TOWNELEY Hall is a significant landmark in Burnley and townsfolk can thank Lady Mary O'Hagan for the opportunity to enjoy it.

The first female in the line to inherit, she sold the family home, where they had lived for several turbulent centuries, to Burnley Corporation in 1901, as costs on its upkeep escalated.

Her life and descendants were charted by local historian Leslie Chapples.

Alice Mary Towneley, who was the third daughter of Colonel Charles and Lady Caroline, married the prominent Irish widower, the first Lord O'Hagan at St Mary's RC Church, Burnley, in 1871.

At 25, she was 34 years his junior and they had seven children, although only four survived to maturity.

Thomas, who inherited the title, died of fever while serving in the Boer War when he was 22.

Maurice Herbert then became the 3rd Lord O'Hagan and is buried in St John's churchyard at Holme-in-Cliviger.

Mary Caroline married Major General Charles Monroe at Westminster Abbey in 1912, but it was her sister, Kathleen Mary's marriage to Louis-Leopold Martial Baynard de Beaumont, which caused the most controversy, as he was a descendant of the French royal family.

Louis had degrees in medicine, science, philosophy and divinity and spoke eight languages.

After completing his education, some of it at Stonyhurst College, he decided to join the priesthood, becoming a Jesuit.

Always a free thinker he became disenchanted and instead of taking his final vows became a Unitarian.

This must have influenced Lady O'Hagan, as in 1896, she, too, gave up her faith, causing a furore.

But her relentless work for children's welfare and education restored her prestige.

Kathleen Mary died in 1974 aged 98, outliving her husband by 40 years.

Their only son Charles, won the British Fencing Championship four times and captained the national team at seven Olympics. He died before his mother, in 1972.

Their daughter Elise married the Earl of Leicester, but her sister Marguerite never married.

A keen equestrian she won the Horse of the Year show at Olympia.

During the war her manor became home to 76 evacuee children from London's east end. She died aged 90 in 1989.