Set in 400 acres of public parkland simply exterior Burnley's city centre, Towneley Corridor seems to be like many English nation homes: expansive, stone-fronted, formal. However behind the symmetry lies a spot formed extra by persistence than polish. The Towneley household, who occupied the home for over 500 years, left a path of architectural add-ons, Catholic resistance, and certainly one of Britain's earliest classical sculpture collections.
At first look, the corridor's lengthy façade seems cohesive, but it surely's really a patchwork of additives relationship from the 14th to the nineteenth century. The oldest half is a medieval corridor home from the late 1300s, altered however by no means changed. Later wings, together with a Georgian suite and Regency interiors by Jeffry Wyatville (the architect answerable for Windsor Citadel's transforming), have been layered over the centuries, leading to a constructing the place time overlaps.
As recusant Catholics, the Towneleys confronted authorized penalties for hundreds of years. They're mentioned to have put in at the least seven priest holes. One stays right now, hidden behind panelling and huge sufficient to face in. The non-public chapel homes uncommon vestments from Whalley Abbey and a Sixteenth-century Antwerp altarpiece, each uncommon survivals of the English Reformation.
Within the 1700s, Charles Towneley travelled broadly in Italy, assembling certainly one of Britain's earliest collections of Greco-Roman sculpture. Most of it's now within the British Museum, however a well-known portrait by Zoffany – displaying him surrounded by the works – hangs in the home. Guests to the Corridor right now may also discover necessary Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite work (by Burne-Jones, Waterhouse, Alma-Tadema, and Turner, amongst others), Victorian kitchens, pure historical past, Egyptian artefacts, and a bit of native folklore: a boggart mentioned to look as soon as each seven years, earlier than a demise within the household.
Right now, the Corridor is Burnley's museum and gallery, and the encircling Towneley Park serves because the city's largest public inexperienced area, full with trails, sports activities pitches, formal gardens, historical woodland, and public play areas.
