A long forgotten Blackburn tradition could be revived as a way of boosting tourism to the town.
It seems Blackburn was known for being one of a few British places where running of the bulls took place. Many people will have heard of these kind of events taking place in Spain – Pamplona being its most famous festival – but bull running is far more widespread than just Spain. It also takes place in Portugal, Mexico and France.
Surprisingly, there used to be similar events in Britain. A long standing festival took place in Stamford, Lincolnshire for over 600 years up to 1837. It started here when a bull escaped and the local landowner pursued it on horseback, along with his pack of dogs. He killed it and really enjoyed himself, no doubt even more so after feasting on his dismembered quarry. Stamford’s bull run was eventually suppressed due to a combination of rampant drunkenness on run days and campaigning by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – what would later become the RSPCA.
Many Blackburn folk will remember our town’s cattle market on Harrison Street. Bulls were known to escape from here, but they didn’t usually get so far before a marksman’s bullet sent them to the abattoir and a meat hook in the butcher’s. Our previous livestock market was based on Blakey Moor and its removal led to Blackburn College being built.
Before then, Blackburn’s cattle market was on Church Street. It is from here tales of bulls escaping and terrorising local people originate. Sometimes setting bulls on unruly mobs was used as a way of putting down riots, or when mass drunkenness led to disorder. Perhaps this is what inspired bull runs in Blackburn. It certainly inspired pub names on this thoroughfare. No less than four pubs with Bull in their names used to be on this street.
Having a bull run in Blackburn would need a few problems solving. Barbecuing bulls after killing them in the street may not be as acceptable today as it used to be in times gone by. There are not only animal welfare issues to consider, but also health and safety aspects relating to humans too. The spectacle of people tossed in the air by bulls then being gored by them, may face some opposition.
To get round this, one suggestion has been put forward with pantomime bulls replacing the real thing. They would be assisted by a troupe of Morris Dancers as they pursued volunteer runners down a marked out street route in the town centre of Blackburn. A modern day Tossers v Runners, like the dystopian science fiction films ‘Logan’s Run’ or ‘Rollerbull’. This could certainly bring the crowds out to view or partake in such an enthralling spectacle.
The author of this load of bull had a great-grandfather who was a butcher in Blackburn. He was crushed to death in a paddock while trying to move a bull.
