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Jim Fox: Posted on 04 May 2012 16:27
“Johnny Haynes is a top
entertainer and will be paid as one from now on. I will give him £100 a week to
play at Fulham” – former Fulham Chairman and alleged comedian Tommy Trinder.
Area:lying just less
than four miles to the south west of central London, Fulham is what is usually
referred to as a “leafy” and “well-heeled” suburb where you will struggle to
find signs of the economic recession. Although it was once a predominantly
working class area, you’d need a lottery win now if you wanted to buy a garden
shed in this neighbourhood. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 20 April 2012 17:31
Baldwin thought Europe was a
bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.
Winston
Churchill
Town:the suburb of Aston
lies a couple of miles of miles to the north-east of Birmingham city centre and
is first mentioned in the Domesday Book, The area underwent significant
post-war redevelopment, the area to the south of the district to this day being
known as “Newtown”,
It is fair to say that the area might not be well known at all were it
not for the football club and the University of Aston which is not in Aston at
all.
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Jim Fox: Posted on 30 March 2012 16:26
City:Manchester became a city in 1853 powered by textile manufacture and, much as it
vies now with Birmingham for the title of Britain’s second city at least
economically, could also lay claim to be Britain’s most industrialised city.
With a
population made up of about one fifth of Greater Manchester’s 2.5 million, the
conurbation has significantly grown to all but blur the boundaries between
itself and neighbours Rochdale, Bury and Oldham.
Manchester’s
industrial and cosmopolitan heritage is visible today through the fine
Victorian architecture and Chinese and gay city centre enclaves. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 19 March 2012 17:11
“I read
the news today, oh boy. 4000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire”.
“A Day
in the Life”–
Lennon and McCartney
Town: it’s not Las Vegas, especially on a
Tuesday night. A traditional mill town in East Lancashire, Blackburn has a
population of just over 100,000. It has the feel of a smaller town than its
size and an identity distinct from its big neighbour Manchester which is 27
miles away.
Like many
such places which prospered in the industrial revolution, payback in recent
decades has been severe and evidence of economic decline is not hard to find. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 16 March 2012 10:59
"I have not come here to be
insulted by a set of wretches, every brick in whose infernal town is cemented
with an African's blood."
Actor George Frederick Cooke
(1756–1812) on being hissed when he came on stage drunk during a visit to
Liverpool.
District: about three miles north of the city centre, Everton
is bordered by Walton, Vauxhall, Kirkdale and Anfield and has around 8000
residents. Even in a city noted for
economic problems, this area bears the scars of deprivation and decline for
which no amount of expenditure on the city centre can compensate. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 02 March 2012 15:40
City: perhaps the perfect candidate for the
legendary neutron bomb as a device which would remove the odious inhabitants
but leave the fine architecture intact could only be a blessing. Could there be
any greater contrast than that between the graceful streets of Grainger Town
and the zombie like mutants, shrieking clones ofThe Fat Slagsand
walking barcodes which infest them?
The hubris
which envelops the entire place was well illustrated by its recent bizarre
adoption of the concatenated title “Newcastlegateshead” whereby anything good
about Gateshead e. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 24 February 2012 13:26
“I would rather
spend a holiday in Tuscany than in the Black Country, but if I were compelled
to choose between living in West Bromwich or Florence, I would make straight
for West Bromwich.” – the clearly deranged J.B. Priestley (no offence).
Town: like
many places in the seemingly ever expanding “Greater Birmingham” conurbation,
West Bromwich can appear to be a mere suburb but would fiercely argue the case
for its own distinct Black Country identity.
