Category: Pubs, Clubs & Beer

BBC’s Countryfile series broadcast an episode a few years ago highlighting the successful growing of flax plants, leading to production of linen cloth in Blackburn. 

Following this TV programme, local volunteers are now being encouraged to participate in its next stage: dyeing the material using traditional methods.  People may be surprised to find out what ingredients went into the dyeing process.  These could be considered to be the ultimate case of nature providing everything.

Thanks to the TV coverage and the town’s annual Festival of Making, Blackburn is witnessing a revival of its historic textile tradition, including dyeing skills.  In particular, there is renewed interest in growing woad.  This is a plant traditionally used for producing blue dye.  The method also used to use urine as a key ingredient in its traditional dyeing process.

Urine required for dyeing will be collected in tanks around the area.  Historically the industry used to import this waste product from London by canal boat to meet the demand for its cloth industry.  Once collected, it would be spread on fields as part of the dyeing process.

This is a golden opportunity for the people of Blackburn. They will be able to help the local council tick its recycling boxes for disposing of a waste product through an unusual green process.  It’s a bit like giving blood without the needle and you get to have a pint or brew first.

To facilitate local collection, special toilets have been designated for those who wish to donate to the project.  Contributors can choose whether or not to participate, with local pubs identified as particularly suitable venues due to the more dehydrated nature of the urine collected there.  There is also a readily available catchment source for replenishing supplies of this valuable component of Blackburn’s most memorable industry.

This practice is deeply rooted in Blackburn’s culture, symbolised by local names such as Alum Scar and reflects our community’s ongoing commitment to preserving traditional skills.  There is even talk of it becoming a protected industry.  Examples of these include Stilton and Cheddar cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies and Scotch whisky.  Though a name for this product from Blackburn may need a lot of thinking about.

Blackburn people are being asked to look out for special green toilets which will be used for the dyeing process.  They can be found in participating pubs and in council owned public conveniences.

After closing down at the start of August, Blackburn’s  Drummer’s Arms, on King William St, is back in business again after reopening in November.

Renovation work was carried out across the pub, but mainly on the roof and ceiling.  The pub reopened on November 10^th, but it was next day when my first visit was paid to this much missed hostelry following closure.  Seeing H behind the bar was a sight for sore eyes.  A fair bit of blinking was also done when looking round the newly refurbished pub.  A good decorating job had been carried out.  It seemed very sparkly.

It was good to sit at the large front window, among the spider plants, to watch the world go by.  It always reminds me of doing this years ago when one of my favourite pubs, St John’s Tavern, was open.  Like sitting in the Tavern, watching people go by, is still a nosey pastime to many, but very relaxing all the same.  So it is in the Drummer’s Arms, watching people come and go down King William St.

A couple of pub signs have been added to the wall on the left as you go in near the front door.  These are both to do with the old long gone and legendary Vulcan pub.  The larger sign looks like one of the original ones, but is it from the much missed old Vulc?  You’ll have to ask H or Lark about this.  The smaller sign looks like one from a different Vulcan from somewhere else.

H, like many of us who go in the Drummer’s Arms, used to frequent the Blackburn Vulcan, as did many others.  So an original sign from the old pub would be very collectable in Blackburn to some people.  It certainly brings back lots of happy memories.

One of the nicest things about the pub opening was seeing lots of old faces return to their familiar stamping ground.  The regulars were like seeds scattered to the wind when this pub temporarily closed in August.  Although quite a few could still be found next door in the Rock Box and others in the nooks and crannies of the Postal Order.

Now the Drummer’s Arms is back open again and offering Blackburn town centre pub goers a great choice of somewhere friendly and decent to go for a drink.  Sadly, it’s services are greatly required down town at the moment.

Are you sick of going into pubs and being disturbed by mobile phones ringing and pinging and people dragging everyone else into their conversations?  Well Blackburn’s Drummer’s Arms may have come up with a peaceful alternative.

