Championship Season 25-26

[davulsukur]

Kim Hellberg has been appointed the new Boro gaffer:

https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/2025/november/24/kim-hellberg-appointed-boro-head-coach/

Edited yesterday at 13:06 by davulsukur

[RevidgeBlue]

11 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Kim Hellberg has been appointed the new Boro gaffer:

https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/2025/november/24/kim-hellberg-appointed-boro-head-coach/

Desperation or inspired?

[roversfan99]

I saw some comments on social media at the weekend from Boro fans suggesting that Brittain is really doing well for them.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I saw some comments on social media at the weekend from Boro fans suggesting that Brittain is really doing well for them.

I’m not surprised, he’s a good player probably playing at his peak age wise. However I wouldn’t swap Alebiosu for him now.

[RevidgeBlue]

14 hours ago, Mercer said:

Talking of pubs and pub runs, I would think there are a good number on here who will remember the 'Revidge run' starting at Bulls Head, Wilpshire, up Pleckgate Road, along Revidge Road and finishing at Woodlands (top of Preston New Road).  Of those 10 / 12 pubs, sadly I think there are only 3 / 4 still open.  A blurry blast it was!!! 

Apologies for taking the thread off topic - the last word on beer from me in this thread but hopefully people will find some of it interesting.

I always classed the Revidge run as starting at either the Knowles Arms at the bottom of Pleckgate Rd or the Hare and Hounds at Lammack Rd depending on which direction you were coming from.

(There's still the Wilpshire Hotel, Rising Sun and Brownhill Arms left in the Brownhill area. The Bulls Head has been a Co-op for many years which I refused to go in for ages on principle. The landlord of the Rising Sun is a keen Rovers fan, the outside of the building has been painted blue and white, there's a room with Rovers memorabilia and last season he was doing cheap  Japanese bottled beer if Ohashi scored and a disgusting blue cocktail of some sort called a "Cantwell". Not certain if he's still doing those)

After that it's a completely barren wasteland now pub wise.

Depending on how far you wanted to wander off a straight line, you had at one time The Knowles, The Royal Oak, The Sportsman's, Hole ith Wall, Hare and Hounds, Corporation, Dog Inn, Quarrymans, Gibraltar, (The Gib) Alexandra Hotel, (The Alex) Leamington, Fox and Grapes, West View and Woodlands.

The Knowles is now a fully fledged restaurant (Ego) and you can just get a drink in there but the bar area is a fairly joyless experience. The Royal Oak on Pleckgate Rd is I think open but up for let and the last two standing the Hare and Hounds and the Alex went in the last couple of months or so. Sue the landlady at the Alex died and Robbo the guy who had the Hare and Hounds sold to the Issa's which I was very upset about in both instances.

Edited yesterday at 13:50 by RevidgeBlue

[Mattyblue]

Hare and Hounds was still doing really well too considering the demographic change in Lammack.

[speeeeeeedie]

15 hours ago, Mercer said:

Thwaites was Blackburn's oldest brewer with its iconic Christmas Star on its roof.  Sadly, Thwaites' beer business declined pretty rapidly and a number of its brands were sold to Marstons Brewery about 10 years ago who in turn are now part of Carlsberg.   All that remains of the Thwaites brewing operation is a craft brewery at Mellor Brook but Thwaites still do have a number of hotels and pubs.

Talking of pubs and pub runs, I would think there are a good number on here who will remember the 'Revidge run' starting at Bulls Head, Wilpshire, up Pleckgate Road, along Revidge Road and finishing at Woodlands (top of Preston New Road).  Of those 10 / 12 pubs, sadly I think there are only 3 / 4 still open.  A blurry blast it was!!! 

I happened to be driving into Blackburn when the Thwaites workers changed the sign after the closure was announced; LET; Thwaites sign changed 

4 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

My neck of the woods. Hundreds of folk (many in fancy dress) traipsing up Pleckgate Road on the way to the Sportsman’s… can’t speak for others but I’d end up in Jazzy Kexs.

