Where are Rovers old grounds?

[StubbsUK]

Over the years Rovers have played at 5 grounds, including Ewood. Assuming no-one needs to be shown where Ewood was, where were the remaining 4 grounds?

Oozehead Ground, described by Wikipedia as: "on Preston New Road to the north west of the town. This field was farmland and was owned by a local farmer, when Blackburn Rovers weren't using the field it was used to graze cows. In the centre of the field was a large watering hole, which on match days was covered with timber and turf"

In 1877 they moved to Pleasington Cricket Club, is this where Pleasington Playing Fields are now?

When a Preston North End player died during a match at Pleasington Rovers moved again to Alexandra Meadows, where East Lancs CC still play.

Next was Leamington Road, 1881 - 1890. The road is easy to find on the map, but looking at it it's not obvious where the ground might have been. It's a very steep road from Revidge down to Preston New Road and it's not obvious if the houses pre-date the ground.

 

So, where was the Oozehead Ground, did Pleasington Cricket Club play on what is now Pleasington Playing Fields and where on Leamington Road could you fit a football pitch?

[perthblue02]

Leamington Road ground was built over with houses, got  a book somewhere (an early history of Rovers ) that has the location and a drawn image of the ground, will dig it out.

from memory (of the book ) there was a start of a hill behind one of the goals and houses around it, and a gated entrance on Leamington Street (apparently was not Road then) towards the top of the street

Edit: A quick search found this part built on the site of the former ground should be helpful for location

http://www.blackburnbaptistchurch.co.uk/our-history.html

So was probably around  what is now the junction with Granville road so around here 

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@53.7519503,-2.5012806,73m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Edit 2: found the book that I thought the illustration was in (turns out it is not, must be another book I have) 

anyway in the book  Things about Blackburn Rovers by Harry Kay (sports editor of the Northern Daily  Telegraph) P 1948  it say's about the Oozehead ground 

""It was a field at Oozhead, near St Silas School in Preston New Road"

Edited July 14, 2017 by perthblue02

[Roving Mick]

Here is my story about the 'Rovers Cottage', which is illustrated with the Leamington Street ground.

http://www.rovingmick.com/2017/07/01/blackburn-rovers-win-raffle/

The map also fits the artist's drawing of the ground and shows the main entrance was on St Silas's Road and the ground area went all the way up the hill to Revidge Road.

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by Roving Mick

[steadyjon]

Your site will be an interesting read Mick....

Thanks!

[StubbsUK]

I've gone full Time Team & overlayed the map from Roving Mick's post over a modern map of the area ...

 

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by StubbsUK

[matt83]

I've got one of those mike jackman compete history books.

According to which the Oozehead ground was near st Silas off preston new road.

Pleasington cricket ground nearby the Butlers Arms inn (not familiar with it). 

[Sparks Rover]

Didn't we used to play or train at Little Wembley near the existing ground. car park behind the club shop....When I was a kid there was a company on there and we used to call it LW. I was led to believe rovers played there.

[philipl]

There was a football ground behind Bolton Road in the Ewood area.

[AllRoverAsia]

20 minutes ago, meadows said:

Little Wembley was round about where the car park beyond Jack's statue is and was used for training but to the best of my knowledge was never grassed but more of a cinder surface

 

Correct, no grass but a rolled cinder surfacre. Very ordinary almost shabby setup but sort of an early all-weather surface.

I used to walk past post game on the way to Kirby Rd and my Aunt's house.

Edited July 16, 2017 by AllRoverAsia

[AggyBlue]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

There was a football ground behind Bolton Road in the Ewood area.

That's what we'll be telling our grandkids

[Biddy]

I've got to say, I'm loving this thread.  Lots of history I was never aware of.

[Roving Mick]

When Rovers were at the Meadows, they hosted England's first international outside London.  But look who the referee was!

http://www.rovingmick.com/2015/03/01/youre-a-bastd-referee/

[oldjamfan1]

I remember my dad telling us that our family home in Brighton Terrace, Darwen, had been built on the site of Barley Bank, which was Darwen's cricket and football ground in the 1880s.

