COMEDIAN Lee Mack has appealed for information about the old sign at the entrance to the pub he grew up in.

Lee’s parents ran the old Centurion pub off Higher Croft Road, Blackburn, when he was a youngster.

It was demolished after being severely damaged by an arson attack in 2006 and the site looks set to be built on after the council approved a planning application.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has given the go-ahead to plans for 14 homes on the site which had been a wasteland since the demolition.

But the nostalgic comedian, whose real name is Lee Gordon McKillop, said he would love to trace the historic sign.

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, he said: “I went back about six years ago and it was flattened completely.

“It would be nice to visit the site again before they do build on it. There was an old sign on the road at the entrance to the pub and I would love to trace it.

“If anyone knows where it is I would really like to buy it from them.” Lee, a keen Blackburn Rovers fan, said he had very fond memories of the pub.

He said: “My dad had a pub in Rochdale and he was offered the Centurion when it had just been built in 1979 and we were there for about three years.

“I like to go back and see the old places when I am touring up north and I have happy memories of that time.”

Lee, who went to the now demolished Everton High School, joked that there would be nowhere left in the town for him to have a blue plaque. He said: “When people get famous then people start thinking about where the blue plaque could go.

“But the pub was demolished, the school was and I went to look at my dad’s old house in Rockcliffe Street and that was demolished as well!”

Ochre Building Design Ltd has been granted permission to build the mix of three and four-bedroom houses.

The houses would be built in a circular plan with a turning circle in the middle.

Higher Croft councillor Andy Kay welcomed the plans.

He said: “To bring it back into use will be really good. It has been pretty much left since they demolished the Centurion pub. What they plan to do sounds very nice and I look forward to seeing it.”