Bygone Burnley: Rosegrove

Bygone Burnley: Rosegrove, with Roger Frost 30-10-24

Transcript

00:00Today we're at Rose Grove, which was Burnley's biggest railroad station in the past.

00:09It was built in the late 1840s, but before it came here there was virtually nothing.

00:17There was a few cottages around, maybe one small industrial works, which was pretty strange for a new of a town,

00:31and it became a very important area, because Rose Grove is like a small Swindon or a small Doncaster or a small York.

00:44It's a railway town in miniature.

00:48When looking at the history of railways, a useful source of information is the census.

00:56I think it's the 1861 census, which lists the people who lived in the Rose Grove area, whose jobs were connected with the railway.

01:08What you've got to remember is that where we are now, this is the M65, the Rose Grove Goods Yard was over in that direction,

01:19and over here there was the Small Shore Goods Yard, and then in the background, beyond the road bridge over there,

01:28there was the steam locomotive maintenance and goods yard.

01:34In fact, Rose Grove has got a claim to fame, and it was the last station under British Rail's scheme that organised a steam service from here,

01:47and that was in 1968.

01:50All sorts of specialist people, there were engine drivers, there were people who were on the staff here at the railway station,

02:01and I counted 14 working on staff in 1861.

02:07There were also people who worked in the maintenance yard, which was a very important maintenance yard to the north of England.

02:17And another thing about this station, it had a really important role in the Second World War, and probably the first,

02:26because it linked industrial premises on the west of the country, in Lancashire, with those in Yorkshire.

02:35So, for example, the big aeroplane works in Yorkshire, goods from Lancashire were taken through Rose Grove to Yorkshire and vice versa,

02:51because even Burnley had a big aeronautical industry during the Second World War, so it was pivotal to the industries that won the war.