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POSSIBILITIES OF TOWNELEY HALL. 
By Mr. J. ERNEST PHYTHIAN. 4th October, 1904. 
Before the opening of the Session, Messrs. G. Gill and 
J. Lancaster expressed the congratulations of the members to 
the President, Mr. W. L. Grant, on being able, after his recent 
indisposition, to take his position as President. 
The President, Mr. W. Lewis Grant, thanked Messrs. Gill and 
Laneaster for their congratulations, and the members for having 
elected him for the second year. He trusted that they would 
have a successful session, and a large accession of members. He 
referred to the excellent and painstaking work done by Mr. 
Crossland during his two years’ Secretaryship, and introduced 
the new Secretary, Mr. Charles Hargreaves, who had already 
taken a share in the Club’s work, and possessed sympathy with 
the Club’s aims. Then reference was made to the loss by death 
of one who was present at the meeting, thirty-one years ago, 
when the Club was founded—Mr. Richard Nelson ; and to the 
death of Mr. Sowerbutts, the Secretary of the Manchester Geo- 
graphical Soziety, a remarkable personality, and a man full of 
enthusiasm for the important work with which he identified 
himself. 
The President said that whatever views Burnley people may 
have had with respect to the wisdom or policy of acquiring 
Towneley Hall, and whatever feelings of regret or perhaps indig- 
nation may have been entertained, on seeing the famous old 
historic place relinquished and alienated by the family whose 
ancestors had been housed there for many centuries—they had 
now to deal with an accomplished fact—Towneley Hall and its 
immediate surroundings belonged to the town. 
They were asked that night to consider what were its possibi- 
lities : what might be an ideal Towneley of the future. They were 
glad to have the guidance in that matter of so capable an expert 
as Mr. Phythian, of Manchester, who had experience of municipal 
work, and who, as one of the Committee of the Manchester Art 
Gallery, was in a position to speak with authority on the question 
of what might be done to increase the amenities and usefulness 
of the town’s new possession. 
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