MARCH OF THE MODS

Brigg has become something of a hub for scooter fans this summmer, with the White Horse, on Wrawby Street, a regular meeting place for members of enthusiasts' clubs, as this picture from the summer demonstrates.
Tonight (Wednesday) sees their end-of-season 'ride out' at the hostelry from 6.30pm.
"All are welcome to come along and view the scoots one last time this year," said spokesman Darren Palmby. "All of the scunthorpe clubs will be attending as well. There will hopefully be a good turnout and give the landlord some well-earned extra cash."
I understand presentations will be made during the evening, and we hope the organisers will send some pictures we can use on www.thisisbrigg.co.uk and in the Scunthorpe Telegraph.
You can read more about these scooter fans adopting Brigg in the Telegraph's Motor Biking Bygones special publication I'm currently compiling. It hits the streets on November 8, priced 75p.

THROWING DISCUSSION OPEN TO THE FLOOR

Brigg councillors rolled out the blue carpet, rather than the red one, at a meeting in the Angel Suite. Half-a-dozen carpet samples were laid out in the foyer so councillors could chose the two they preferred. The firms which supplied them will now be asked to submit quotes.
Replacement carpet in the foyer will be paid for by the council’s insurers, after the old one was damaged by flooding.
The carpet selection process – overseen by town clerk Jeanette Woollard and her assistant Alison Hannath – made a very unusual interlude in the monthly meeting of the property and services committee.
Even those of us who've been attending council meetings for donkey's years had never been involved in anything quite like this.

SPARKS FLY

The length of time being taken to restore the electricity supply to Brigg recreation ground, off Wrawby Road, is concerning Coun Tom Glossop.
He told fellow councillors at their monthly meeting it was some weeks since a car had been ‘rammed into the transformer’ nearby and cut off the supply to the sports ground.
"The problem seems not to be with North Lincolnshire Council and their officers but Yorkshire Electricity seem to have been very slow in getting repairs done," he said.
The power supply was still cut off while the recreation ground underwent an official inspection by the Lincolnshire County Cricket League which the Brigg Town club, unsuccessfully, tried to rejoin.
Many of us in the town who are, or who have been, involved in local sport, reckon the rec ground is under-resourced and a facility badly in need of developing.
The trouble is, of course, the town council - created in 1974 - rather washed its hands of the ground and it passed, by default, to the new Glanford Borough Council.
With other town and parish councils looking after, and funding, their own playing fields, members of the Glanford authority did not see why the borough should pay for Brigg's - and that was a very fair point.
Ever since, Brigg sportsmen, and women, have suffered for that decision.

HOPEFULLY NOT LAST ORDERS

Lots of Brigg people will be sad to see the Brocklesby Ox, in Bridge Street, boarded up and no longer welcoming drinkers and diners.
The pub is now on the market, and hopefully it won't be too long before the shutters come down and the bar reopens.
The 'Brock Ox' has its own atmosphere and attacted its own regulars who will now have to find new watering holes, or just drink a few cans at home instead.
It's one of Brigg's historic buildings and deserves better than being boarded up.
Maybe it was hindsight but, having spotted the For Sale sign, I took this picture just a few days before the brewery pulled the plug.

SQUARE PEG, ROUND HOLE?

I've never quite seen the point of keeping this public footpath open, linking Yarborough Road with Churchill Avenue.
Brigg Town Council mounted a determined campaign, some years ago, and won the day at a public inquiry when the footpath seemed destined to close.
It is very, very narrow and squeezed between the back gardens of houses. The only view to 'enjoy' is high fences either side. And conditions underfoot are poor.
It's far more pleasant to walk along either St James' Road or O'Hanlon Avenue, rather than use this footpath. The difference in distance is minimal, and you will keep your shoes clean!
True, ramblers can be seen, from time to time, walking the footpath. But how many non-ramblers actually use it?
Perhaps the survival of this walkway is down to a bit of Brigg history. In the dim, distant past - long before the current houses were constructed - it was known as Clothes Hedge Path. Housewives used to take their washing along and drape it on hedges to dry in the sun.
A very quaint story but you won't see any sheets, pillow cases, Y-fronts or ladies' bloomers there now!

