WITH the news that Burnley Council has secured a grant of more than £860,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help restore Thompson Park, Bygones looks back in time at the Grade II listed green space.

The park was created with money bequeathed to Burnley Corporation by James Witham Thompson, a cotton manufacturer, who ran Trafalgar Mill, and was opened in 1930.

Since then it has been enjoyed by generations of Burnley folk and the improvement project includes the restoration of some of its most popular facilities, such as the boat house, Italian and rose gardens, paddling pool and bridges.

Work will start in early autumn and will be completed by Easter 2018.

Much of the site of Thompson Park was formerly farmland of Lower Ridge Farm, which existed until 1906.

It was designed by Arthur Race who was among the guests at the official opening, conducted by the mayor Henry Nuttall.

The Italian Garden was created in what was formerly Bank Hall Meadow - Bank Hall being the home of General Sir James Yorke Scarlett, who led the successful Charge of the Heavy Brigade in the Crimean War.

It originally featured a pond with goldfish and in the Second World War was turned over for Dig for Victory and onions were grown there instead.

Overlooking the garden is a bronze bust of Sir James Mackenzie, a doctor, who lived in Bank Parade and achieved fame through his research into diseases of the heart.

The conservatory, which stood close to Ormerod Road was a feature of the park until 1975 when it was demolished, despite vigorous protests.

It had been damaged by a German bomb which fell nearby in 1940 and houses in Ormerod Road and the college were also caught by the blast.

The paddling pool has been a feature of Thompson Park since its opening, as has the boating lake - fields and trees once stood where it was dug out during building work - and the playground was created two years later.

There was a popular cafe and ice-cream shop, which was run for more than 30 years by one of Burnley’s leading ice-cream makers, Anthony Cece and his wife Evelyn.

In September 1946, a storm caused the boating lake and the river to overflow - water swept through the park’s entrance at Shorey Bank, went over the bridge and into the river below.