HISTORIAN Steve Chapples tells how the opening of Burnley’s first park was celebrated with bunting, bands and beef roast.

Burnley is now blessed with more acreage of parkland for its geographical size than most Lancashire towns, but it was not always so.

In the mid-1800s, General Scarlett, the hero of Balaclava, who led the Charge of the Heavy Brigade during the Crimean War, did open up a wicket gate of his Bank Hall residence at weekends to allow the people of the town to picnic by the river Brun, with the proviso that his peace was not disturbed by pleasure-seekers straying too close to the house.

However, Burnley’s first public park, Queen’s Park, was opened to its 100,000 residents by Sir John Hardy Thursby, who lived at Ormerod House, near Hurstwood, in 1893.

The afternoon was bright and sunny. A procession on foot, and 30 carriages filled with local dignitaries, was led by a volunteer band from the town hall.

In 1886, the Queen’s eldest grandson Prince Albert Victor had opened Burnley’s first hospital on land owned by Sir John, and two years later he donated 28 more acres of triangular land to Burnley Corporation to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.

Sir John declined to have the park named after himself.

The land, which was valued at £27,000, was adjacent to Burnley’s largest pit Bank Hall, which Sir John owned, and a ginny track carrying coal from Rowley to Bank Hall pit at one time passed through the park.

Taking two years to build, £13,000 was spent on planting 27,500 shrubs, floral displays, and trees.

Originally the park had two outdoor gymnasia, one for boys and another for girls, a bowling green, a bandstand, tennis courts and a putting green.

The park’s architect was Aberdonian Robert Murray, its first superintendent, who lived with his family at the lodge house.

He won £20 for his design in a competition. At that time the house was an integral part of the park but, in 1928, the arterial Queen Victoria Road was built, which cut it off from the rest of the land.

The lodge house gates in Ormerod Road were opened by Sir John with a golden key to tumultuous cheers, and the streets of the town were bedecked with streamers, bunting and flags.

A large banner hung between the Sparrow Hawk and Talbot Hotels proclaiming the park’s success.

After the ceremony, the dignitaries attended a celebratory four-course meal, (see below), at the Empress Hotel, in Chancery Street.