OUR BEST BITS - YOU DECIDE

Brigg has now received the plaque to mark coming third in the annual best-kept town competition for the area. Town Mayor Coun Michael Doherty showed it to councillors at the monthly meeting of the town council. Independent judges visited our town to do the marking.
Obviously we've no idea of the judges' specific thoughts, or conclusions, but this topic set me thinking about a shortlist of Brigg's most attractive features.
How about?
1) River Ancholme, particularly the section down Cadney Road/Elwes Street, and on the Manley Gardens side.
2) Buttercross/Tourist Information Centre.
3) Pedestrianised area of Wrawby Street/College Yard/Chapel Court.
4) Copse off Station Road, behind the Prep School (don't suppose the best-kept town judges located that one!). We've pictured this above.
5) A18 approach to the town along tree-lined Wrawby Road.
6) 17th century part of Sir John Nelthorpe School (original grammar school building, as viewed from Grammar School Road.
7) The Monument, especially with its super display of flowers (in season).

Do you agree with my list? If not, think up your own and email it through.

BRINGING 'EM IN

Saturday will see the latest Brigg Farmers' Market in the town centre, from 9.30am until mid-afternoon, offering the chance to buy a wide range of produce straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
Some of us through this concept would be pretty short-lived in Brigg, given that the centuries-old general market is not exactly thriving. However, we have been proved wrong.
The monthly farmers' markets draw big numbers of folk to Brigg from a very wide area.
Although no figures are to hand, it's a fair bet some, perhaps many, of those who visit also pop in to one, or more, established Brigg shops while they are with us, or have a bite to eat, or a pint. It all helps the local economy.
But it's not just out-of-towners who frequent the farmers' markets. Brigg residents also visit in numbers to buy their Lincolnshire Poacher cheese, and other delicacies.
This reference to farming, and a glance at the latest Scunthorpe Telegraph Nostalgia magazine (now on sale), brought back happy memories of potato-picking days in the early 1970s.
Nostalgia carries an article from that period highlighting a shortage of potato-pickers in North Lincs during that period, particularly in the Isle of Axholme.
In Brigg, teenagers were picked up by Wrawby farmer Jack Day, or his sons, and rode in the back of a pick-up. (No-one ever suffered but 'health and safety' would outlaw it today, of course!)
We were taken to his fields, just outside the town, to pick the choice spuds. They went into hand-baskets and were then tipped into large wickerwork ones (presumably obtained second-hand from Grimsby, given the smell they had!).
The larger, and taller, boys were given the job of lifting the heavy wickerwork baskets into the trailer pulled by an old blue Fordson tractor, which then ferried them back to Tong's Farm, for storage.
Lifting the heavy baskets into the trailer needed to be done in a certain way, and not everyone could master it. It was not just a question of brute strength.
On very rare occasions we were allowed to steer the tractor along the field - you wouldn't call it driving. Just a case of trying to keep in a straight-ish line!
I think we got five bob an hour, back in about 1971/2, which wasn't bad going. The autumn 'season' might have lasted a month, perhaps less.
Girls and boys were in the picking teams; some took to it, some didn't.
For all who did it was very welcome money and paid for all the Christmas presents you needed to buy in the weeks ahead. Plus a few fireworks from Tierney's, in Wrawby Street.
On one of two occasions we also went to the other Day's farm - the one at Cadney. If memory serves me right, the land there made picking a bit more difficult than it was in Wrawby.
Anyone else out there remember their days 'picking' at Day's farm?

