House Estate and the second as part of the park attached to Bank Hall.

Burnley's largest park, Towneley, was originally the private park attached to Towneley Hall and, in its time, had been used for hunting though the family preferred their larger facilities at Hapton for sport.

Consequently, the best comparison, in Burnley, to Ightenhill Park is Queen's Park which had been agricultural land some time before it was donated to the council in 1888 by Sir John Hardy Thursby. However, by the time it was in public hands, the land had been degraded by its proximity to three large coal mines. Queen's Park, opened in 1893, was also completely artificial but Ightenhill Park's position, looking towards Pendle Hill and to miles of open countryside, gave it the better views.

When it opened Ightenhill Park contained paths, shubberies, lawns, flowerbeds and areas of small planting. The latter were areas given over to young trees but the whole of the scheme was arranged for future effect.

Early photos of the park are not particularly impressive because not only are they in black and white, it is clear that all of the plantings - trees, shrubs, flowers - are new and need time to be seen at their best.

At the beginning there were several buildings in the park of which the most important was the bandstand. It was used, not for the Catholic band, the members of which played selections of music throughout the opening ceremony (and probably got very wet into the bargain), but was decked out with seating for the opening party led by the mayor and mayoress of Burnley.

The opening itself took place outside the park gates. The chairman was Coun William Whittaker JP, one of the representatives of Stoneyholme ward and chairman of the Parks Committee. He said he knew the Ightenhill area very well as he had spent his youth in that part of town and went on to indicate that, in providing parks, public gardens and recreation grounds in different parts of the town, Burnley had spent a total of £70,000. The implication was that this was a handsome sum, but he appealed for the help of the public to put an end to what we would call vandalism in the town's parks. Another example of there being fewer changes in society than we might sometimes think!

The mayoress was introduced and presented with a gold key with which to unlock the gates. The key itself had been commissioned from the Burnley firm of Dickinson's and Co, of Manchester Road. One side of the key was decorated in enamel with the borough coat of arms, and, on the other, an inscription read: "25th June, 1912. Presented to the Mayoress, Mrs Elijah Keighley, on the occasion of the opening of Ightenhill Park".

Mrs Keighley then referred to the growing town of Burnley and necessity for open spaces. She wanted the council to plant more trees in the town's streets and, saying that, unlocked the gate and the company passed into the park.

Ightenhill Park is recognisably the same facility today as it was in 1912, but there have been changes. The early photos show iron boundary palisades which have since been removed. I was in Cheltenham recently and made inquiries about newly-erected palisades around one of their town centre parks. The railings, as we might call them, constituted a splendid modern addition to this particular park. Perhaps we might think of doing the same at Ightenhill and, with the skills possessed by Mr Rourke and his colleagues in Rosegrove, we can be sure of the quality of the work.

Another feature of the park which has gone is the bandstand, but the layout of the park is substantially the same as it was when it was first opened. The biggest change is possibly associated with the trees in the park, which are young saplings in early images but are now mature trees.

The photo we publish today is taken from a postcard by Constantine's, of Accrington. The card was published not long after Ightenhill Park was opened. It shows only a section of the park, property in Southern Avenue being on the right. Ightenhill Park Lane is off to the right just beyond the large, semi-detached house on the extreme right. Note that the planting appears to be very new and also the wooden shelter in the middle of the picture.

At the present time the borough council is working with the Friends of Ightenhill Park to improve facilities there and it is hoped Green Flag status will be achieved in the coming year. When that happens, Ightenhill will be the sixth Burnley park to have been awarded the coveted award.