Plaque for comedian Bishop set to complete heritage trail
● ● TOP comedian John Bishop is to be honoured in his hometown with a blue plaque at his former school in what could be a heritage campaigner’s final and crowning achievement on his trail of mementoes.
The emblem, which will feature facts about the comic’s life, is due to be installed at Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in May.
John attended Brookvale Comprehensive as a boy and lived nearby, where he grew up with his brother Eddie who would later play football for teams including Runcorn and Tranmere.
Stu Allen, the heritage campaigner who founded the blue history trail in January 2015, said John’s plaque is likely to be the last, at least for now, but will cap off his efforts by honouring the hugely popular comedian who he believes, along with writer Hall Caine, is ‘probably the most famous person ever to be associated with Runcorn’.
Over the last two years Stu has given history buffs and visitors to Runcorn something to think about and the chance to learn about the town’s great and good by fixing more than 20 plaques in place covering places and industries as well as people.
He said John was ‘just too big a personality to ignore’, adding that he wanted to celebrate his charity feats and fundraising.
Stu also alluded to the roots of John’s everyman appeal and his links with the town and its residents.
He said: “Like myself, John was a child of the New Town, and we both moved to Runcorn with our families in 1977, although John’s family lived in Winsford for a while before moving here.
“Similar to many families from Liverpool at that time, we moved out to the new towns such as Runcorn and Warrington, designated as new towns in 1964 and 1968 respectively, attracted by the promises of a ‘better life’ than the lives we had been living in Liverpool up until then.
“Personally, I find John Bishop to be a very funny guy.
“His joke about the planning of Runcorn New Town is so funny and so true that it is slowly becoming part of our folklore.
“This has been one of the most enjoyable plaques to produce because for the past couple of months I have been immersing myself in everything connected with John Bishop, including watching lots of video clips and shows, reading interviews etc.
“I have nearly finished writing the text for the plaque and we are going to hang it at John’s former school Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy, which was called Brookvale Comprehensive School when John was there.
Stu added: “Perhaps The Runcorn & District Historical Society might have a few surprises up our sleeve for the unveiling.”