Preston Venue 32 – Plungington Hotel

Picture the scene if you will, midnight on a sweltering summers evening in 1985, two scrawny callow 17-year-olds on Lytham Road in Preston are throwing a tennis ball over a railway bridge, known locally as the danger bridge. When the ball did not reach its intended destination, the thrower would scramble up the hill to retrieve it, the issue being that this was the West Coast main line, the saviour being that the electrified third rail had not yet been introduced at this stage.

The punters in question were myself and a chap called John Monk who I knew from school and the reason for this activity was due to a skinful of ale supped at the nearby Plungington Hotel pub. I guess this hazardous game could be quantified in equal parts invincibility of youth and crass stupidity.

I recall on another night John and I undertaking another outing through the disused Miley tunnel which was part of the original Preston to Longridge route before the muppet Beeching culled all the lines in the 60’s. It ran from the Adelphi roundabout to Deepdale Road and walking through it most definitely not reminiscent of a scene from the Railway Children movie! There has been talk for years of building a tram network which would utilise that line, but methinks the proof will be in the pudding there.

As you progressed away from the Danger Bridge towards the pub, on the left for many years was Preston football legend Tom Finney’s plumbing firm which he ran for many years after his retirement in 1960. On the right is St Cuthbert’s church where I used to attend bonfire nights with treacle toffee and parched peas on sale. I also recall Jumble Sales there where I used to hunt down rare Roy of the Rovers comics.

At the next junction with Brook Street there was located for many years a sweet shop that I used to frequent when walking up to watch the match. It was a proper old-fashioned place where they would have scales to weigh the toffees and place them in the requisite white bags. You could purchase in 2oz portions, and my regular choices were chewing nuts, toffee bonbons (white ones) and midget (mini) gems though I was also sometimes partial to Blackcurrant and Liquorice, Rhubarb and Custard, Chocolate Eclairs and Pear Drops.

Beyond there you reach the roundabout and the intersection with Blackbull Lane and Plungington Road where the pub resides. On the far side of the roundabout is a bus stop where Dave Keane and I would catch buses back in the 80’s.

For a spell around then there were bus wars in Preston and one of the firms operating were Zippy buses and their chief selling point was that they would stop anywhere and operated some non-standard routes. This assisted us greatly as we had undertaken a mission at that stage to try and have a drink in every Preston pub. We achieved about 90% coverage but fell short on some of the outermost pubs as there was no public transport option and taxis were unfeasible due to our paltry finances!

The Plungy for many years was a traditional Matthew Brown brewery pub and is split into a lounge and a games room with pool table and two dart boards and has remained relatively unchanged. Outside there is a bowling green where Crown Green bowls are played, I had the privilege of playing on there once, the only time I have played the deceptively challenging game. There are viewing areas around the green and it is a proper sun trap area.

The Keane family clan who live nearby have been attending the pub for a Christmas Day dinner time drink for nigh on 40 years but 2020 put paid to that unbroken run, as it did to many other traditions and plans.

The establishment went through an extensive doldrums period and drugs issues prior to two brothers taking over the lease in 2009 and regenerating it. They spruced up the real ale choice, organised an annual gin festival which encompassed the bowling green area and introduced live bands. We visited on Easter Sunday 2010, and the place was jacked for the first time in decades and a noisy Preston indie covers band called Sydney Gumboots were playing in the lounge area.   

Around that time, they also used to have a decent jukebox where somewhat astonishingly I could find the Mogwai ‘Hunted by a Freak’ track so naturally I used to ensure that it received regular airplay much to the bemusement of the regulars!