Renovation work is currently taking place in this popular town centre micropub to fix its roof and ceiling.  While work is being carried out, suggestions have been put forward to extend the wire mesh not only from its ceiling, but throughout the rest of its downstairs bar.  The idea behind this is to create what is known as a Faraday Cage.  It is named after British chemist and physicist, Michael Faraday, who contributed to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism.  He is familiar to most people, appearing on £20 notes.

A Faraday Cage or Faraday Mesh, as it is also known, is a way of blocking electromagnetic forces to the area it covers.  This would mean Wi-Fi reception could be impeded or even blocked off altogether.  How this would go down with customers in the pub remains to be seen.  The Drummer’s Arms is already a magnet for real ale drinkers.

No doubt there will be mixed views on having no Wi-Fi available in this pub.  Some people just want to go in a pub, sit down and go on their phones, which is their prerogative after all.  But other customers are bound to have different views on mobile phone usage in pubs, i.e. they can’t stand them.

One of the strange things going in pubs these days is seeing whole tables of people playing on their mobile phones and the only time you hear them speak is when they talk into their phones.  This can be very annoying to a lot of people.  Blocking Wi-Fi might not be the answer to this problem, but it may help create an atmosphere leading to people talking to each other.  After all, is this not what going in pubs is all about?

If a Faraday Cage is installed in the Drummer’s Arms, there will always be the option for H or Lark to switch it on or off.  In instances of it being switched off, customers may be able to log in to the Wi-Fi emanating from the Rock Box next door.  Another aspect of the Faraday cage is it cannot block using a compass.  So any ramblers who come in the pub, who have lost their way, will have a ‘lode’ off their mind – able to find their bearings in the Drummer’s Arms.

Escapades was the latest incarnation of Blackburn’s Ribblesdale pub on Blakey Moor.

Described as a ‘Pop Up’ bar, it opened during the run up to Christmas 2024, selling food, drink and hosting entertainment.  This followed an initiative from our council to try and boost Blackburn’s town centre day and nightlife over the festive season.

I left it late to pay my first visit to this pub in donkey’s years –  Christmas Eve and its last day open.  There were a couple security staff on the door, both male and female.  Not expecting door staff at 1.00pm, I thought they were customers like me, waiting for Escapades to open.  Inside there were a couple of lads back and forth behind the bar, doing usual opening time jobs.  Both were friendly enough, telling me it had been a busy start to when this place opened, probably people going in for a nosy, like me.  It tapered off a bit towards the end.

It wasn’t a cheap job in here.  No real ale, so a fiver pint of cider was my tipple.  This had to be paid for by card, cash wasn’t an option.  As well as not liking its drink prices, its deco didn’t impress me either.  But other people might have thought different and liked it.  At least an effort was made to get this place up and running during the month of December.

Now this pub’s future is in doubt once again.  It’s chequered history looked to be taking a turn for the better when Shh Bar were on the brink of moving in a couple of years earlier.  Sadly, it didn’t happen.  But out of the blue we had this pub opening as the Ribblesdale Tap, when it was taken over and opened up by Blackedge Brewery.  Unfortunately, the pub only stopped open for eight months.

After all the money spent on this place, it would be sad to see it all go to waste.  But things are happening in this immediate area and hope springs eternal, as both King George’s Hall and the Blakey Moor Townscape Heritage Project are receiving millions of pounds worth of investment.

On the bright side, this idea of a pop up pub may have been a good advert to bring people inside and consider its merits, maybe even encourage some individual or organisation to take it on in the future.  It would be nice to see this pub at the crossroads of Northgate and Blakey Moor open up permanently.

Blackburn’s Fleece pub has stood derelict on Penny Street for years.  But with signs starting to appear that Morrisons may be on its way to moving across the road in the near future.  It could mean the Fleece being reinvigorated as a new public house for Blackburn town centre.