Administratively housed in the Borough of
Sandwell, the town lies five miles to the north and west of Birmingham with a
population of around 140,000. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 07 February 2012 14:09
Town: despite being relocated in the fictional county of Cleveland in 1974, Middlesbrough is actually in North Yorkshire which goes a long way to explaining why, despite its significance to Boro, it will never be a derby game to Sunderland. The population is around 150,000 and there has been a settlement here since about the eighth century. The present conurbation, however, dates from the early 1800s and grew at a rapid pace in that century as first the port developed for coal transportation followed by the “Ironopolis” boom era as iron and steel, chemical works and shipbuilding grew exponentially. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 03 February 2012 18:09
On the Road: Stoke “Let's get out of here Bill, there's six Stoke fans staring right at us” – The Football Factory by John King City:granted city status in 1925, what we know as Stoke on Trent is a federation of the famous “five towns” (Stoke; Hanley; Longton; Burslem and Tunstall) or six if you include Fenton. With a population of a little under 250,000, the town of Hanley is the commercial hub although the main line railway station and administrative centre is Stoke. |
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Dr Jim Fox: Posted on 13 January 2012 16:31
Town: The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is, of course, frightfully posh and expensive. You wouldn’t want to be buying, or renting, a property around these parts. It started life as a hunting area for multiple marriage monarch Henry the Eighth but became best known for its bohemian residents, attracting predominantly artists, musicians and eccentrics. In the sixties and seventies, the area became painfully trendy, its pretentiousness brilliantly satirised in Elvis Costello’s |
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Doctor Jim Fox: Posted on 06 January 2012 15:15
Doctor Fox is back again today with yet another installment of 'On The Road' - what he doesn't know about Sunderland away trips isn't worth knowing. Like many other Sunderland fans, the Seventy3' team will be in Peterborough with a few hours to spare before kick off, so this guide will help us stay interested (and find a decent boozer or two). City:
Perhaps unfairly, Peterborough may be best known for being where you stop when you’re on the train to and from London. There is, you’ll be glad to know, a little more to it than that. |
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Dr Jim Fox: Posted on 02 January 2012 14:09
After a long christmas break, our bloggers are back! Dr Fox gives you a snippet of his well-honed knowledge, this time giving you the whats-what on the trip to Wigan tomorrow!
WiganTown: situated 16 miles
north-west of Manchester, Wigan has a population in excess of 80000. Greater
Manchester it may be but the town, like its neighbour Bolton, is independent
and proud of its own identity.
Having supported the wrong i.e. Royalist side
during the English Civil War, Wigan, like the rest of the area, enjoyed a boom
in prosperity and surge in population during the industrial revolution as the
mills and mines thrived. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 20 December 2011 17:04
Heading off to QPR tomorrow night? Jim Fox has been millions of times before and knows absolutely everything so if you need advice on where to go for a drink, a little bit about the area or what kind of reception to expect from the locals then look no further! Jim on his way to Loftus Road with his trusty horned house pets. Town: it’s not and it’s not Queen’s Park, either. Located in the W12 postcode district of London, Shepherd’s Bush is in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham approximately 5 miles from the West End. |
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Dr Jim Fox: Posted on 02 December 2011 12:42
Another away day is upon us and our man on the road, Dr Jim Fox, has all the knowledge needed to see you do alright when in the glorious town of Wolverhampton.... Dr Fox went to extreme lengths to get to Wolves last year. Town: well it’s not. It was granted city status in 2000 and with a population of around 250,000 is the thirteenth most populous city in the UK. Having lived in the West Midlands, it has a distinct identity to me but, to the match day visitor, may merge into the ever-expanding Birmingham metropolis in the same way as Black Country rivals West Bromwich. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 04 November 2011 13:04
Doctor Jim Fox has been following the lads for years and years and rarely misses a game so it is natural that we turn to him to share his knowledge on what to expect on your arrival at Manchester tomorrow. Jim "was there" on many occasions over the years - if owt, he knows all the good pubs all over the country so take his advice when heading for a pre match pint. Jim Fox on his way to Old Trafford last season. City:Manchester became a city in 1853 powered by textile manufacture and, much as it vies now with Birmingham for the title of Britain’s second city at least economically, could also lay claim to be Britain’s most industrialised city. |
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Jim Fox: Posted on 21 October 2011 11:07
Our roaming reporter, Dr Jim Fox, knows his stuff having followed Sunderland home and away since the dawn of time. Town:firstly, it may be “Greater Manchester” but don’t upset the locals by describing it as such. Bolton has its own distinct identity and the residents resent being treated as a suburb of either of the “noisy neighbours”. The independent streak was best demonstrated during the English Civil War when the town of Bolton was a parliamentarian stronghold within a royalist enclave leading, eventually, to the town being besieged by bloodthirsty cavaliers and thousands of locals being massacred. |
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