'DISCO DAVE'

Scores of residents will recognise the face but will not know the full name of this Brigg character.
To many he is just Dave; to some, Disco Dave; to others, Trigger.
Actually, he's David Gregory, a well-known and well-liked character, who has long connections with Birch House, in Grammar School Road.
He can often be seen 'supervising' the town's firefighters, helping in shops and on market stalls, as well as assisting to clear glasses away in many local hostelries in the evening for his favourite tipple, a pint of orange squash.
Dave is a fund of knowledge about what's going on in the town. So now, at last, many readers will know a bit more about him...including his surname!
Our thanks to Ken 'Whistleblower' Harrison for the picture.

LET'S GET IT SORTED!

Government and councillors keep urging us to make greater use of public transport. And that's a very praiseworthy aim.
But if you travel from Brigg this is not so easy. For vital information about when the buses run is nowhere to be found at the main bus stop in Cary Lane.
There's no sign of any timetables in the glass-fronted display boards on the lamp standards. But, more to the point, North Lincolnshire Council's modern, computer-controlled on-screen information point has been blank for weeks.
It currently displays a message: "Keyboard error - Make sure your keyboard is correctly plugged into your machine."
On the face of it, that does not seem too difficult a task to rectify.
But no-one seems to be bothered to get it up and running.
There have been repeated problems with this on-screen Traveline information facility since its installation in the bus shelter on Cary Lane.
It carries the Traveline North Lincolnshire Council motif, so we know where this problem rests.
How about someone in the council offices plugging in the keyboard and testing the system is operating correctly, then going down to Cary Lane with some bus timetables and putting them into the display cases?
People will not use buses if they have no idea when the next one is coming along.

GET YOUR COPY

Tomorrow's Scunthorpe Telegraph includes Brigg Extra - a page of news and views about our town.
There's a major article about the campaign to get a regular passenger service on the Brigg line, an update on the latest planning applications in Brigg, a picture story on a Brigg charity's generous donation to help keep air ambulances operating. Plus lots more.
Don't miss Tuesday's Scunthorpe Telegraph.

HIDDEN GEM

This piece of sculpture - outside Peacock and Binnington's Bridge Street premises - was commissioned to mark 100 years of mechanical advances in the agricultural industry. It's a fine piece of work but is not glimpsed by as many people as it should be. That's because motorists driving along the nearby A18 will have their eyes fixed to the road as they prepare to take a bend, and also because shrubbery rather masks the piece of industrial art if you approach it from the direction of the River Ancholme. There's a plaque on the base, explaining more about the sculpture. Peacock's, as locals call the firm, has been serving the local farming community for more than a century now.

PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY

I can't be the only Brigg motorist who fears for the safety of some of the pensioners who use those little motorised scooters on our town roads. Not all keep to the correct side of the road. And, in any case, wouldn't they be safer on the footpaths, where they are wide enough?
Please keep an eye out for them on our roads, and give them sufficient room.

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

A quiet Sunday morning with the autumn sun reflecting off the Old River Ancholme in the centre of Brigg. The river is popular with anglers. And in decades gone by they used to arrive by the busload and even trainload from places like Sheffield. Some 'Yorkies' even enjoyed spending a week's holiday in Brigg, bringing welcome trade to hostelries in Wrawby Street.

If you have any nice pictures of Brigg - current, recent or historic - please email them to nigel.fisher@gsmg.co.uk and we'll be happy to consider them for use within Brigg Blog or in Brigg Extra or one of the Scunthorpe Telegraph's Nostalgia publications. Please supply as much detail as you can by way of caption.

MOVE WITH THE TIMES

Here's a suggestion which might help ease traffic congestion along the A18 in Brigg - on and around Barnard Avenue.
It's needed because however the council adjusts the two sets of traffic lights, the sheer volume of traffic - and the number of streets feeding Barnard Avenue, plus Tesco's entrance/exit - means hold-ups.
How about stopping motorists from turning right when exiting Cary Lane and Ash Grove? The traffic lights could then be taken out of use, with motorists going to the Tesco roundabout or The Monument to turn round.
A bit of an inconvenience for the drives concerned, but taking one set of traffic lights out of the picture should then improve traffic flows along Barnard Avenue.
What do you think?

