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Our latest Bygone Burnley episode takes us to a popular watering hole – in more ways than one – and the historic centre of town.

Respected local historian Roger Frost MBE tells us the history of Bridge Street, which is where the first buildings in Burnley were erected in the 13th Century, notably a corn mill in 1292.

The street is now home to the Bridge Bier Huis, and was originally known as Mill Lane, because of the corn mill which was built by the lord of the manor who asked King Edward I for a royal privilege to build it.

Barley was needed for the brewing industry. Centuries later the area became home to the Hargreaves Brewery, later taken over by Massey’s in the 1920s.

This image is just off Bridge Street. The tall mill building, in the background, occupies the site of the 1292 Burnley Corn Mill, known, from 1399, as Kings Mill. In 1399 Henry IV became King, deposing Richard II. The mill was on the Lancaster Estate of which Henry was Duke before he became king. When he became king, the mill was renamed King’s Mill. It was rebuilt after fire in 1825. Some of the corn mill was preserved inside the building but most of it was for cotton spinning. In the foreground you can see part of the Old Brewery which has late eighteenth century origins. It was occupied by Crook & Tattersall, which collapsed in 1824 causing the run on the Burnley bank, Holgate’s. The brewery re-opened and was run by John Hargreaves and, after that, by his daughter and her husband who is the GDLF, the letters on the present Bridge Bierhaus. The letters stand for Guy David Louis Fernandes.

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Roger then takes us to the pub’s car park, which was the site of a lodge linked to the River Brun which provided the water to power the corn mill.

The lord of the manor, Roger reveals, was Henry de Lacy, the Earl of Lincoln, who was a personal friend of Edward I, having been brought up together in the same royal household.

An influential figure, Henry even served as ‘Regent of the Kingdom’ during the following king, Edward II’s reign, while he was away in Scotland.

The final part of our video looks at a row of buildings, seen from the car park, part of which was the studio of artist David Wild. The same row was also used as the social club for former Burnley company Lucas’, which helped to develop the jet engine.

Bygone Burnley: Bridge Street and 1292 corn mill, with historian Roger Frost MBE