Lowerhouse Mile 'Lodge' Memories - 1981

Lowerhouse Lodge Conservation - (April 1981)
A plan was put forward to completely fill in the "top lodge" at Lowerhouse that put Burnley FC right in the middle of yet another local clash between the hard cash business world and the increasingly vocal and powerful "Save Our Heritage" lobby.

Three years before, a 2,000-name petition from members of several interested organisations and the general public was handed to the council, asking for the lodges to be bought to save them from the possibility of being filled with motorway spoil. But the buying price and the potential development cost were felt to be too great a burden on a council with many other commitments.

The financially hard-pressed club, which bought the lodges for their development potential from chairman Mr Bob Lord's business, was taking steps towards realising a part of its asset. It was anyone's guess as to just how much the right to tip in the top lodge was worth to whichever contractors would be digging cuttings nearby for the next stretch of the M65. But with holes in the ground at a premium, it was safe to predict that many thousands of pounds would flow into the Burnley FC coffers, a big help in the costly battle to keep the town on the football map.

Television naturalist David Bellamy was being asked to add his weight to the campaign to save the top lodge from being filled in by tipping of waste from the building of the nearby motorway. Local residents and councillors are held mass meetings to protest about the scheme. Two petitions with more than 500 signatures between them had already been raised. Lancashire County Council was expected to give the go-ahead for tipping to take place in the lodge, owned by Burnley FC, but they were seeking the views of Burnley Borough Council. Protestors were told they had just 28 days to appeal to the Council before the plans were passed.

Mr and Mrs Colin Robinson, of Fox street, collected a 250-signature petition of protest, saying it was ironic that huge sums of money were being spent to create a lake at Rowley while a ready-made lake at Lowerhouse was to be destroyed. "We want to save these lodges," said Mr Robinson. "There aren't so many real natural nature spots left where people could go and relax. I don't know how they can allow this to be done and in the same breath say how marvellous the Rowley scheme was. It's a disgrace, it really is."