I went behind the scenes at the restoration of Towneley Hall in Burnley and found hidden artefacts!

I visited the historic Grade I listed, Towneley Hall amidst its multi-million pound restoration to see what work was being carried out.

The hall, which is located on 445 acres of beautiful parkland, features a historic house and museum that houses a variety of displays, encompassing natural history.

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Inside the house itself, you could lose yourself for hours  exploring the period rooms, art gallery and learning more about Burnley’s history.

Towneley Hall will temporarily close from Monday June 17 until Spring 2025 to allow for essential repairs as part of a major £4.5m restoration project.

These works have been ongoing since November 2022 with the Hall partially staying open to visitors yet as work takes place in the North Wing, it will be difficult for the Hall to provide the full experience to visitors.

It was whilst walking around the ornate North Wing that I realised the size of the project and the sheer scale of the work that has been taking place.

Towers and towers of scaffolding now surround the hall as workers work tirelessly to restore dilapidated parts of the building with the utmost care and attention to the original pieces.

These workers have even moved to live on site from Monday to Friday in an effort to speed up the process.

David Duffy, Site Manager of Historic Property Restoration said: “I’ve grown to love this hall and since living here you really appreciate its history.

“It’s a beautiful building and it is an honour to be working on it, I see it as home now!”

Whilst closed, several rooms have been used for storage which has helped with the logistics of moving 30,000 objects and artworks.

Luckily, I got a chance to see one of the rooms used for storage and anything you could ever imagine being in a museum or gallery was in there.

From taxidermy deer heads to forgotten artwork, name it and it was in one of these rooms!

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The massive restoration project focuses on work that will go unnoticed by the public such as guttering, stonework and timber treatment yet it is still of mighty importance.

While appreciating the mammoth task the contractors have on their hands, I thought it a shame that the hall and all its artefacts would go unseen for some time. 

However, some sections of the hall will remain open during this time such as the Towneley Hall Shop, Parklife Cafe as well as their free to enter Museum of Local Crafts & Industries.

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