Sigh. A very different time in a very different town.
 

I used to love the Revidge run. I once made it from the Woodlands to the Bonny Inn in time for one before closing. I also spent a good few nights in Jazzy's too. It was a great place. Tequila shots for £1 some nights. They were awful, but cheap.

Sorry for the distraction. Back to the Championship. If PNE are in a playoff spot the overall quality of the division is sorely lacking. 

[Mercer]

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Apologies for taking the thread off topic - the last word on beer from me in this thread but hopefully people will find some of it interesting.

I always classed the Revidge run as starting at either the Knowles Arms at the bottom of Pleckgate Rd or the Hare and Hounds at Lammack Rd depending on which direction you were coming from.

(There's still the Wilpshire Hotel, Rising Sun and Brownhill Arms left in the Brownhill area. The Bulls Head has been a Co-op for many years which I refused to go in for ages on principle. The landlord of the Rising Sun is a keen Rovers fan, the outside of the building has been painted blue and white, there's a room with Rovers memorabilia and last season he was doing cheap  Japanese bottled beer if Ohashi scored and a disgusting blue cocktail of some sort called a "Cantwell". Not certain if he's still doing those)

After that it's a completely barren wasteland now pub wise.

Depending on how far you wanted to wander off a straight line, you had at one time The Knowles, The Royal Oak, The Sportsman's, Hole ith Wall, Hare and Hounds, Corporation, Dog Inn, Quarrymans, Gibraltar, (The Gib) Alexandra Hotel, (The Alex) Leamington, Fox and Grapes, West View and Woodlands.

The Knowles is now a fully fledged restaurant (Ego) and you can just get a drink in there but the bar area is a fairly joyless experience. The Royal Oak on Pleckgate Rd is I think open but up for let and the last two standing the Hare and Hounds and the Alex went in the last couple of months or so. Sue the landlady at the Alex died and Robbo the guy who had the Hare and Hounds sold to the Issa's which I was very upset about in both instances.

Some fine pubs in there - downed a few in all of them.  Did the 'Revidge run' 3 or 4 times and on one occasion  we foolishly called taxis fron The Woodlands and ended up at Trader Jack's in Blackpool and blagged a couple of rooms at The Imperial.

Sadly, pubs are dead now unless there's a good food offering.

[GHR]

Thoroughly enjoyed the chat this last few pages... I am from that part of town but was born far too late to ever do the Revidge Run in any proper guise but can remember most of those pubs being open when I was growing up. Social history fascinates me, certainly that which I can relate to. A lost world now but that's life, for better or for worse.

Thankfully, as an adult I moved somewhere that still has pubs aplenty 😎

Edited yesterday at 15:11 by GHR

[GHR]

Oh, and to drag myself back to football...

That artist's impression of the new Birmingham City ground is a bit much, but at least it shows a bit of character and uniqueness. Sooner that than some plastic box torn from a catalogue page.

[Mercer]

1 hour ago, speeeeeeedie said:

I happened to be driving into Blackburn when the Thwaites workers changed the sign after the closure was announced; LET; Thwaites sign changed 

I used to love the Revidge run. I once made it from the Woodlands to the Bonny Inn in time for one before closing. I also spent a good few nights in Jazzy's too. It was a great place. Tequila shots for £1 some nights. They were awful, but cheap.

Sorry for the distraction. Back to the Championship. If PNE are in a playoff spot the overall quality of the division is sorely lacking. 

The Bonny Inn!!  Was Jim the landlord when you frequented?  A larger than life character - enjoyed a couple of 'lock-ins' with Jim and a couple of well known Rovers' players who lived just down the road.

[Wheelton Blue]

4 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Hare and Hounds was still doing really well too considering the demographic change in Lammack.

I was brought up on Lammack Road, so the H&H was my local for years. I worked the bar for a good while in my late teens.

I popped in on the weekend it was closing after the Stoke game, it was rammed.