Morrison’s intended re-location to Thwaites’ former seven-acre brewery site is seen as a major part of a £250M Master Plan which has been seen as a way of rejuvenating this part of our town centre.  When these plans were submitted in 2021, the Fleece was mentioned and demolition was discussed.  But closer inspection of these plans showed demolition was actually meant for an old building at the left side of this pub.  Which means the Fleece is just as much a part of this master plan as all the rest of these developments.

This building which used to be at the side was once a restaurant.  It’s now long gone and, in my experience, thank goodness too.  On my one and only visit for a meal in here, back in the 1970’s, it left a lot to be desired.  Subjecting me to what must have been the toughest steak I’d ever encountered in my life.  As a teenager at the time, these were remembered as my salad days.  I just wish they had been on that particular evening.

Land including part of the old brewery site will be sold to Morrisons for them to build a brand-new replacement superstore.  It will be just over half the size of their current premises.  This master plan will also include building 500 new homes and five commercial buildings on their present site, after it has been demolished.  Building work on the old brewery site is hopefully anticipated to be underway in the summer of this year.

It would be great to see another of Blackburn’s old pubs coming back from the dead, like we’re seeing with the newly opened Ribblesdale Tap.  This would be very welcome to have a pub back in operation around the Penny Street side of our town centre, especially with this area’s pub and brewery connections.  Hopefully with these developments, including the Fleece, talking will stop and building will start.

What could be better for a superstore in the town centre than a having a new pub to serve its customers?  It would also be a handy facility for travellers at our bus station across the road and nearby railway station to be able to enjoy a pint before, after and in between their journeys.

And it came to pass that Blackburn’s Wetherspoon’s pub, The Postal Order, has opened up a brand new beer garden.

This facility is next to the pub across from where Dandy Walk meets Darwen Street.  It is situated on consecrated land, owned by the Church of England through Blackburn Cathedral.  So not only real ale but spirits are also likely to be in good measure.

For many years people have said what they were missing at the Posty was a proper beer garden.  Those existing tables and seats in front of this pub just don’t really give you a sort of ambience and relaxation in a similar way to what a beer garden can provide.  In fact sitting on these front seats can often lead to racing pulses, watching police cars, ambulances and taxis speeding down Darwen Street.

This would have been just what the doctor ordered when lockdown started coming to an end a couple of years ago.  Blackburn’s drinkers could have enjoyed a pint sitting outside then, rather than having to do without during this terrible time when the Posty wasn’t able to allow punters inside.

But better late than never and there is a now a brand new facility where you can have a sit down and be entertained by an angelic sound of bells ringing and chiming, also a heavenly kind of karaoke, with people singing to the accompaniment of an organ every Sunday.

Strangely enough, this new beer garden site may be quite near if not actually on part of the site of where Blackburn’s old County pub used to be situated.  This was a Lion house, if my fading memory serves me right.  It only ever received one visit from me during my teenage salad days.  Unlike the early Christians, I was drunk but never stoned.  In 1979 the County’s walls went the same way as those of Jericho.

When the County went from dust to dust, it was a different story across Dandy Walk.  Our Postal Order was still serving its purpose from where this pub’s name originated.  After many years as Blackburn’s main post office, it didn’t become a Wetherspoon’s hostelry until 1996.

Now we have a situation where these two buildings, Blackburn Cathedral and the Postal Order, have two different objectives.  One wishes to look after your virtues, the other your vices.  With a brand new beer garden, hopefully this marriage between the Cathedral and Posty will be one made in heaven.  Definitely a case of love thy neighbour.

Blackburn’s town centre pubs could be given a boost as one of a number of chosen places to receive a licence to collect DNA.

This followed success of the town’s Covid 19 vaccination programme, which was put down to Blackburn’s above average footfall in its town centre.  Now it is hoped to capitalise on this success by taking things a step further and collecting DNA for scientific study.

Blackburn people are no strangers to giving their data for analysis.  Rovers fans, along with home supporters, gave voluntary saliva swab samples some years ago when they were playing a match down at Chelsea.  Sample results indicated Chelsea fans were mainly descended from Normans while most Rovers fans who participated were descended from Vikings.

