Where are Rovers old grounds?

[sympatheticclaret]

4 hours ago, perthblue02 said:

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?

Sounds plausible, thanks for that ....

 

[rog of the rovers]

The Leamington Street ground (near Sacred Heart RC Primary - my old primary school) must have had a hell of a slope!!

 

[Roving Mick]

On 30/07/2018 at 11:37, rog of the rovers said:

The Leamington Street ground (near Sacred Heart RC Primary - my old primary school) must have had a hell of a slope!!

 

When England played Scotland there in 1887, they called it the 'incline'.  12,000 turned up for that match.

[Sam Best]

On 15/07/2017 at 13:51, StubbsUK said:

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

 

 

It's not quite right... The ground went right up to Revidge Road, the near half of the road wasn't built at the time. The Dog Inn was at the top corner of the ground. (see map attached) 

The other boundaries are spot on though. 

The pavilion was extended and eventually became Sacred Heart RC primary school. Half of the pavilion is still there today, it's the small end of the school on the Leamington Road side. (see image attached) 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

England v Scotland in Blackburn eh!.....the footballing tradition and history within this town is facinating.There isn't another Town in England that can match it.

[Roving Mick]

On 04/08/2018 at 05:40, Roving Mick said:

When England played Scotland there in 1887, they called it the 'incline'.  12,000 turned up for that match.

I must admit to having reservations over the ground location.  After living in this area for the last 20 odd years, Sacred Heart school's position is far too steep to have hosted football matches.  The old Leamington Road Baptist church and its surrounding area is more likely to be where the ground was located.

It seems a bit odd how nobody is really sure of the exact ground location, despite Leamington Street arguably being the first purpose built football ground in the world.  It's certainly accepted as the first to host an England match.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Roving Mick
Extra information

[Sam Best]

5 hours ago, Roving Mick said:

I must admit to having reservations over the ground location.  After living in this area for the last 20 odd years, Sacred Heart school's position is far too steep to have hosted football matches.  The old Leamington Road Baptist church and its surrounding area is more likely to be where the ground was located.

It seems a bit odd how nobody is really sure of the exact ground location, despite Leamington Street arguably being the first purpose built football ground in the world.  It's certainly accepted as the first to host an England match.

Have a look at the drawing attached.

The row of houses in the bottom left is New Bank Road. The row in the top left is Revidge Road and the row at the top right is Dukes Brow. 

The building beyond the top right corner of the pitch is the Dog Inn. The two ends of terraced houses on the right, behind the stand is now Higher Bank St. 

As per my last post, the pavilion at the right of the picture is now part of Sacred Heart Primary School. Half of the original building still stands at the end of the school, it looks like an extension but it's actually older than the rest of the building. 

[BlueBro]

On 15/07/2017 at 05:53, Roving Mick said:

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.

 

Top drawer Mick.......very interesting 

[StubbsUK]

I’d was only thinking the other day that this old thread would make a good article for the front page, and then it goes and springs back in to life 👍

[GHR]

Was having a dig through various books and magazines on this and can't find anything more helpful than the map and drawing of Leamington Street already posted, though apparently Leamington Street became Leamington Road in 1900.

One thing I didn't know though is that apparently Rovers left Alexandra Meadows in March 1881 and completed the season 'in a temporary home close to Ewood Bridge', before moving back across town to Leamington Road, which was laid out in the summer immediately prior to the 1881/82 season.

I was having a look too for any mention of Pleasington Cricket Club, even on old maps, but I can't find a thing.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

It's quite clear from the above picture that the pitch itself was 'levelled off' in comparison to the steep surroundings.

So to sum it up...

• The first Town outside of London to host an England game.

• The first Northern Town to win the FA Cup.

• The only Town in England to have two different FA Cup winning sides.

😎

 

 

[StubbsUK]

21 hours ago, Sam Best said:

Have a look at the drawing attached.

The row of houses in the bottom left is New Bank Road. The row in the top left is Revidge Road and the row at the top right is Dukes Brow. 

The building beyond the top right corner of the pitch is the Dog Inn. The two ends of terraced houses on the right, behind the stand is now Higher Bank St. 

As per my last post, the pavilion at the right of the picture is now part of Sacred Heart Primary School. Half of the original building still stands at the end of the school, it looks like an extension but it's actually older than the rest of the building. 

Where is that diagram from? I've seen it before I'm sure.

[perthblue02]

1882 Tram accident at Ewood Bridge prior to a Rovers v Olympic  East Lancs Charity Cup Final

https://www.cottontown.org/Transport/Trams/Pages/Accidents.aspx

Also on cottontown there is quite a bit on the Ewood Bridge ground prior to Rovers buying it, in the Rovers section.

https://www.cottontown.org/Culture and Leisure/Sport/Pages/Blackburn-Rovers.aspx#2

Edited October 11, 2021 by perthblue02

[perthblue02]

On 27/07/2018 at 13:45, Rover_Shaun said:

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

Pleasington playing fields where built in 1935 (BWD website)

Somebody mentioned earlier in the thread that it was stated in a book it was near the Butlers Arms  inn.

Looked at some old maps and thought it may have been where the bowling green is, but since found the Bowling green was opened in 1846, but to the side of the Butlers / bowling green there was a big open flat surface , on this map its divided into  sections (near the road where houses now are).

But there is a map online 1900 or so that shows the two bigger houses not built but land divided and a couple of structures no longer there (club house?).

https://www.archiuk.com/cgi-bin/build_nls_historic_map.pl?search_location=, Blackburn, Lancashire&latitude=53.738394&longitude=-2.486610

obviously pure guess work taking into account old maps , lay of the land etc and the old book mentioned in a previous post. Would also make sense having a cricket ground near a pub 🙂

A newspaper article from time mentions that the Preston player that sadly died , was carried into the Butlers Arms

Edited October 12, 2021 by perthblue02

[iani]

Sorry, there was no way football was played as far up as Sacred Heart school. There is no evidence, either historically or geographically to support it. On a map it looks feasible, as soon as you stand on where it has been claimed you would nope out, as would any sane referee!

Growing up on Granville terrace (as was) all the old codgers claimed the pitch was between Rovers Street (built post 1890 move to Ewood) and the Leamington Pub. It's flat enough and "a stones throw from the meadows" as the 1920s rovers history claims it to be. 

 

 

[StubbsUK]

The National Library of Scotland has just released some new geo-coded OS maps ... unfortunately the one that might or might not show the ground at Leamington Road is just off what they have released 😞

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.152241674182456&lat=53.75206&lon=-2.50313&layers=117746212&b=1

It's still a fascinating map otherwise.

[StubbsUK]

I came across thios map that the Germans had drawn up in preparation for Operation Sealion, the invasion of England, and it still shows East Lancs CC as Alexandra Meadows.

The map is from 1942, and the original is here along with a key for the purple bits which shiow textile mills, reservoirs and quarries in the map above.

[StubbsUK]

On 12/10/2021 at 07:24, perthblue02 said:

But there is a map online 1900 or so that shows the two bigger houses not built but land divided and a couple of structures no longer there (club house?).

Next time we have a really dry spell it would be fascinating to get a drone up in the air and see if the dry earth exposes the location of any old buildings or anything.