SAFC Boardroom Flowers and Facts about Burnley!! 31st January 2015

The name Burnley is believed to have been derived from Brun Lea meaning “meadow by the River Brun”. Various other spellings have been used: Bronley (1241), Brunley (1251) and commonly Brumleye (1294). Burnley is a market town in Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It is 21 mile north of Manchester and 20 miles east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun.

The town is surrounded by countryside and villages such as Worsthorne, Cliviger, Hurstwood, Fence and Higham, and has a reputation as a regional centre of excellence for the manufacturing and aerospace industries.

The town began to develop in the early medieval period as a number of farming hamlets surrounded by manor houses and royal forests, and has held a market for more than 700 years. During the Industrial Revolution it became one of Lancashire’s most prominent mill towns; at its peak it was one of the world’s largest producers of cotton cloth, and a major centre of engineering.

Burnley has retained a strong manufacturing sector and has strong economic links with the cities of Manchester and Leeds as well as neighbouring towns along the M65 corridor. In 2013, in recognition of its success, Burnley received an Enterprising Britain award from the UK Government for being the ‘Most Enterprising Area in the UK’.[2] For the first time in over fifty years a direct train service will operate between the town’s Manchester Road railway station and Manchester’s Victoria station via the newly restored Todmorden Curve which is scheduled to open in December 2014