“On Saturday afternoon a football match was played at Church between members of the Rovers Club Blackburn and the Church Club. The ball was kicked off by the Blackburn captain at three o’clock and after some fine play lasting about 30 minutes a goal was scored by Birtwistle, of the Blackburn club. With a hard struggle the Church club succeeded in scoring the next goal and the game resulted in a tie”. Dec 18th 1875, the Blackburn Times. So, with that first example of football commentary the likes of John Motson and company were born and not much has changed in so far as football reviews and punditry go.
Blackburn has close ties to the cotton trade as does most of Lancashire. This is mainly because Lancashire has a damp bleak atmosphere, and I am not just saying that because I was born a Yorkshire lad in York before moving south. Seriously though this dampness makes it easier to handle and spin cotton, hence all the mills in the area at the time. The abundance of mill workers also helped the game catch on quickly oop north. Southern clubs were deemed more aristocratic than their lower-class counterparts and football was seen as a lower-class pastime, and cricket was for the more gentlefolk. At a meeting on bonfire night 1875 in the St Leger Hotel on King William Street, two old boys of Shrewsbury School, John Lewis, and Arthur Constantine suggested starting up a football club to play under the rules of the Association. Seventeen people turned up, with most of these being old boys of Blackburn Grammar School. The fact these old school tie gents were educated and middle class played an important part in northern football as they were perfectly placed to get the most out of the business opportunities of the rapidly growing game. The club’s early green colours were soon replaced by the light blue quartered shirt due to the influence of the Cambridge educated members of the club.
Despite all this affluence and education or maybe because of it, the club still had no ground. Most of the finance came from the players themselves, chipping in for things like goalposts 8/10d = 44p and footballs 15/- = 75p, vital pieces of equipment if you want to play the game. They eventually got a ground that sounds more like some teenagers nickname than a football ground. Called Oozhead, it was as bad as it sounded so they didn’t stay long as the cow pit on the centre circle often got in the way. All interesting stuff I am sure you agree but let’s move on to the badge and thanks, to Derek Jones, Blackburn’s statistician, for some of the following.
The badge itself is made up of the club’s name. (PIC 1) Also in the roundel is the year in which the club was formed, and a red rose, the floral symbol of the county of Lancashire. The motto “ARTE ET LABORE” translates as, By Skill and Hard Work. This comes from Blackburn’s coat of arms. (PIC 2) The arms were granted to Blackburn in 1852. The black wave across the middle is the Black Burn that names the town. A Burn for those not in the know is a stream or brook. The white field represents the calico industry, and industry is almost always represented by bees, hence the expression “Busy as a bee”. The horn on the green chief shows the ancient royal forest and the fusils or diamonds are from the arms of the Lord of the manor at the time, Joseph Feilden. On the crest is a dove and olive branch common on Victorian Civic Arms as well as a symbol of peace and love man! The dove stands on a weaver’s shuttle which is symbolic of the many looms in the mills. The powers that be did not have to hold competitions or scratch their heads for long for the nickname as it is, wait for it, “The Rovers”. Blackburn plies their trade at the 31,367 capacity Ewood Park and has been since it opened in 1882. Blackburn’s rivals include Bolton, Preston, and both Manchester’s, but their most severe language is kept for any meetings with Burnley. For any more information on Blackburn Rovers then get on the shuttle and spin your way to www.rovers.co.uk
