…..the property. Fascinating!”

#TowneleyBehindTheScenes
#Burnleyhistory
#Museumcollections
#Daisywheels

….from a time when belief in evil spirits and witchcraft was a commonplace. I would love to know who carved them. The daisy wheel design was intended to entice malevolent spirits and trap them in an infinite loop, thus preventing them from progressing any further into….

..Towneley Hall on 01282 477130 and let us know which character you wish to make!

…artistic avenue, this workshop offers a fantastic opportunity to create, learn, and share in a welcoming, creative atmosphere.
 
🎄 Sunday 7th December 🎄
⭐ 12-3pm
 
£35 including materials, tuition & refreshments. Minimum 7 and maximum 10 people per workshop.
 
To book, please call…

….to improve the lives of young people and their families.

#WhenBillMetPudsey
#BilltheBear
#CIN
#Towneleybehindthescenes

…battlefield, it is said that Cromwell helped her try to find her husband's body to bring home.”

#Burnleyhistory
#Museumcollections
#BattleofMarstonMoor

…is remembered as one of the names along the wall of the Long Gallery where his portrait would have once hung. It’s perhaps a little odd that one of the paintings in the collection should feature Oliver Cromwell, but it enables us to tell the story of Charles Towneley’s widow's visit to the….

….refreshments in the Hall afterwards, and to all who joined us.

#RemembranceSunday
#LestWeForget

…together and I know how young some of them were, but Harry looks so young, although he had left school and had a job. I wonder how many life experiences he missed out on.

Thankyou for your service Harry.”

#TowneleyHall
#Volunteers
#WW1
#Bravery

…two others. Out of the three of them Harry was killed, another was injured and the third wrote to his parents to tell them about their loss.

I chose this object because of the sheer youthfulness of Harry’s photograph. I know that during WW1 many men from the same community or town joined up…

….about Harry. He was the son of George and Sarah Manders and lived on Newcastle Street. The location of Newcastle Street is now the Anchor Retail Park. He was a member of the 7th Burnley Scout Troop and attended Pickup Croft School but was at Calder Vale Mill, when he signed up to fight with…

…accident in 1924 and died, aged 36, a few months afterwards.
He is buried at Wheatley Lane Inghamite Burial Ground where, in 1952, a headstone was dedicated to him by the regiment and the North East Lancashire Branch of the Coldstream Guards Association'.

…and was later presented with the watch during a public celebration in his honour in Burnley.
But after the war, Thomas fell on hard times and was forced to pawn both his watch and VC. Like many other veterans, he struggled to find work during the depression of the 1920s, suffered a serious….

…battalion was raked by an enemy machine gun, Worsthorne-born Thomas worked his way from shell hole to shell hole to reach the gun which, under heavy fire, he captured, along with an enemy officer and two servicemen.
He received his VC from King George V at Buckingham Palace soon afterwards…

…Thomas Whitham. It was presented by the Citizens of Burnley to Thomas, 1st Coldstream Guards, as "an expression of their most hearty congratulations upon his being awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery on the field of battle on July 31st, 1917".
On the frontline at Pilkem near Ypres, as his….

….wiped out an estimated 16% of the town’s male population but their memories remain green at Towneley thanks to the powerful cenotaph and the various objects inside the Hall. But it’s a gold watch in the Burnley Room that I find particularly poignant. It once belonged to Burnley VC winner….