THIS view shows a scene from Rawtenstall town centre some time after 1909 when the electrification of tramways brought a network of overheard wires.

The dome of the public library can be seen on the right. The building was opened in 1906 and inaugurated a year later by its donor, Scots-born American Andrew Carnegie.

Mr Carnegie was a wealthy industrialist who loved libraries and believed anyone could become successful like him if they read books. He was a philanthropist who attributed his own successes to being able to access a library.

The Grand Theatre on the left, was built in 1899 and cost £16,000. It was designed by architectural firm Darbyshire & Bennet Smith.

From the 1900’s the theatre began to show films, and in 1910 became a full time cinema.

During World War One, it went back to being a theatre and was renamed the Palace Theatre in 1918. It temporarily closed in the 1920s, before reopening in 1932 as the Palace Cinema.

Crawshawbooth Operatic Society staged Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, the final production at the theatre before it was demolished in February 1968.

It became a bus station after this, as it provided the perfect location for a such a station for locals to use.