EAST Lancashire’s public parks offered a little oasis of calm and greenery for many ordinary folk living through the industrial revolution.

Many of the parks were the work of wealthy benefactors who wanted to give something back to their community.

These photographs from the archive show Thompson Park in Burnley which was a relative newcomer on to the scene.

Spinning magnate James Thompson left the princely sum of £50,000 in his will to Burnley Corporation for the creation of the park in 1920. Designed by Arthur Race it would be 10 years before the park, which took James Thompson’s name, would open.

Construction had been very much a job creation scheme with many of the unemployed being used to dig out the boating lake and build the distinctive ornamental bridges, pavilion and conservatory.

The conservatory was demolished in 1975 but the pavilion and boating lake remain.

And on a summer’s day, the good folk of Burnley can still take to the water by hiring a rowing boat.