ODD JOB

Brigg town clerk Jeanette Woollard has so many varied duties it would be hard to pen a suitable job description. However, the latest set of town council accounts throw up something new, even for her.
Under the heading Accounts for Payment is the entry:
Mrs J M Woollard - refund purchase of rat poison, £48, plus VAT £8.40.
Just to explain, the council runs allotments in the town and vermin have been proving something of a problem.
Jeanette won't be expected to do any more than purchase the poison!

COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS

One of the clearest signs in Brigg that Christmas is coming is not the goose is getting fat, but the fact Brian's DIY has opened up its Christmas Shop in Grammar School Road South, selling all manner of toys, decorations and the like.
It's now quite an established feature of the town, complementing Brian's main shop, just round the corner in Wrawby Street, where the renowned personal service means you can still buy screws, nails or fittings individually, rather than having to purchase an entire packet of the things.
Remember the famous hardware shop sketch from the Two Ronnies, well I bet Brian and his team could find you some 'Os' to go in the house sign Mon Repose. And fork handles, or four candles, will not be beyond them.
Not sure if they are in competition but Brigg Christmas Land - at the Garden Centre on Bigby High Road - has been drawing the crowds for some weeks. There are yellow signs directing people on the approach roads to the town. And they are turning up in great numbers - from far and wide.
Now Brigg folk - young and not so young - can start counting down to the switching on of the town centre Christmas lights, after which the big day will be only three weeks away.
Yo! Ho! Ho!

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

Only a tiny proportion of Brigg residents have ever attended a meeting of our town council. But if you are curious to see local democracy in action, and have an hour or so to spare, another opportunity is coming along on Monday when the council holds its monthly meeting in the Angel Suite, off Market Place, at 7.30pm.
Members of the public can raise matters of interest, but it's a facility which is rarely used. They are also welcome to sit and listen to issues of interest being discussed and debated by their elected representatives.
On Monday, town councillors are 'to further consider the decision by North Lincolnshire Council to remove the two-hour free parking concession in Brigg, including:

• The outcome of the public meeting
• Determining any further action to be taken by the town council, including the presentation of the petition.

Other items on the agenda include:

• Police matters
• An update on the 3Bs Street Project helping youngsters in Brigg, Barnetby and Broughton
• Consideration of North Lincolnshire Council's map outlining where housing and industry might be allowed in Brigg in the future.

Maybe I'll see you there....

ALL CONKERING

Brigg residents who can boast conker, or horse chestnut, trees on their properties have a much more peaceful existence than they would have had 30 or 40 years ago.
Walking past one such tree on St Helen's Road the other day, and seeing fallen conkers on the path, brought back happy memories of games fought out in the playground at the old Glebe Road School, back in the 1960s.
The favoured spot to collect conkers were then both on Wrawby Road - near the Cemetery Lodge, and at St Helen's, the large detached house with the very long drive, almost over the border into Wrawby.
Back then the owners of both must have been sick and tired, each autumn, of being visited by noisy groups of children, some of whom resorted to throwing sticks and stones in an effort to dislodge the conkers...or (in a few cases) even resorted to climbing the trees!
Once the conkers were obtained - by whatever means - some players liked to soak them in vinegar and 'bake' them in the oven. (Advisable to wait till Mum was out!).
This was designed to make them harder, and super-competitive in our playground games.
The conkers would have holes pushed through them with a meat skewer and then strung up with bootlaces, prior to combat commencing.
Each game a conker won would add one to it credit rating - a bit like Battle of Britain pilots recording their 'kills' on the side of Spitfires and Hurricanes.
Conkers were rated in 'ers'. So a handful of successes made it a six-er.
Discarded and damaged conkers littered the playground, and many Brigg streets, for several weeks during the all-too-brief season.
It was good, cheap, and generally clean, fun.
The other day, a national newspaper carried a large picture of youngsters playing conkers 2007 style. 'Health and safety' has become involved and they were sporting safety goggles in their school playground, as they took aim.
What would 'health and safety' have made of Brigg lads in the 1960s climbing these very tall trees to knock conkers down to the ground?
To use a modern phrase....Don't go there!

