In the 10 years or so since then, I have come to understand the town a little more though I would not claim to know as much about Padiham, and Hapton for that matter, as locals such as Bob and Anne Clark and Mollie Haines, Margaret Jones and, of course, Duncan Armstrong. In fact, when I write about Padiham I always feel I am guilty of an obscure form of trespass, as if, because of my lack of Padiham connections, I should not be there.

One of the things I have learned about Padiham and its people is that there is considerable pride in being different.

I understand this because the same applies in Harle Syke (where I am proud to say I was born) and I suppose this is the case wherever one place appears to dominate another. Perhaps the best example, locally, is the long-standing rivalry which exists between Blackburn and Darwen.

They might, both of them, have been cotton towns, they might, these days, be in the same borough, they might support the same football team but one will forever be Blackburn and the other forever Darwen.

In our borough, I believe a mistake has been made in not recognising Padiham in the way it should.

It could be argued "Burnley with Padiham" would have been a better name for the borough than the current one which emphasises, whether it is the case or not, the domination of one town by the other.

Unforgivable, so far as I am concerned, is that none of the wards of the present borough mention Padiham. The town is served by Hapton with Park Ward, a name which is derived solely from Hapton, and Gawthorpe Ward, a name, that, though it has Padiham connections, is not derived from Padiham at all, Gawthorpe hall being in the civil parish of Ightenhill.

Padiham has not got a comprehensive town history like Walter Bennett's four-volume "History of Burnley." I feel all towns should have their own histories, ones which are accessible to everyone in their communities, where children can find out what their town was like when Elizabeth I or Queen Victoria was on the throne or where adults, often "family historians" these days, can find out about the place where their ancestors lived.

A better example of a town history, because it is of a similar size, is Dorothy Harrison's "History of Colne." This was published in 1988. Dorothy was the editor and I remember her asking how she might go about writing a town history.

I had already published my "A Lancashire Township: The History of Briercliffe-with-Extwistle" and I advised her that writing a town history is a major undertaking but if work is shared among interested parties, who work with an editor who could bring consistency and continuity to the project, something of considerable significance could be produced.

"The History of Colne" is such a book and what is remarkable about it is that it was written by local people, published by the local Pendle Heritage Ltd and printed by Hartley and Hartley, a Colne firm which did a thoroughly professional, in fact a splendid, job. Something similar could be undertaken in Padiham and though I would acknowledge there are recent studies of aspects of Padiham's history I would argue that what we know about Padiham's past needs to be brought together in an accessible form.

Those of you who know me might be surprised to read that, though I would prefer to see the end product in the form of a book (or a series of smaller publications), this need not be the case. It would be just as worthwhile, in some cases more worthwhile, to produce a DVD or, better still, an "internet history."

Computer access to the past has its advantages. In describing Padiham's old corn mill it would be possible, through a computer-generated model, to illustrate clearly how it worked, where the water came from to drive its machinery etc. The same would be true of explaining the technology behind weaving machines; what the parts were that made up the looms, why the machines were dangerous, how power in the mills drove the machines to make cloth, and so on.

If there is an interest in producing a history of Padiham I would like to hear from you. It might be that a community approach to such a project would be best for Padiham. If that is the case the method used for Colne might be the one to adopt.

The splendid picture today comes from the Briercliffe Society collection. It is a postcard image of the Technical School (properly, the Technical Institute) Padiham. The card was posted in August 1917 and produced by Padiham printer and stationer James Rushton whose business was run from 8 Church Street, though he lived at 6 Starkie Street.

Incidentally, this was the first card I noticed which had been produced by Mr Rushton. It would be interesting to look into other cards he might have made so, if you know of other Rushton postcards, I would be pleased to hear from you.

The view itself is of Burnley Road. The Technical Institute is in the centre of the picture. To its left is Institute Street and, left of the street, you can see the end of a block of six very pleasantly-designed premises some of which became shops at an early date. The end one was a confectioners, Edward Byrne's in 1927, though Emily Boothman had the business in 1914.

As you can see, the blinds are drawn on this shop but, next door, the awning is put to full use on what clearly was a sunny day.This shop housed a musical instrument dealer, Robert Fryers, in 1927.

However, I have not been able to work out if that was the business operating at the time the photo was taken.

The shop on the extreme left, number 167, is clearly marked as the Purity Soda Fountain. It was kept by William Christie in 1914 and by John H. Hitchon in 1927 but, in the directories for these years, neither were mentioned as running a soda fountain and both are listed as confectioners.

Being an inveterate window shopper, I would love to be able to see what is in the Soda Fountain's window. There were others, of course in our area, most famously Fitzpatrick's in Yorkshire Street in Burnley, though I also remember Foulds of Manchester Road, Nelson.

There was another at Duke Bar and they take us back to Victorian and Edwardian times when there was much more emphasis than there is today on teetotalism. The drinks they sold were fruit of herb-based.

On the other side of Burnley Road you can see the Pendle Street and Victoria Road junctions and may be able to see the famous water fountain which we have featured before in this column.