Burnley Wood

In broad terms the area lies between Parliament Street in the north and Hufling Lane in the south, and from the railway in the west to Todmorden Road in the east.

[2] In the sixteenth-century, as the name suggests, the area was mostly covered by rough moorland and woodland, with a scattering of farmsteads on the outskirts of Burnley.

The residential elements had two distinct characters: large stone-built houses in spacious grounds, flanking Brooklands Road and Todmorden Road and largely providing accommodation for wealthy mill or mine owners and senior employees, and high-density terraced housing.

This was brought about by increased pressures within Burnley to expand beyond the canal as the town grew rapidly and allow the development of more factories and mills along the course of the Calder with housing and other facilities to meet the living needs of their workers.

Large scale urban development took place on both sides of the river and by the 1880s, Burnley Wood and the adjoining Fulledge district just north of the river between Plumbe Street and Todmorden Road had developed into a densely populated area of terraced housing laid out in a classic grid iron pattern of horizontal and vertical rows of mainly identikit two bedroomed houses.

Following its completion in the late nineteenth century, the area remained poorly connected to the main centre of Burnley for a number of years owing to inadequate bridge crossings over both the canal and River Calder.

Even then, good vehicular connections, including those of tram services which ran from Burnley town centre along Todmorden Road were restricted by the narrow "Culvert" under the canal embankment at Yorkshire Street until it was significantly reconstructed in 1926.

Burnley Wood School was partially demolished in the mid-1980s when dry rot was discovered and the remaining buildings have been converted into apartments.

The main place of worship in Burnley Wood continues to be St. Stephen's Church[9] on Oxford Road and Smalley Street, which is now a Grade II listed building.

There was a Congregational Church on the corner of Kirkgate and Hollingreave Road with its adjacent Sunday School on the corner with Brunswick Street, demolished in the early 1980s and now replaced by a sheltered housing development, whilst the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Brooklands Road and south of Stoney Street still remains.

The Gerald Court sheltered housing complex, now itself demolished and the replacement Burnley Wood School, now Springfield Primary School were built on the sites of demolished properties at the northern end of Hirst Street and the northern end of Waterloo Road respectively, and most of the mills ultimately closed and were given over to other industrial and commercial uses.

[13] It became part of East Lancashire's Elevate scheme to clear, rebuild or remodel what were considered to be an over supply of sub-standard housing.