Place names tell of a more rural past

MANY of the place names around Burnley give us clues as to what the town was like in the distant past.

Some of these names are pretty obvious, such as Burnley Wood.

It really was a wood, way back in time, and the local pub names gives us further clues to this, in that particular area of town.

he Foresters, the Woodman, and at one time there was also the Cottage-in-the-Wood, and the Owl-in-the-Wood pubs, all of which were in Burnley Wood.

Other wooded areas include Healey Wood (a surname, or perhaps high field) and Wood Top. The name Smallshaw, as in Smallshaw Lane off Accrington Road actually means "small wood".

Brunshaw has been interpreted as being the wood near the River Brun, although it is the River Calder, which it slopes down to!

However, the River Brun is not that far away. Springhill is named after the hill with its spring of fresh water and there is also Springfield. Barclay Hills was sometimes spelt Bare Clay Hills, or Bartle Hills, and is an indication of the type of terrain in that area.

Yatefield is "gate to the field", and there are two Yatefields, one near Wood Top and one on Hollingreave Road.

Thorneybank was the old name for that area around the old Borough Hotel off Manchester Road. The thorns on this bank must have spread quite a way in times past and before the coming of the railway, for just above Manchester Road Railway station is the building known as Thornhill.

However, a short distance higher up Manchester Road, the terrain must have improved, for here there is Greenhill, formerly Pickop, which is now a private club.

Rosegrove really was a grove of roses before it became industrialised by railways and foundries.

A former Mayor of Burnley, Ron Bushby, was told by his mother that she could remember when "there was one huge mass of wild roses" before the railway sidings were built at Rosegrove.

The last remnants of these wild dog roses can still be seen around the crematorium and in the clough below it.

These places with plants in their names might also include Hollingreave, "grove of hollies", "Myrtle Bank" (a flower), Heather Bank and Nutshaw, "the place where the nuts were gathered".

There is also an Oakbank near Westgate. Orchard Bridge on Calder Street probably led through to the orchards belonging to the Bankhouse Estates, when Burnley had a much more rural aspect than today.

Older folk still refer to the General Hospital as Primrose Bank (Institution). Primrose Street close by recalls this old name and its location, and it was also a farm of that name at one time.

Worsthorne is "the home (or place) of the thorn bush" which was regarded as being sacred in ancient times. The name Coal Clough is also obvious -- the clough where the coal outcropped, although the old name for the higher part of Coal Clough Lane was Cowden Clough.

Lowerhouse is named after a building named "Lower Houses" (plural) or sometimes "Thornhill Holme" which is shown on the OS Maps of 1844-48, which was about where the Canteen Club is today.

It was named Lower Houses to distinguish it from the "higher houses" around the present day Lowerhouse Fold. The present day Top o' th' Town area near St Peter's Church, was so named to distinguish it from the old Bottom o' th' Town or "Brig End" near the bottom of Westgate. And, still in this area, the old name for the bottom end of Sandygate was Whin Hill - "the place where the whinberries grew".

Fulledge means "foul or dirty stream flowing through boggy land", while Clifton means "hamlet on the slope". Fulledge even today is still prone to flooding.

Keighley Green really was a green in olden times, and the place where the archers and bowmen of the day practised at the archery butts. Duke Bar is named after the "bar" or tollgate that used to stand outside the old public house, which has since been rebuilt.

Another "bar" or tollgate used to stand at the bottom of Westgate, hence the "gate" in the name, and once through you were heading west.

Its counterpart was Eastgate, which used to be the old name for part of the present day Yorkshire Street, and there was also a toll bar there.

Daneshouse was just that, and the house occupied land near the appropriately named Saxon, Norman and Dane Streets. Stoneyholme is, or was a stoney field, although there must have been an ash tree in one of its fields, which is recalled in Ashfield Road. There was also a farm of about five acres named Stoney Holme, part of the Bankhouse Estate - and the old Stoneyholme Shed was later built on this site.

Not far away is Heasandford, an "enclosure near a sandy ford". In the 1400s, there was a Sand Hall Green hereabouts.

Salford is the area around the present day Town Mouse pub, whose original name was the Salford Hotel - its meaning is the "salt ford" over the rivers, the route taken by the packhorse and salt traders with their Galloway horses.

Interestingly, there was a Pack Horse pub on Calder Street, and the building still survives. And finally, who can forget old "Shorey" near St Peter's Church, where townsfolk went for generations for their drinking water, and to leisurely pass away the time of day at Shorey Well - its name means appropriately enough "enclosure near a steep or rocky slope".

The old Shorey well is still retained in the small enclosure near the old Grammar School along with other relicts of Burnley's past.

In times of trouble and conflict in old Burnley, up went the cry "For King, Country and Shorey" in a token of respect for this little piece of old Burnley.