That did not make sense to me, though there did turn out to be an ecclesiastical connection. I felt the only possible location for the picture was the old entrance to Burnley Cemetery which, as readers will know, is on the other side of the town to Royle. My guess turned out to be correct.

Some of you might regard it as odd that the original entrance to Burnley Cemetery is so far off the beaten track, you will find it at the bottom of the appropriately named Cemetery Lane which is off Rossendale Road. However, it makes sense when it is pointed out that, initially, the Burnley Improvement Commissioners, one of the bodies which preceded the council, bought only 18 acres of land some distance from the town.

Almost the whole of this property had been part of Riley's Farm and was between where the gate was erected and the stream, the Green Clough.

It was only later that the land above the gate, and what is now Rossendale Road, was purchased. By the middle of the last century a total of 56 acres had been accumulated.

The story of the building of Burnley Cemetery has been most ably told in Mollie Haines' "In Loving Memory: A History of Burnley" (2004) which is available, along with a map of the site, at the cemetery office, so I won't go into detail. There are though, a few points which might interest you.

The principle place of burial in Burnley was, until its closure in 1856, the graveyard attached to St Peter's.

There were others; Holy Trinity and St James' (Burnley), which date from the 1830s and 1840s respectively, several Nonconformist Chapels – Ebenezer, Bethesda and Sion – had places of burial but the growing Catholic population did not possess such facilities. In addition there were, by the 1840s, burial grounds outside Burnley - in Briercliffe where there were three (though the Quaker Burial Grounds in that township had long since ceased to be used), in Worsthorne, one, and there were several in Padiham.

The Home Office had indicated the burial ground at St Peter's should close by 1855. Even though there had been extensions in 1809 it was thought to be full and there were problems associated with the St Peter's site which made the continued use of the site less than desirable. It was said the graveyard discharged into the Brun, that the proximity of the school was a problem and there were noxious smells coming from the site in the summer.

As was often the case in Burnley the town had spent many years discussing the desirability of opening a public cemetery but nothing very much had happened. Sites had been considered at Happy Valley near Barden Lane, another on the Ridge and a third opposite Bank Hall.

However, it should be remembered that though Burnley was a substantial town by 1850 with a population in excess of 32,000 if Habergham Eaves is included, it was governed by its ancient Vestry and the Improvement Commissioners which bodies were often at logger heads.

Burnley was not incorporated and granted its own Charter as a borough until 1861, but five years before that Burnley Cemetery had been opened. The final construction phases were of considerable interest to Burnley's citizens though, when a number of them visited the site before the opening, they were denied admittance by the Commissioners. As it turned out June 1st, 1856, was the date the cemetery was opened and the first burial, that of a lady of the name of Mary Nixon, took place on June 4th.

The architect is understood to have been Thomas Worthington of Manchester who designed the Lodge and the gateway you can see in today's photo. Both are still standing though the gate was moved away from the lodge when more land was acquired by what was then the council. The burial ground itself was divided into three unequal parts; six acres for the Anglicans, four for the Dissenters (Nonconformists) and two for the Catholics. Each denomination had its own chapel and the cemetery was laid out in the manner of a public park, something which is very much in evidence if the park is visited today.

In fact Burnley Council has called a meeting to set up a Friends organisation for Burnley and Padiham cemeteries. The first meeting is to be held at the Chapel of Rest at Burnley Cemetery (use the Rossendale Road entrance) on Wednesday, June 11th, at 6-30 p.m. Future meetings will be held in both Burnley and Padiham.

The following closing comments are about Burnley Cemetery alone. I will write about the history of Padiham Cemetery before the first meeting of the Friends held there, but there are several positive things that can be said of Burnley Cemetery. The situation is magnificent and recent work undertaken, especially in the older parts where there are some very important and interesting memorials, has made considerable improvement.

The council intends to works towards the equivalent Green Flag status for both our main cemeteries and we want the public to be involved. If we have time, on June 11th, a conducted tour of the Victorian parts of the Cemetery will take place.