NOT A BARD PLACE TO STUDY

Shakespeare famously penned lines about a schoolboy making his way ever so slowly to school (funny how flashes of days at Brigg Grammar come to mind every so often!).
Well, the Grimsby Institute coach leaves from Cary Lane before 7am on weekdays - making it an early, and leisurely, ride to college for students from our town who are seeking qualifications at this impressive seat of learning more than 20 miles away.
No doubt the journey gives them the chance to catch up on homework. Or is that not something college students do?

LIGHT YEARS AHEAD

Today, breaking stories in Brigg can be uploaded to http://www.thisisbrigg.co.uk/ within a couple of minutes.
That's a far cry from the way things used to be got ready for publication on the old Lincolnshire and South Humberside Times weekly paper, whose editorial offices were at 57 Wrawby Street, Brigg.
In the days before computers came in, reporters banged out their copy using two fingers on typewriters, and the stories and prints (pictures) were put in a packet to be sent to the Hull Daily Mail works in the city for typesetting and printing on the glorious old press.
By 1980 the system of getting the copy to Hull in the evening involved driving to Barnetby and leaving the packet in a wooden box, outside the booking office.
Next morning the porter, Reg, would unlock the box, taken out the parcel and put it on a train heading for Grimsby. It would be taken off at Habrough and handed to the guard of the next train heading from Cleethorpes along the Barton branch.
At New Holland Pier station the packet would be taken off the train and passed on to a responsible member of staff on the Humber Ferry, who would hand it in at the jetty in Hull.
Meanwhile, the 'copy boy' - lowest-ranking person in the editorial department on the Hull Daily Mail - would be sent from Jameson Street HQ on a short walk to the ferry terminal to collect the packet.
Compare that with today's lighting fast communication systems, And remember, the old Lincs Times - loved and cherish as it was until its demise in 1985 - published only once a week.
These days, one of my most popular anecdotes about old days on the Lincs Times refers to the infamous Wednesday when a young reporter (not me!) was sent by car from Brigg with urgent news to be taken direct to New Holland.
He was running late, and on arrival at the end of the Pier saw the ferry moving off. "Throw it, mate!" instructed the ferryman. The reporter did so but a gust of wind got hold of the precious copy packet and it started floating its way down river.
Carbon copies were always kept of stories....just in case.
But having to dictate everything over the phone to copy-typists in Hull was a very slow business indeed.

If you want to read a little more about life on the Lincs Times, visit

www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/bygones/2005/08aug/050824linc.shtml

TOUCH OF (SUB) CULTURE

Many motorists driving into Brigg, along Wrawby Road, will have been surprised to glimpse this sign, not far from the entrance to the school. Frazer Melton is one of those eagle-eyed drivers and says: "I can't decide if it means 'Warning (there are) no Chavs' or 'Chavs keep out'. Could this be part of the new highway code? In no way are we condoning mistreatment of road signs, which serve an important function, but it has made some folk chuckle! Our thanks go to
Joe Coleman for the picture.

For those who may not be familiar with a recent addition to the English language, a Chav is defined as a sub-cultural sterotype fixated with fashions involving imitation gold, poorly-made jewellery and designer clothing, combined with elements of working class British street fashion.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The road at Brigg level crossing - on Bigby Road - will be closed from 10pm on Tuesday (Oct 16) until 6am Wednesday. Diversions will be in place via Kettleby Lane, Wrawby.

