The images we see on today's card were taken just over 100 years ago – were they representative of the town in those days?

If they were not representative, which images would have been more appropriate?

If asked to choose five images for a composite postcard of present day Burnley what would they be?

First, let us look at the card. Given the number of years since the card was published (c1900) you might be surprised to learn four of the images have survived almost intact. I may have written this before but it is remarkable Burnley has managed to preserve so much of its Victorian, and even its earlier, heritage. We may have lost favourite or landmark buildings like the Market Hall, the Savoy or the Odeon, and some of these have been replaced by less than satisfactory structures, but many more survive, a function perhaps, of Burnley's economic decline.

In the middle of the card you can see the Scott Memorial in Scott Park. This was constructed in memory of John Hargreaves Scott who left the funds which were used, by Burnley Corporation, to create what remains a very popular park. The park was opened on August 8th, 1895, and, therefore, the memorial itself would have been very new when the photo used in making the card was taken.

Top right, you can see an image of Towneley Hall and will notice the spelling "mistake". The Towneley family had used the spelling seen here in the past but the accepted form, for some time, had been the one we use today. For local historians it is useful to be able to differentiate between the Towneleys of Towneley and the Townleys of Royle.

It is worth mentioning that when the image of Towneley Hall was used it had only just been bought by Burnley Corporation. We are, at the present time, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first exhibition in Towneley's Art Gallery and, with regard to the photo of the town hall, bottom left, it is only five years or so, to the 125th anniversary of its opening.

You might think the council should be thinking of marking this anniversary in some way and, if that is your view, I can tell you one of the council's officers has come up with a great idea for the town hall, and the building next door, which might appeal to external funders. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Now turn your attention to the picture of St James's Street, top left. The buildings on the right (some of you will remember them as Poole's silk shop) are still with us but most of the rest of the property on this side of the road has been demolished. On the other side of St James's Street a few of the buildings have survived but, perhaps, too many have been lost.

It is only when we come to the picture, bottom right, that virtually nothing can be seen in the photo has survived. We are in St James's Street and know exactly where we are because the shop on the extreme right is number 77, Catton's, the stay and corset makers. The awning, which is partly across Catton's window, was the property of the Public Benefit Boot Co. Ltd, and, lower down the row, there were the premises of the Northern Mantle and Fur Co., the White Horse Hotel and Richard Hargreaves, the famous tea and coffee dealers, better known as the "Big Wheel".

I don't know whether you can see it, but on the end of the row of property, below the one we have been considering, there is a sign for a temperance hotel. This was Frank Chester's Temperance Hotel which was at 2 Chancery Street. He advertised as a baker, confectioner, restaurant and commercial hotel proprietor and I have long since wanted to know more about this business. There were also premises occupied by Chester's, in Victoria Street, part of which survives off Hargreaves Street. It could be, however, that the site of the Victoria Street premises is under the town hall car park.

Now, to those questions – and I ought to point out it is unlikely the original photos used in making the card were taken by local photographers. I say this because I have another copy of the last mentioned image and it was produced by the Rapid Photo Printing Co. Ltd, London. They might not have been very interested in publishing representative cards of any of the towns in which they worked. What they were interested in was sales and, if the cards they produced had any representative role, it was that they sold better if the images were of well-known and interesting places.

I am going to leave it to you to decide which images should be put on a card representative of Burnley 100 years ago (perhaps St Peter's, the Market Hall or the "new" technical institute). A lot would depend, to use one those awful modern phrases, "on where you are coming from" – your interests, local history, commerce, the environment, living conditions, etc.

Similar considerations might be uppermost in your mind when thinking about the current images of the town which might be used when making a composite postcard of Burnley. I would be interested to have your views.