He reckoned that Darwen had once played Rovers in front of about 15000 people and that one of the goals would have been just about where our house stood (gable end of Brighton Terrace and Durham Road).

I have no idea how accurate the exact location of our house in relation to the goalposts is, but a quick wiki search confirms the first part of his story.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Rum buggers them Darreners,a Rovers v Darwen game back in the day had to be abandoned due to crowd trouble....

A Northern horde of uncouth garb and strange oaths indeed! 

[Sparks Rover]

3 hours ago, MGPensioner said:

 

Nan Goodall, I used to live next door to her.  Pillar of the Ewood community, St Barts School, Church....

[perthblue02]

Sorry to resurrect and old thread , but whilst doing some ancestry stuff came across this map published 1895 (surveyed 1892 ),  two years after Rovers stopped playing at Leamington Street, Interesting to see a Rover street in the area the ground was,  apparently built around 1885 (4 years after Rovers started playing there)   it became  Wellfield Road around 1900

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by perthblue02

[Roving Mick]

One for the anoraks.  Rovers' two former grounds - shown on the Map above (sited at Wagtail and Grammar as reference points), both hosted England full International matches.  Could they be the nearest two grounds to each other to have hosted England matches?  Leamington Street and Alexandra Meadows are barely 100 yards apart.

[JHRover]

5 hours ago, Roving Mick said:

One for the anoraks.  Rovers' two former grounds - shown on the Map above (sited at Wagtail and Grammar as reference points), both hosted England full International matches.  Could they be the nearest two grounds to each other to have hosted England matches?  Leamington Street and Alexandra Meadows are barely 100 yards apart.

Brilliant trivia. Can't imagine there's 2 closer together. Roker Park and Stadium of Light are less than a mile apart and I presume both have hosted England games.

[Mattyblue]

Plus Blackburn Olympic were only down t'road at Hole i'th Wall...

[matt83]

I’d be astonished if there’s 2 grounds closer together. I’d also be surprised if, outside of London, the same town has hosted England in 3 different grounds. 

[sympatheticclaret]

17 hours ago, perthblue02 said:

Sorry to resurrect and old thread , but whilst doing some ancestry stuff came across this map published 1895 (surveyed 1892 ),  two years after Rovers stopped playing at Leamington Street, Interesting to see a Rover street in the area the ground was,  apparently built around 1885 (4 years after Rovers started playing there)   it became  Wellfield Road around 1900

 

Claret fan in peace as ever...

Interesting to see the name Gawthorpe over Alexandra Meadows area, anybody know why this might be the case ?

[Roving Mick]

Behind Dukes Brow, to the left of the Meadows, is an old hidden street actually called Gawthorpe.  All this area was taken up by quarrying and the quarries had their own names, i.e. Wagtail, where the Leamington Street ground was located. 

Gawthorpe was probably named after the nearby quarry.  But there were a lot of handloom weaver's cottages in this area too.  These were often in little colonies, having their own names.

[Stuart]

8 hours ago, matt83 said:

I’d be astonished if there’s 2 grounds closer together. I’d also be surprised if, outside of London, the same town has hosted England in 3 different grounds. 

Neither has hosted an England game (as far as I know) but Tannadice Park and Dens Park (Dundee and Dundee United) are the closest existing grounds. If ever a club should have ground shared...

[Rover_Shaun]

Where was pleasingyon cricket club? I can find no mention of its location. Pleasington fields maybe but they aren't really in pleasie.

[perthblue02]

15 hours ago, sympatheticclaret said:

Claret fan in peace as ever...

Interesting to see the name Gawthorpe over Alexandra Meadows area, anybody know why this might be the case ?

Colonel Richard Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe and men of the Blackburn garrison were involved in a couple of skirmishes with Royalists in that area during the civil war, Legacy of the spoils of war maybe?

Edited July 27, 2018 by perthblue02