Buile Hill Park Buile Hill. After the end of the war, and an amount of refurbishment, the park reopened to the public in 1948. In 1963, a garden for the blind opened, and in 1972 Pets Corner. People noted to have visited the park include Pendlebury artist L.S. Lowry, a local rent collector, and author Frances Hodgson Burnett who wrote her classic children's novel "The Secret Garden" during one of her many visits to the estate house. In 1975 the Lancashire Museum of Mining opened in the house, closed in 2000, after which the house was proposed to be renovated as a conference
Frances Hodgson Burnett she continued annual transatlantic trips to the United States. Maytham Hall resembled a feudal manor house which enchanted Burnett. She socialized in the local villages, and enjoyed the country life. She filled the house with guests, and had Stephen Townsend move in with her, which the local vicar considered a scandal. In February 1900 she married Stephen Townsend. The marriage took place in Genoa, Italy, and the couple went to Pegli for their honeymoon, where they endured two weeks of steady rain. Burnett's biographer Gretchen Gerzina writes of the marriage, "it was the biggest mistake of her life". The press