Bygone Burnley: Victoria Hospital and Thornber Gardens, with historian Roger Frost MBE

Local historian Roger Frost MBE accompanied reporter Dominic Collis to the site of the Victoria Hospital, the 1931 extension of which still survives in the form of the Ash Grove Care Home on Thursby Road.

Roger and Dominic also look at the history of Thornber Gardens, which was created opposite the hospital, and still survives to this day, albeit in a much less grand and colourful scale than it did at the time.

In our video, which you can see here, Roger explains how Burnley was one of the last big towns in the country to gain a hospital in Victorian times, but when it was built it boasted two “cutting edge” circular wards, a concept developed by Professor John Marshall.

An image, reproduced in our video, originally published in the “Burnley Gazette” at the time of its opening on October 13th, 1886, shows that it was opened by HRH Prince Albert Victor who was the eldest son of the future Edward VII. The prince died before his father, aged just 28, and did not succeed to the throne.

A controversial figure in more recent times, Queen Victoria’s grandson, also known as the Duke of Clarence, has been touted as a possible suspect in the Jack Ripper killings which beset Whitechapel in 1888, two years after the opening of the Victoria Hospital, although scholars have since determined that the Duke was in Scotland at the time.

Roger said: “The first hospital was built by public subscription in 1886. Bungalows are built on the site of the original hospital, which was remarkable because of two round wards.”

Roger went on to reveal the origins of the nearby Thornber Gardens and its speculative links to London.

“When the hospital was built there was a mad rush from the wealthy people in Burnley to do something to enhance the hospital, and the contruction of Thornber Gardens was one of those attempts,” he said.

“Caleb Thornber, who had been the chairman of the hospital committee that raised revenues to build it and maintain it, decided to acquire the land and build a much more ornamental garden that we have today with lots of flower beds and shrubberies which was very colourful. However, it has survived to today and still contributes enormously to the Queen’s Park Road area.”

Roger also explained the story behing the naming of nearby Ennismore Street and its links to the capital.

“Ennismore Street and Thursby Road reminds us that the Thursby family owned a lot of the land around here. Ennismore Street gets its name from the London residence of the Thursby family.”

Alderman Mr Caleb Thornber was Mayor of Burnley from 1896 to 1898. Mr Thornber was also a JP and director of one of Burnley’s biggest cotton firms, Benjamin Thornber and Sons of Daneshouse.

Finally, Roger sheds light on a now dilapidated memorial in Thornber Gardens to young boys who lost their lives in a nearby quarry accident.