Among them is the police in Burnley which, over the years, has operated under a variety of names and has reported to a bewildering number of "authorities".

The picture, which accompanies today's article, might not mean very much to many of you so I will start by explaining what its connection is with our local police.

If you are of the opinion the scene shown here reminds you of a chapel, you would be right. The building stood in Bank Parade, Burnley, and was constructed, in 1788, as the town's first Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.

Some of you might recall the building as Burnley Lads' Club but you may not know that a year after the Methodists moved out in 1839 the police and magistrates moved in.

The postcard shows the raised magistrates' bench with its four chairs, the table at which sat the clerk and other officials together with the remaining accommodation needed in the court.

Unfortunately, no court proceedings were taking place when the photographer was at work, but you can see that the name by which the building was once known, the Old Court House, was appropriate.

From 1840 to 1888 Burnley's magistrates met here. In the latter year, they moved to the rear of the present town hall in Manchester Road where what became the New Court House was constructed. Late one evening, a few weeks ago, I found myself in the town hall car park concluding a heritage trail of Burnley centre. When you are next in Yorke Street make a little detour to the rear of the town hall and there you will find the entrance to Burnley's second police station and, close to it, a foundation stone laid by John Baron who was Mayor of Burnley from 1883 to 1885.

There is also something else to see if you walk the few yards to the rear of the town hall itself. At ground floor level you will notice there is some storage space – there are often a few storage skips there – but if you look closely you will see there are two small barred windows in what appears to be the town hall wall. These give light to two of the 30 cells once in use in the building. Even today one of the cells is kept much as it was when in use for the purpose for which it was designed and when visitors are shown round the town hall they are invariably surprised to end up in a Victorian prison cell.

To the individual not expecting Burnley Town Hall's judicial connections there is a further surprise; there was once a large court room in the building. Today it has been converted into offices for the council's IT section but the dimensions of the structure give the game away as do the corridors and waiting areas in this part of the town hall.

Getting back to the court room shown in today's picture, the story behind its conversion from a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel to a police station and court room is quite interesting.

I have mentioned, in previous articles, that, in the early 19th Century, there was much rivalry between different factions in the town about how it might be governed.

The problem was that, for more than 200 years, the church had been associated with, if not directly responsible for, certain aspects of what we would now call local government. Meetings, which acquired the name of The Vestry, had been held at St Peter's and the church had come to dominate the provision of local services. These included the administration of the workhouse and services for the poor, keeping of the peace, maintenance of the highways and care of St Peter's Church.

By the early 19th Century, and under the name of the Town Committee, meetings began to be held, firstly, at the Sun Inn in Bridge Street and later at the Swan, on what is now St James's Street, where one of Burnley's blue plaques reminds us of part of our story.

What is missing is an additional plaque which should be fixed to the Burton's shop on the other side of Manchester Road. Burton's is built on the site of the Bull Hotel which became the meeting place for a Nonconformist rival to the Anglican Town Committee.

In 1819 an Act of Parliament was obtained to set up the Burnley Improvement Commission which was to operate in the areas of paving, lighting, watching and improvement.

It was one of these areas of activity which was to be the source of the trouble between the Town Committee and commissioners.

The key word is "watching" matters relating to the police and lesser courts. The problem was the Town Committee was reluctant to give up its own peace-keeping responsibilities possibly because of the already existing religious differences between the two groups but also because the commissioners were anything but democratic in the way in which they had been set up and operated.

The old system of constables continued and the commissioners, not able to be active in peace-keeping, undertook other work within their remit.
However, as the population of Burnley continued to rise it was clear things would have to change. In the interim, Sir Robert Peel introduced the Metropolitan Police (1829) and other parts of the country soon sought to do the same.

The county magistrates, from the mid-1830s, promoted the reform of the police across Lancashire and in 1840, supported by the Burnley Commissioners, appointed six constables from outside Burnley to perform the duties of the police. It was then the former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was taken over and became the court house and a police station which also had cells.

This complicated the situation even further as the Town Committee still had its constables and the committee had also gone to the trouble to build a new lock-up, parts of which can still be seen behind their former meeting place, the Swan. For a time, therefore, there were not only two "councils", but also two police forces in Burnley.

Mr Bennett, the historian of Burnley, suggests this situation might be unique in British history. I don't know, but I am tempted to suggest it could only happen in Burnley!

The photo is from the Bolton Collection of the Briercliffe Society.