DON'T MISS TUESDAY'S TELEGRAPH

See the Brigg Extra page in Tuesday's Scunthorpe Telegraph to discover which parts of the town are being put forward for housing development in the years ahead. There are a few surprises. And you've only got until mid-November if you wish to make comments to North Lincolnshire Council on what's being proposed.

We also tell the story of several Brigg streets where the lights burned all day and night for several months, despite the matter being reported to the powers-that-be on a number of occasions.

Plus lots more!

So make sure you snap up a copy of Tuesday's Scunthorpe Telegraph.

GET OUT OF THE ROAD

The number of vehicles to be found within the pedestrianised town centre, but without lawful excuse to be there, is annoying. This area is supposed to be traffic-free, but many residents will be familiar with walking down Wrawby Street and having to get out of the way to let a vehicle inch past.
Delivery of supplies to businesses is one thing - that's essential and the town centre community could not function without them; using the pedestrianised streets as a shortcut, or to get to cashpoint machines, is quite another.
Brigg police now have community support officers out on the streets. So hopefully they will stop and speak to drivers not making deliveries. Driving into the pedestrian area is not a major offence by any means, but surely it needs enforcing.
Once word gets round the police are taking action, and a few uncaring motorists end up in court, it will become much less of a problem. CCTV cameras also scan the pedestrianised streets, so how about utilising that footage?
Removal of the two hours free parking concession, from November 5, will not help; people will be more tempted to drive into the pedestrian-only area, now they face having to pay to park in Old Courts Road.
No doubt the powers-that-be will be more efficent 'nicking' motorists who do not pay and display after November 5 than they are in dealing with drivers who venture into Wrawby Street and the Market Place.

SEAT OF POWER

When a green wooden public seat was removed from Bigby Road, residents thought it was just going away for much-needed repairs. But that was a long, long time ago and it has never re-appeared. Can the council please let us know what's going on? Has it been dumped somewhere in a depot and forgotten about? If it was beyond repair, how about a replacement? There's a lot more 'pedestrian traffic' on Bigby Road now, with Brigg Garden Centre being so popular. And a public seat in this location, near the junction with King's Avenue, would be a welcome place to sit and take a breather, especially for those getting on in years.

LAST CALL

Few people will have noticed but the public telephone box at the corner of King's Avenue and Bigby Road has been removed.
In today's era of mobile phones, email and text messaging, the old phone boxes, which have served communities like ours so well, are getting less and less use. So it's no great surprise when the plug is pulled.
Sources suggest Brigg Town Council was not informed the King's Avenue facility was being removed. If they had been it's hard to think of any valid reasons to object, other than the box could be used in a 999 situation, perhaps to summon an ambulance or fire engine.
In decades gone by, telephone boxes in Brigg got so much use that queues used to form outside them. And Brigg folk use to tap on the window - not always politely - to ask whether the current caller was going to be much longer.
In the days before house phones became the norm - never mind mobiles - public call boxes in Brigg helped summon assistance from the town fire brigade for chimney blazes, and ambulances for mums-to-be.
The boxes also became popular meeting places, particularly for teenagers.
As with all facilities, it's a case of use it or lose it. So, if the public phone box near your stands idle for most of the day, don't be surprised if the men arrive in their van one day and take it away.

FINE SPORTSMAN AND FAMILY MAN

Many Brigg residents will be sad to hear Fred Marris has died, aged 88.
A long-standing resident of our town, Fred was one of the best cricketers produced by Brigg Grammar School, his achievements being chronicled in issues of the school magazine.
At club level he turned out, with great success, as a batsman for Elsham, when that small village could boast one of the top teams in the area.
Towards the end of his long career he played for Brigg Sugar Factory - another club now sadly no longer on the scene.
Fred also played hockey for Brigg, and bowls.
He was a devoted family man.
A funeral service will be held on Friday, October 19 at Woodlands, Scunthorpe, at 1pm.

