Burnley / Brumleye / Brunley

No individual entry for Burnley found in the Domesday survey. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period here. The entry for this township in the Victoria County History (Lancaster, vol. 6, 1911) notes: "The ancient cross at Burnley suggests the existence of a church there from an early time [...] otherwise the first record of one is in the grant of Whalley Church to the monks of Pontefract about 1121, the charter of Hugh de la Val including with it the 'church' of Burnley [...] At this time [i.e., 1532-3] the present tower was standing, but whether the rest of the building was of 15th-century date or older can only be conjectured. [...] The font stands under the tower [...] and is of 16thcentury date and octagonal in shape, two of its sides bearing the Towneley arms, the others being either plain or carved with shields and other emblems" [footnoted: "These have been variously interpreted. See Wilkinson, op. cit. 4; Whitaker's Whalley (ed. 4, 1876), ii, 159, where there is a full description with illustration."] Noted in Pevsner (1969): "Font. Octagonal. 1532; with the Townley arms. Also a monster and a goat." [NB: the Townley arms refer probably to the family of Charles Townley (1737-1805), himself related to the Townleian Collections of ancient art in the British Museum, Townley marbles, etc. -- an earlier Charles Towneley (d.1644) was killing fighting for Charles I at Marston Moor]. Hartwell & Pevsner (2009) report that the only a fragment of the font now remains. After a fire in 1991. [NB: the Burnley St. Peter's Heritage web site [www.burnleystpeterheritage.co.uk/tudorstuart.htm] informs that "most of it was destroyed in the fire of 1991. A small remaining part is on display in the heritage centre."