A PART of old Burnley was rescued this week from the bulldozers.

A plaque on the old Reindeer pub, identified as an important piece of the town’s heritage, was saved when the derelict building, which dates from the 1860s, was finally demolished.

The terracotta panel is inscribed with the letters MBB, which stands for Massey’s Burnley Brewery, which once stood at the bottom of Westgate.

It’s now at Towneley Hall and will feature in an exhibition of local history later in the year.

It was rescued following a campaign by members of the Facebook page 'Burnley Past and Present', which was founded by local historian Jack Nadin.

He said: “I contacted Mike Townend the industrial curate at Towneley Hall and told him of the building being demolished.

“They had previously identified the terracotta piece as an important part of the towns’ history. Mike was soon on the scene the piece was acquired for the town.”

It is thought the Massey family opened Bridge End Brewery in the mid 1700s and it was not until the late 1880s when it became Massey’s Burnley Brewery Ltd.

The company once owned more than 150 pubs and off-licenses in the town.

Jack has also revealed how the Reindeer Hotel once played a major role in the life of Burnley, with this item from the Lancashire Gazette, way back in 1872.

A story in its columns read: “An inquest was held at the Reindeer Hotel Burnley touching the death of John Ellison, cattle drover of Skipton.

“It appears that he was riding with his cattle on the train to Burnley and by some means was struck on the head at a bridge.

"There was a fracture of the skull and extensive bruising all over the body evidently caused by the cattle trampling him in the carriage.

“An agent for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway told the inquest that if the drovers got into the trucks with the cattle they did so at their own risk.

“Verdict ‘Accidental death’.