YOUNG AT HEART

Brigg used to have its own careers convention, staged at various times in the Corn Exchange, Angel Hotel ballroom and leisure centre sports hall. It gave local secondary schools pupils, and their parents, the chance to chat to experts from industry, business, further education and the forces, to name but a few. A few years ago the decision was taken - at very high level - to hold a huge area-wide careers convention at the Corus works offices in Scunthorpe, rather than hold a number of small ones, like the one in Brigg. These days, with the growth of the internet, information is much more readily available to youngsters than it once was. However, there's a lot to be said for a good, old-fashioned face-to-face chat with someone who actually does a job, day in and day out. Winterton Comprehensive School is one of the few to keep faith with the traditional careers convention, holding its latest one yesterday.

ICING ON THE CAKE

Brigg Town Cricket Club had a fine summer, winning the Lincoln Saturday League Cup and finishing joint league champions.
There were also some fine individual performances, notably by club secretary Jack Richards who finished second in the league bowling averages.
Robert Todd (pictured) was third in the batting averages, and Lee Fielden fourth.
To view all the league averages, and discover other Brigg players who performed with distinction during the season, visit http://www.lincolncricket.com/index.html

WHAT'S PLANNED?

The Sale Agreed signs have been up on the former health building on Bigby Road, near The Monument, for some time.
It's an imposing detached property, with outbuildings and car parking, and should fetch a tidy sum, being in a prominent location.
Many Brigg folk will be keen to see who has bought it and what they plan to do with it.
For many years it housed one of the town's doctors' surgeries; later providing office accommodation.

N-ICE TO SEE

Newell's deli, in Wrawby Street, currently displays a sign in the window announcing the sale of Sargent's ice cream on the premises.
That name will bring great memories flooding back for Brigg residents who were children in the town in the 1960s and 1970s. What a treat it was when mum dipped into her purse and produced enough for a threepenny cornet, or even a tub of Sargent's finest.
Their cream-coloured van - old even in those days - used to tour the council estates, with the driver/server ringing an old handbell. The result was a bit like the story of the Pied Piper, with children leaving houses at high speed.
Later, Mr Softie and Mr Whippy came on the scene. And you have to be careful repeating their names these days on the internet, for fear of attracting the wrong sort of visitors to your site!
The ice cream sold by Messrs Whippy and Softie was totally different to that of Sargent's, so they were not directly in competition.
Brigg was also visited by vans belonging to Scunthorpe firm Massarella.
Has anyone got any pictures of these ice cream vans visiting Brigg streets in the dim and distant past? Kindly email them to nigel.fisher@gsmg.co.uk

UNSUNG HERO

There are many people working hard behing the scenes in Brigg - some on a voluntary basis and others in paid employment - to make our community a better place.
Into the latter category falls Lol Hartmann, who can be seen out and about on Brigg streets, as he was again very early this morning in Wrawby Street, sweeping up the leftover takeway cartons, cigarette ends and other litter people discard.
A long-standing Brigg resident, Lol's work will not earn him a fat salary, or much in the way of public recognition in a job well done...other than a mention in this Blog.
The town council has the Joseph J Magrath Award for Public Voluntary Service, and that's to be applauded. But how about something similar for those in paid, or part-time, employment who serve the town and its residents?
People like Lol, of the StreetRight team, allied to North Lincolnshire Council.
After all, public servants feature in the Honours system, as did Joseph Magrath, the late town clerk, for his great service to road safety.

