Bygone Burnley: Victoria Hospital and Thornber Gardens

Burnley Express

Bygone Burnley: Victoria Hospital and Thornber Gardens, with Roger Frost MBE

Transcript

00:00This morning we are in the grounds of Burnley's Victoria Hospital.

00:08The first hospital was built in 1886 by public subscription,

00:13and Burnley was one of the last towns in the country to get a hospital.

00:19This section behind us now is built in 1931,

00:26and it was an extension to the very remarkable buildings of the early hospital.

00:34We've just seen the 1931 extension to the hospital.

00:40We're in the middle of Thornburgh Gardens,

00:43and in the direction in which you are looking now, you can see some bungalows.

00:49But those bungalows are built on the site of the original hospital,

00:53which was constructed and opened in 1886.

00:58It was the first hospital to be built in Burnley,

01:03and Burnley was just about the last town in England to have a hospital of this dimensions.

01:09But it was remarkable because of two round wards,

01:14and those round wards you can see in an early postcard,

01:18which we've included in this production.

01:22When the hospital was built, there was sort of a mad rush from the people in Burnley,

01:28especially the wealthy people, to do something which would enhance the hospital.

01:33And the construction of the gardens, this one here, the Thornburgh Gardens,

01:38was one of those attempts.

01:40Caleb Thornburgh had been the chairman of the hospital committee

01:46that raised revenues to build it and maintain it.

01:49And he decided to acquire this land,

01:52and he built a much more ornamental garden than we've got today.

01:58Lots of flower beds, shrubberies, very colourful it was.

02:03And it has survived even to today,

02:08where it contributes enormously to the Queen's Park Road area.

02:12The buildings behind me are on any small street,

02:16and the street ahead of us is Thursby Road.

02:21Now that reminds us that the Thursby family owned a lot of the land around here.

02:26Thursby Road is named after the family,

02:29and any small street gets its name because in London,

02:34the Thursby's house was on any small street.

02:38Burnley hasn't got very many memorials,

02:43and this one, it's a sad one,

02:46not only because of the condition it's in now,

02:49but because it commemorates a dreadful incident

02:54when four children, three of them died in a quarry accident years ago.

03:01I haven't got all the details here,

03:04but you can see that it's a memorial,

03:07a bell in the middle,

03:09we've got lions on the outsides,

03:13and there was a large information section above,

03:19naming the boys and the incident and so on,

03:22and it survived here in the park.

03:25I understand that Burnley Council have got the rest of it,

03:29but it's not being restored.

03:31It was made in Glasgow about 100 years ago

03:35to commemorate these young boys who were killed in this accident.

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