BURNLEY market has been offering bags of good shopping for townsfolk for more than 700 years.

The town received its markets charter in the late 13th century and it was held round the market cross in Church Street, near St Peter's Church, for more than 500 years.

Today, though, we focus on the Victorian edifice, built by the corporation inn 1870 at a cost of £12,000 and demolished almost a century later as the town centre was modernised.

But it took a lot to pull it down, as it was one of the most solid constructions in Burnley, with walls six feet thick at basement level and more than three feet at ground level.

Dynamite had to be used to make the job easier for the demolition men,

When it opened however, it had offered shoppers 80 stalls, selling a variety of produce and wares, while outside the vast open market drew in hundreds of customers with 230 stalls, a third of which sold fruit and vegetables.

Later half a dozen lock up shops were opened in the 1930s, where local traders offered a variety of dairy produce, meat, fish and poultry.