Bygone Burnley: The Weavers' Triangle, with historian Roger Frost MBE

Today, the area’s history is served by the unassuming and outstanding Weavers’ Triangle Visitors Centre, but in its heyday this stretch of canalside was a vibrant economic powerhouse of canalside mills and warehouses powering the country’s industrial revolution.

It is no exaggeration to say that Burnley’s burgeoning textile industry of the early 1800s played a pivotal role in the British Empire’s global hegemony, being a hotbed of rapid technological advancements and an economic powerhouse.

Respected local historian Roger Frost MBE begins our video outside what is now the Inn on the Wharf, a popular pub which once played a central role in the Weavers’ Triangle.

“The Weavers’s Triangle consists of a number of buildings. Originally, the pub that is now was the Inn on the Wharf was Burnley’s canal warehouse which opened in 1801.

“Opposite that building sits the former stables, the second on the site, which were used until horses were replaced by steam barges.”

We next venture inside the visitors’ centre where we see a recreation of Burnley Fair as it was in 1906, which took place in Parker Lane, where the police station is now.

The room also includes original posters for a very well-known Burnley business – Altham’s – now a wide-ranging travel agents, the buisness was actually started in the 1870s by the pioneering Abraham Altham, one of the first businessmen to sell tea in packets.

The business evolved into Altham’s Tours, running rail trips to the seaside as leisure opportunities increased for the North-West’s mill workers. Altham lived in what is now the Oaks Hotel in Reedley.

Our video next looks at Victoria Mill, built in 1855 as a spinning mill, later getting a weaving department. It was built by the Massey family, more famous for their brewing.

Victoria Mill was refurbished several years ago to become the short-lived University Technical College, until it was taken over by the University of Central Lancashire.

We next look at what was the wharfmaster’s house, now converted into a traditional Victorian classroom, complete with old schooldesks and equipment.

Our video steps back outside again next when we venture onto the canal bank where Roger points out a horse ramp, a remnant from the days when horses pulled barges. Sometimes the horses would fall into the canal, Roger points out, and the ramps were used to haul the horse out of the water.

A warehouse once belonging to Tate, of Tate and Lyle fame, can also be seen from the canal bank. A bit further along from the horse ramp are the remains of an important feature underneath the Manchester Road bridge where planks were stored to prevent the canal from flooding should be hit by German bombers during the war.

Finally, we look at the original tollhouse, which collected money from passing barges. Bargees had to ring a bell and alert the tollhouse keeper to pay the toll.