There was also the infamous June Anne Devaney murder case in Queens Park Hospital grounds, where the perpetrator was caught by mass fingerprinting many of Blackburn’s adult male population.  It was the first time this kind of exercise had been used to solve a murder in Great Britain.

Certain pubs in Blackburn town centre will roll out state of the art smart glass washers.  These have a dual action process of first collecting DNA from recently used glasses, then washing them in the usual way.  By the time these glass washer’s contents become clean and sparkling, their accumulated DNA fingerprints will have been biometrically recorded and sent off to their online databank through cyberspace for processing.

There have been questions raised about this form of personal information collection and its legal implications.  But it seems to have been going on for years.  We all leave traces of DNA  wherever we go and this is known as ‘Shed’ DNA.  It doesn’t come from a shed but is one of the most used terms for abandoned DNA.  Police and forensic teams collect it at crime scenes and elsewhere from discarded cigarette buts, plastic cups, cans, chocolate and sweet wrappers, the list goes on.

Therefore, it stands to reason when you go in a pub for a pint, you do so voluntarily.  You are then served a drink in a polygenic pint glass belonging to the hostelry you are in.  When you sup up, you discard your glass for collection and washing and you can’t help but leave your DNA all over the place.  This same rule can apply to near enough everywhere you go, including where you live.

There is expected to be an enormous demand for this kind of data.  Not only will law enforcement authorities be interested, but so will medical, insurance, dating and family ancestry organisations.  Mining this kind of data from public houses could be seen as appropriate due to quite a lot of the latter often being an end product of what is sold in a pub.  So it seems quite fitting for  this information to be gleaned from one of its primary sources.

An ancient order of monks is claiming ownership of Blackburn Cathedral.

Members of the Order of Samplers claim Blackburn Cathedral was promised to them as reward for saving lives of many Kings and Queens of medieval England.

This order was founded around a similar time as their more famous fellow monks, the Knights Templar.  This latter order were fighting monks who made their name during the Crusades and accumulated vast amounts of wealth.  This made them fall foul of ruling religious elites in Europe and they were eventually imprisoned, executed and had their wealth confiscated, or so history states.

Samplers on the other hand were seen as friendly beer brewing monks.  They spent their time in monasteries brewing beer for other monks and nuns and local people who inhabited areas where they were based.  Unlike Templars, Samplers were very popular with everybody, including both royal and religious elites.

What particularly ingratiated them with these ruling elites was their uncanny knack of being able to distinguish between beer and wine which was safe to drink, or whether it had been poisoned.  This was where their name came from.  It was said many Kings, Bishops and Lords of the Manor had been saved by Samplers.

During those turbulent times of King Henry VIII, it is believed his Samplers really had their work cut out tasting beer and wine served to England’s most recognisable monarch.  Henry was extremely pleased with this service they provided him, especially with them helping to keep him alive.  So when it came round to his Dissolution of the Monasteries Act, Henry promised them they would not be evicted from any of their residences.

It seems one of their residences may have been the old parish church upon what now stands present day Blackburn Cathedral.  It is possible with Samplers being an order of Black Friars, based on land next to the black burn, very handy for washing their dirty habits, this may be one of the sources from where our town’s name originates.

Now it seems this ancient monastic order has appeared from the depths of time, claiming what they say is rightfully theirs.  Unfortunately for the Samplers, all records of their order were destroyed when Blackburn’s townsfolk supported Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War.

Sadly for Blackburn’s Samplers, it was said they kept sparse records and these were very limited due to their historian enjoying produce of the grape and the grain, which they brewed, far too much.  He wasn’t very good at spelling either.  He said their address was Blackburn’s Church of the Naivety.  This made people think he lived up to his order’s name way beyond his remit.

But in these changing secular times, were religious belief and influence is diminishing, perhaps today’s Church of England may be open to accommodating their former occupants somewhere within their Blackburn site.  It would be nice to see a brewery return to our town centre and start brewing beer once more.  It could become a major tourist attraction, giving us all a chance to become samplers.

