"Colne - where's that?" A question to be answered time and again when meeting people on holiday.

People with some interest in politics often think it's in the Colne Valley.

I say no, that's twenty miles to the south in Yorkshire.

"Nelson and Colne" results in recognition but still no real idea of location.

I say something like "It's near the Yorkshire border, up in the Pennines between Burnley and Keighley." Which produces more blank looks.

But things are looking up. "Ah," they now say, "Burnley!" though still without much idea where it is except "somewhere Up North".

And there's that new media cliché – the smallest town ever to have a team in the Premiership.

My friend Martin Wainwright was at it in the Guardian on Saturday – reporting Burnley Council Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow as saying it with some pride.

It may be true, though it may depend whether or not you include Padiham and villages such as Harle Syke as a description of Burnley's fan base it's not true at all.

There's everyone in Pendle for a start – and as Burnley has gradually shrunk in numbers over the years, Pendle has slowly grown to the extent that it's now slightly bigger than the Burnley Borough (both have around 90,000 people).

When I taught at Colne Grammar School in the late 1960s the formidable senior mistress, Miss Whitaker, told me that every year she hoped that Burnley Football Club would not have a really successful season.

"I've nothing against them, of course," she said. "But the year they won the League it was a disaster for this school.

No-one was interested in learning geography" (which she and I taught). "Or anything else".

Burnley as a town may just have turned the corner.

And having the local team in the top flight will surely help.

The new University Campus is starting up within days, and who knows – the East Lancs Hospitals Trust may even have stopped running down BGH (though there's a long way to go on that one).

But let's all remember. Burnley and Pendle are increasingly an economic and social unity.

We will stand together or fall apart separately.

And half the people on the terraces at Turf Moor are from Pendle.