NELSON Street in Burnley, a cul-de-sac wedged between the canal and Trafalgar Street, is where you will find Nelson House.
There are many other names in this area connected with the illustrious seafarer, including the former Nelson and Waterloo Hotels.
The origin of Nelson House goes back to April 1806, when a deed records that two copyhold plots, or pieces of land, were bought by merchant John Holgate, for £390.
A condition of the sale was that he should erect a ‘messuage’ or mansion house, along with other buildings.
John Holgate was a man of some wealth, who had founded the only bank in Burnley at this time – ‘Holgate’s Bank’ – which, as was the custom, issued its own bank notes.
Problems came, however, when the notes exceeded real assets and the bank found itself in difficulty in the trade disturbances of 1824.
One of Holgate’s biggest customers, the cotton and worsted manufacturing firm of Crooke and Tattersall, found itself in difficulties — and the bank was unable to assist.
The whispers soon turned to shouts, and soon everyone with ‘Holgate’s notes’ wanted them changed to hard cash.
The bank was again unable to meet the payments and claims — so it simply closed its doors and declared bankruptcy. The effect on the town was instant.
The local charities and churches helped out where they could, setting up soup kitchens to dole out barley broth to feed the hungry masses – and thus the years of 1824 to 1827 became known forever more as ‘Dole Time’ or ‘Barley Time’. William Varley, a hand loom weaver, recorded the events in his diary: ‘There is now great uproar at Burnley, for John Moore, Holgate, Crook and Massey’s are made bankrupt.’ Two years later, there was little improvement, for Varley recorded: ‘This year commences with very cold frosty weather. There is a great many people that is poorly about this time, and well they may be, what with hard work and mean food; but there are many without work, and what must become of them?’ In spite of all this hardship, the Holgates managed to hold on to Nelson House — they were still there in early 1850.
John’s wife, Elizabeth, was still there, and described as an ‘accountant’; her son George was a ‘coal merchant’.
In 1862, Nelson House was purchased by cotton manufacturer William Roberts of Thorney Holme in the Pendle Forest , but after his death in 1879 it was again put up for sale.
It was bought by Joshua Rawlinson and John Massey of Burnley for £2,200 and it is generally accepted that it then became the home of the Burnley Liberal Reform Club – and remained such until 1921.
Permission to erect a conservatory was granted in May 1894, and this was used as a dance hall and was also, for a time, the headquarters of the ‘Burnley Wheelers’.
However in 1921 it was purchased by the Burnley Masonic Hall Company, which had been formed in 1920 and even today it remains a masonic hall.
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