Blackburn town centre’s Rock Box, across from the old town hall on King William Street, has brought in a special discount for Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) members.  On production of a  current valid membership card, 20p will be knocked off the price of a pint of real ale.

This is part of the CAMRA Real Ale Discount Scheme (RADS).  It was set up following a request by licensees across the country as a way of promoting their real ale to card carrying CAMRA members.  It gives them a discount off the price of a pint, or half, of cask beer.  This means the price of a pint of real ale will be less than £3 in the Rock Box for CAMRA members.

Founded in 1971, the Campaign for Real Ale is one of Britain’s largest and most successful consumer groups.  It has over 150,000 members.  CAMRA not only fights for making real ale available in pubs and clubs, but for the promotion and protection of pubs and clubs themselves, along with breweries.

CAMRA members already receive £30 of beer tokens as part of their membership subscription.  This in effect means CAMRA are actually giving you £1.50 to be a member of their campaign.  But in Blackburn the only place you can redeem your vouchers off a pint of real ale is in our local Wetherspoon’s, The Postal Order.  For reasons best known to themselves, not all CAMRA members wish to frequent Wetherspoon’s pubs.  At least now they can get something back on their membership by calling for a pint in the Rock Box.

The Rock Box has been open nearly four years, since Andy and Karen Joss bought the former cocktail bar: Tiki Monkey.  In that time they have established their pub as a fixture in Blackburn town centre, especially for lovers of classic rock music.  They have also championed the cause of real ale with three hand pumps of cask beer being made available to real ale drinkers. Along with being able to watch classic rock music on the large TV monitors, there is also a dart board and pool table in the pub’s upstairs room.  So if you’re a CAMRA member, why not call in with your membership card and get 20p knocked off a pint.  In these times of austerity – every little bit helps.

One of Blackburn’s finest buildings will be given a new lease of life when it opens up as a public house, the purpose for which it was originally built.

This impressive building at the crossroads of Northgate and Blakey Moor, first opened as a pub in 1897.  It has had various names over the years.  Originally opened as the Ribblesdale Hotel, it reputedly owned Blackburn’s largest pub sign.  It was renamed Gladstone’s when Blackburn’s statue of Britain’s former Prime Minister was moved to a plinth right outside the pub.  Old William Ewart still stands there to this very day.  He has been climbed on many occasion since being unveiled, most notably when Rovers won the FA Cup in 1928.  He was bedecked in a blue and white scarf and had a beer bottle placed in his outstretched hand to celebrate.  Ironically, Gladstone’s statue isn’t listed, but an old red GPO telephone box beside the pub is.

This pub was later renamed Baroque.  It seemed to be a trend back then, where the word ‘Bar’ prefixed many pubs, including a few in Blackburn.  Various nicknames were also inappropriately used with Bar for some of these pubs, including Fly, Stool and Steward.  As Baroque this place didn’t seem to last very long.  There were lots of complaints from nearby businesses, especially toy shops, about them having strippers strutting their stuff at teatimes.  Then a man climbing onto its roof with a meat cleaver probably didn’t help matters either.  And so this pub became empty for a long time.

Now the only strippers in here are working on its inside walls.  Restoration of this pub is part of the £3.8M Blakey Moor Townscape Heritage Initiative.  A project jointly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and our local council.  It seeks to regenerate this historic area of Blackburn town centre and entice people to visit our town’s beating heart.

This building’s new tenant will be near neighbour Shh Bar.  It will move from its premises across the road on Northgate and relocate to a newly refurbished pub premises.  It will continue to keep its present name.  Opened in 2017, Shh has brought a refreshing change to Blackburn town centre’s pub culture.  ‘Ambience’ is a word often used to describe Shh Bar’s atmosphere.  Hopefully this will be transferred across to their new building when they move in.  Much interest and anticipation has been generated already by this proposed relocation.