GRIM DAYS ON HORIZON

THEY looks a bit forlorn but trees which once added greenery to Brigg County Primary School have been left standing – despite all the buildings on the site being knocked down. They were in the green area, enclosed on three sides by the school’s main classrooms – before the new facility was built on Atherton Way. There are suggestions the old school site, in Glebe Road, will become a housing estate. If this is so, will the council encourage the developers to build round the remaining trees? Or are they now living on borrowed time, and facing the axe in the not too distant future? Also still standing at the school site is a wall which once formed the corner of the boys’ toilets. Many of us who went to school there in the 1960s – and earlier – will recall the ‘standing’ part of the toilets was open air. On the wall which remains, some white tiles can still be glimpsed – a reminder of the former use. If, as expected, the old school site becomes a housing estate, North Lincolnshire Council should encourage a direct link through from Grammar School Road to Glebe Road, which could help reduce the severe congestion suffered in this part of the town. That might need some negotiation with the owners of the Ancholme Inn, on Grammar School Road. But it’s well worth considering?



REMOVAL of the two hours free parking concession in Brigg is the main talking point On Brigg Streets at present.
North Lincolnshire Council’s ruling elite is determined to press ahead with the removal of the concession. There does not seem any chance of them climbing down, giving an inch, or accepting reasoned argument for Brigg shoppers or traders.
(It would be great to be proved wrong!)
No, Brigg must be brought into line with Scunthorpe and Ashby, it is argued, where there’s no two-hour allowance. Things should be standard across the district.
Now, at this point, North Lincolnshire Council’s top tier might be well advised to stop and think before setting a precedent like this.
If everyone is to be treated the same on issues, let them consider sports facilities.
Scunthorpe has a full-sized, all-weather synthetic sports pitch, with floodlights, as does Winterton.
So, using the ruling Labour group’s own ‘fairness across North Lincs’ argument, Brigg is surely entitled to a similar sports outlet.
After all, the number of hockey teams in Brigg (10) far outnumbers those of the other two towns.
For more than 20 years, Brigg Hockey Club has been campaigning for an all-weather, floodlit facility in Brigg, rather than having to travel to play ‘home’ games at Quibell Park, Scunthorpe (when it’s back in action after being flooded with sewage).
Long before North Lincolnshire Council was set up – in the old days of the Humberside, Scunthorpe and Glanford authorities – Brigg was denied the ‘Astro’ pitch for reasons never fully explained.
Except one councillor, pressed on the subject at the time, did hint it was decided to build one at Winterton because it was Winterton’s turn to get something.
He pointed out Brigg was enjoying investment over its inner relief road and pedestrianisation.
Now that’s hardly logical – comparing a sports facility with a road scheme
Brigg Recreation Ground would make a great spot for an all-weather facility, which could be used for a lot more than hockey on a Saturday – including netball and football. Nearby Brigg Town FC might also find it useful for training, particularly during the winter months.
A public meeting is planned for tomorrow (Wednesday, October 10) so people can air their views on the car parking charges.
People will feel better getting things off their chests but North Lincolnshire Council is very, very, very unlikely to change its mind at the 11th hour, and the free parking concession will disappear in November.


HOW many Brigg residents have suffered the inconvenience which follows once their wheelie-bin has been ‘consumed’ by a North Lincolnshire Council refuse cart?
Ours could not be found after the binmen had been. They didn’t tell us the bin had been tipped into the cart. But once we rang, the council admitted their mistake and pledged to send a replacement.
They did – eventually - but not immediately. Not, infact, for many days.
No written apology, no reduction in council tax for the time we were without a bin, and no offer of recompense for the dustbin sacks we had to buy.
However, it must be said when the replacement green bin did arrive it was far superior to the old black one. It takes far more rubbish.

IT’S time someone got round to rehanging, or removing, the bunting which is trailing on the ground near to the takeaway at the corner of Queen Street. Over to Brigg Town Council on that one…



NICE to see the old front hockey pitch at Brigg Recreation Ground being put to use for sport by young footballers – watched and encouraged by their parents, who turn out in numbers.
In the old days, when hockey was all played on grass, this was the pride of the Brigg first team – carefully tended and rolled between matches.
Gradually its use for hockey got less and less, as the sport moved over to being played on synthetic surfaces.
Brigg’s lowest – fifth – team used to play there from time to time but it must be five years since that side folded.