WHEN was the last time you wrapped yourself around a pint or a glass of wine down at your local? Last night? A couple of days ago? Or, more likely, months back?
The local, as one of the centres of the community, seems to have had its day. And more's the pity.
A night out in the pub or the club with the wife or girlfriend or to meet a few mates was a ritual for many of us not long ago.
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There was generally something going on amid the smoky haze.
A darts match, a quiz, an artiste, some charity "do", friendly banter, heated debate; very occasionally a flying bottle.
It's a lot different these days. How many pubs - and clubs - have closed in Darwen in the past few years?
Some have been bulldozed; others lie empty, two or three have become restaurants or houses, one or two others are on their last legs.
Remember the Vale in the Grimshaw Street dip? How about the Rising Sun and the Horseshoe down t' bottom end.
Can anyone remember the Foundry? And what was that Lion pub called on the Chapels hill?
The Top Con was at the heart of the local community till it closed a few years ago.
But the heart just wasn't beating strongly enough and it couldn't afford to carry on losing money like so many.
I've had a jar in them all over the years. And in a lot more.
But, apart from the Albion of happy and decadent memory, the closure for the past few months of Uncle Jack's pub in the centre of Lower Darwen had saddened me most.
Empty and forlorn with a boarded up front window; dusty and fly-blown with peeling paint and rotting wood.
I don't know what Jack Walker would have made of the state of the pub that carries his name.
But I know what former landlord Jim Hughes thinks about it.
I asked him - almost as soon as he arrived back in Darwen from his holiday home in Cyprus.
Jim got Walker's permission to rename the Swan after him.
He ran it for more than 13 years with his partner Eileen till a couple of years ago. On match days at Ewood it was heaving.
Jim wasn't everybody's favourite uncle. He's hard and calls it as he sees it.
His great love was, and still is, horse racing and some of the top players used to call in, among them jockey Jimmy Fortune and trainer Kevin Ryan, who won well over 20 races for him.
I remember trainer Steve Kettlewell calling in one lunchtime with money which Jim had won on his chaser Good Hand up at Ayr the previous afternoon, but that's a story for another day.
"It's a crying shame," said Jim as he looked at his old haunt.
I'd like to say there was a tear in his eye. But anybody who knows him just wouldn't believe it.
Posted by: Max Taylor, Barrow-in-Furness on 8:24pm Sun 16 Dec 07
Interesting stuff from Harry Nuttall on closed pubs and clubs.
This has been going on really since about 1956, when pubs and clubs were shut due to redevelopment.
As a retired brewery staff member, both Tied and Free Trade, I put this down to either removal of peoples lives, going out of town for either work or retirement. Long past are the days when whole families went together to their local as a unit, and gained their own pleasure together by music or games.
Well, what of the future ? Firstly, call a halt to the strong smell of food at all opening times, which wafts both inside and outside the pubs. Secondly, put a stop to pub staff forcefully thrusting the food menu and asking you, insisting that you select food before you have even got anywhere near the bar to order a drink !!
Thirdly, lobby your local MP to restore smoking in pubs to the few who do not sell food. To hell with smoking tents in the back yards !!
So who's pubs are still full most of the day ? Oh Yes, and there are plenty.
Joseph Holts are the obvious choice, price per pint £1-52p. In
Clubs, roughly £1-21p to c.£1-35p for a 4% Bitter. No Food, Food or Fol-de-Rols here! Might be a piano player on a Saturday Nights in a few spots here and there.
Many other Local breweries have reasonable prices....
Bank Top, Bolton, Moorhouses,Burnley,
JW Lees, Hydes Anvil,
Porters, Haslingden, to name but a few. Have a look on the web for many other local breweries, who will only be too keen to quote to to these reasonable prices.
No need to even think of closing Highfield Social whatsoever. Simply transfer your mortgage to a National or Commercial Bank at low interest rates, then you'll have local breweries "tumbling over themselves" to supply them with good, reasonably priced beer to sell at most reasonable prices. Their members and new ones will be "tumbling over themselves" to return to the club
Good Luck. . . .
Max Taylor
Interesting stuff from Harry Nuttall on closed pubs and clubs.
This has been going on really since about 1956, when pubs and clubs were shut due to redevelopment.
As a retired brewery staff member, both Tied and Free Trade, I put this down to either removal of peoples lives, going out of town for either work or retirement. Long past are the days when whole families went together to their local as a unit, and gained their own pleasure together by music or games.
Well, what of the future ? Firstly, call a halt to the strong smell of food at all opening times, which wafts both inside and outside the pubs. Secondly, put a stop to pub staff forcefully thrusting the food menu and asking you, insisting that you select food before you have even got anywhere near the bar to order a drink !!
Thirdly, lobby your local MP to restore smoking in pubs to the few who do not sell food. To hell with smoking tents in the back yards !!
So who's pubs are still full most of the day ? Oh Yes, and there are plenty.
Joseph Holts are the obvious choice, price per pint £1-52p. In
Clubs, roughly £1-21p to c.£1-35p for a 4% Bitter. No Food, Food or Fol-de-Rols here! Might be a piano player on a Saturday Nights in a few spots here and there.
Many other Local breweries have reasonable prices....
Bank Top, Bolton, Moorhouses,Burnley,
JW Lees, Hydes Anvil,
Porters, Haslingden, to name but a few. Have a look on the web for many other local breweries, who will only be too keen to quote to to these reasonable prices.
No need to even think of closing Highfield Social whatsoever. Simply transfer your mortgage to a National or Commercial Bank at low interest rates, then you'll have local breweries "tumbling over themselves" to supply them with good, reasonably priced beer to sell at most reasonable prices. Their members and new ones will be "tumbling over themselves" to return to the club
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