Manchester Road, Burnley

iBase ID

239160

Reference identifier

EBU20120523001

Title

Manchester Road, Burnley

Place

Burnley

General notes

A picture of Manchester Road where it meets Grimshaw Street taken in the late 1880's. Inset is a photograph of what it looked like some 60 years later.

The business on the corner was Sarah Ann Bell & Sons' drapers and silk merchants. It opened in c1870 and was run by a widow, Sarah, with two of her sons, Hargreaves and Edward. Sarah was widowed when her husband Samuel died c1850, around the same time Edward was born. After this tragedy she moved in with her unmarried brother Paul Rimmington, who was a silk merchant. Sarah picked up the essential skills of the trade quickly and started her own business on Market Street, employing a number of apprentices. When the shop re-located to numbers 28/30 Manchester Road, Sarah had made a significant amount of money and was able to move into the newly built Towneley Villas on Brooklands Road. Unfortunately, Hargreaves died aged 42 in 1886 and was buried in Wheatley Lane. In c1895, the business was moved as part of a new phase of construction on Manchester Road, and the new Union Bank of Manchester (inset) replaced the shop on the corner. Sarah's drapers took up residence next door to the new bank, but Sarah wasn't there to see it prosper in its new premises, as she died in 1898 aged 82. The business continued under the name S.A. Bell and Sons until it was sold to J. Waddington in c1907.

Medium

Photographic print

Colour

Monochrome

Original image size

16 x 19.9

Year of image

c1888 & c1950 (inset)

Enter year in yyyy format

Locator

N1 (Streets): Manchester Road

Mario Map link