Lancashire At War.co.uk
Exploring the hidden history of War sites in Lancashire
Crown Point, Burnley - Decoy Site
Crown Point decoy site was manned by the RAF. According to the 'War Time Trail - A historical walk of Burnley's WWII landscape" : "The Crown Point area and its surrounding countryside became an RAF decoy station. The intention of these stations was to deflect German bombers from the major cities of Lancashire by lighting fires, so that, to the German bombers, it looked as if they were flying over a significant, populated area.
On one occasion, the RAF crew, after preparing the site, did not get away quickly enough as two high explosive bombs were dropped. One bomb landed on a control room and another on the road some distance away. A single casualty occurred, possibly the only individual killed in Burmley as a consequence of enemy activity".
"The War Effort"
"As with many other large engineering firms during World War Two, Howard and Bullough was contracted to manufacture military related components for the Ministry Of Supply. The firm manufactured components for shells, mine sinkers and aircraft, as well as grenade casings and exactly 161,026 bayonets."
- Taken from the Hyndburn Heritage website.
http://www.hyndburnheritage.co.uk/industry/howard-and-bullough/
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Today, there is little to see of the site. The main feature is the access road - which is recorded on the A to Z! Top Right is a good view of the access road from the main road to the site. It is a raised road of stone, brick and rubble raised higher than the moorland surrounding it.
Right: at the end of the road is a circular feature, a turning circle? Difficult to photograph. But with a stone bank visible in the foreground of the photo. Other than this road, no visible features were easily identifiable on the ground.
This is one of five sites which all worked in conjunction with each other to protect the town of Accrington and in particular, the Howard and Bullough Factory which was busy working for the war effort.
This site was one of FIVE decoy sites in total created to protect Accrington. the others are:
We also have a general page about Decoy Sites.