Sad to see it go.

[rigger]

1 hour ago, Wheelton Blue said:

I was brought up on Lammack Road, so the H&H was my local for years. I worked the bar for a good while in my late teens.

I popped in on the weekend it was closing after the Stoke game, it was rammed.

Sad to see it go.

As a kid, the top end of Lammack road, was my paper-round. 

[Mattyblue]

3 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

I was brought up on Lammack Road, so the H&H was my local for years. I worked the bar for a good while in my late teens.

 

Who was the landlady/landlord then?

Edited 19 hours ago by Mattyblue

[Wheelton Blue]

10 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Who was the landlady/landlord then?

Pete Winder

[Mattyblue]

With Marilyn! The Missus’ Aunty and Uncle, small world etc.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Landlords were real characters back then.  We had one called Shufty. One night my mate complained about his beer being cloudy. It was summer and the tap room window was open. It immediately overlooked the canal. Shufty just picked the glass up and threw it out of the window and into the canal. Another time we were complaining the fire was low in the taproom. Shufty came with a shovel full of coal and threw it on the taproom floor. He said “ Help yourself lads “?
He had a big fish tank that he sometimes topped up with the dregs. You only knew there were goldfish in it when you saw their noses up against the sides of the tank.

It’s a swingers club now. Funnily enough every time we pass it Mrs Shoelaces reminds me it’s a swingers club. I think she’s trying to tell me something !

Edited 5 hours ago by Tyrone Shoelaces

[jim mk2]

Love the Bonny Inn. Still try to pop in there from time to time. Of the two pubs at Ramsgreave you'd have expected the Risjng Sun, which always looked down at heel, to have been the one to shut. Such as shame the Bull's Head has gone - it was a great pub in its day. Knew the family that ran the Knowles Arms in the 1960s

Back to the Championship...

[speeeeeeedie]

On 24/11/2025 at 11:05, Mercer said:

The Bonny Inn!!  Was Jim the landlord when you frequented?  A larger than life character - enjoyed a couple of 'lock-ins' with Jim and a couple of well known Rovers' players who lived just down the road.

I have to say I have no idea. It was 20 odd years ago. Maybe even 30. I did go in there last year. Some younger lad had it. Not too sure if he still does.

 

On 24/11/2025 at 08:48, RevidgeBlue said:

Apologies for taking the thread off topic - the last word on beer from me in this thread but hopefully people will find some of it interesting.

I always classed the Revidge run as starting at either the Knowles Arms at the bottom of Pleckgate Rd or the Hare and Hounds at Lammack Rd depending on which direction you were coming from.

(There's still the Wilpshire Hotel, Rising Sun and Brownhill Arms left in the Brownhill area. The Bulls Head has been a Co-op for many years which I refused to go in for ages on principle. The landlord of the Rising Sun is a keen Rovers fan, the outside of the building has been painted blue and white, there's a room with Rovers memorabilia and last season he was doing cheap  Japanese bottled beer if Ohashi scored and a disgusting blue cocktail of some sort called a "Cantwell". Not certain if he's still doing those)

After that it's a completely barren wasteland now pub wise.

Depending on how far you wanted to wander off a straight line, you had at one time The Knowles, The Royal Oak, The Sportsman's, Hole ith Wall, Hare and Hounds, Corporation, Dog Inn, Quarrymans, Gibraltar, (The Gib) Alexandra Hotel, (The Alex) Leamington, Fox and Grapes, West View and Woodlands.

 

I'd start at the Woodlands. Then work all along Revidge. It was a straight-ish line. West View, Dog, Corporation, Sportsman's, Royal Oak, Knowles, Brownhill, Rising Dead, Bull's Head. As I said yesterday I only did the extras, Wilpshire Hotel and Bonny Inn once. 

Dukes Brow had 4 pubs, counting the Dog Inn, from the top to East Lancs CC. How far is that? Less than a mile? Amazing to think of now.