About the town » Burnley, Lancashire, England, Great Britain

Burnley is a market town in Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It is 21 miles north of Manchester and 25 miles east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun. The town began to develop in the early medieval period as a number of farming hamlets surrounded by manor houses and royal forests, and has held a market for more than 700 years. During the Industrial Revolution it became one of Lancashire's most prominent mill towns; at its peak it was one of the world's largest producers of cotton cloth, and a major centre of engineering. Burnley now has a post-industrial economy and landscape, and is increasingly a dormitory town for Manchester, Leeds and the M65 corridor.