Brigg Tourist Information Centre, The Buttercross, Market Place, is now selling two local history books which will be of interest to readers in the town and nearby villages. Brigg Blog has read them both and found them of real interest. So if you are still looking for a stocking-filler present for a friend or relative, or you receive some cash as a Christmas present, these are worth considering.
Wrawby At War 1914-18 is by the Wrawby Local History Group and includes some fascinating pictures of soldiers marching through Brigg, including one used across two pages, taken in Bigby Street, showing the Territorials the month before the First World War broke out, and another of soldiers awaiting a train at Brigg station, also in 1914. I've been studying the pictures closely to try and find my late grandad, Charles Taylor (1896-1990), a Brigg man who served in the 5th Lincolns. Other Brigg folk with ancestors who served in the First World War will do likewise. Our very own comment poster-in-chief, Ken Harrison, contributes an interesting chapter about how a bomb from a German Zeppelin came to be dropped on Wrawby. The book is listed at £7.
Tapestry: The story of a Victorian businessman, by Anne Astling, tells how a Brigg Grammar School pupil of the early 19th century went on to make a mint in London as a carpet magnate. During his time at BGS in the late 1820s, the school was run by the Rev James Walter.
Anne told Brigg Blog: "Thomas Tapling was of fairly humble origins, born in Wrawby in North Lincolnshire in 1818, the third of seven children. By the time of his death 63 years later he was the equivalent of a multi-millionaire. Thomas lived through the period of huge change in Great Britain known as the Industrial Revolution. The coming of the railways transformed personal transport as well as facilitating the movement of goods. Sea transport too was revolutionised, with sail giving way to steam and shortening intercontinental journeys. New industrial processes enabled mass production of goods. International and domestic markets expanded rapidly. This was a great time for entrepreneurs to build their own empires, and Thomas grasped the opportunity with both hands. The company he founded a century and a half ago is still in existence. His eldest son was to leave the foremost unbroken stamp collection in the world to the nation, and his youngest daughter was to marry into an aristocratic family. However Thomas was a family man too, and it is from his letters, and those of his family, that an insight can be gained into his character and his personal life. His biography is illustrated with photographs of family members and places associated with them."
If you are a Brigg Blog follower who has moved away from North Lincs, even abroad, and so can't get in to the Buttercross, please note Tapestry is now available direct from the author for £5 per copy, plus postage and packing. (P & P in the UK is currently £1.30; overseas surface is £2 and airmail £3.50. If requiring multiple copies, please enquire for additional costs.) Please make cheques out to Mrs A Astling. Address: 18 Worcester Close, Scunthorpe, DN16 3TL. You can also email for details - tupling@one-name.org
With her own, Anne kindly sent us a copy of Wrawby At War and we don't think she will mind taking inquiries about the Wrawby book from Brigg Blog followers.
Yep!
ReplyDeleteHaven't read the book myself yet. Submitted long Zeppelin article to the group and they've extracted the Wrawby-rlated bit.
From 1914 to mid 1916, airships could raid Britain with almost impunity - poor performance aeroplanes, lack of proper ammo.
Relates to the first Mass Zeppelin Raid of the Great War..about 14 Zeppelins were meant to target Liverpool ....only one got there; the others seemed to have got lost and bombed opportunist targets.
2 Zeppelins bombed the Walsall area in the Midlands (now the area of Spaghetti Junction on the M6) thinking it was Liverpool!!
German Imperial Navy, airship, L13 was seen over Derby at about 8pm....and possibly over Burton-Upon-Trent at about 9.30pm. At about 10.30pm 'a Zeppelin was lurking over the Humber'. At 11.30ish pm 'a noise like the rumbling of an express train was heard coming from the direction of Burton Stather'....and Scunny was bombed about 11.40pm.
4 guys were killed. High explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped. Houses in Revendale St (off Station Rd) were destroyed;
87 year old Mrs Markham,
of Trent Street threw a burning incendiary, which had come through her roof and landed on her bed, out of the window using a bucket.
L13 last seen over Ashby about midnight.
Assumed L13 then enroute to Spurn Point - directly east of Ashby, with Wrawby directly under flight path.....at Spurn, it would give skipper a positive land-sight location and L13 would be able to pick-up German radio-homing signal to cross North Sea.
Unexploded incediary bomb found in fork of tree by a Mr Hankin (needs to be identified) who was lopping trees in a Wrawby garden.....in 1924!! (the same year that Hitler was both sent and released from jail).
Raid developed the urgency to establish anti-Zep defences in area - hence RFC airstrips at Elsham, Kirton-in-Lindsy and Scampton.
From mid 1916 - better aircraft and mixed ammo - high-explosive and tracer - meant the HE bullet would blow a hole in the gas tanks and the tracer would ignite the gas...BANG!!!!
By the autumn of 1916 - Zeppelins were being brought down in flames and their impunity ended.
Airship L13 survived wartime operations...and was scrapped in late 1917.
But her 17-man crew who had transferred to L31 all perished in flames when the airship was brfought down over Potters Bar, just north of London in October, 1916.
Yep!
ReplyDeleteHaven't read the book myself yet. Submitted long Zeppelin article to the group and they've extracted the Wrawby-rlated bit.
From 1914 to mid 1916, airships could raid Britain with almost impunity - poor performance aeroplanes, lack of proper ammo.
Relates to the first Mass Zeppelin Raid of the Great War..about 14 Zeppelins were meant to target Liverpool ....only one got there; the others seemed to have got lost and bombed opportunist targets.
2 Zeppelins bombed the Walsall area in the Midlands (now the area of Spaghetti Junction on the M6) thinking it was Liverpool!!
German Imperial Navy, airship, L13 was seen over Derby at about 8pm....and possibly over Burton-Upon-Trent at about 9.30pm. At about 10.30pm 'a Zeppelin was lurking over the Humber'. At 11.30ish pm 'a noise like the rumbling of an express train was heard coming from the direction of Burton Stather'....and Scunny was bombed about 11.40pm.
4 guys were killed. High explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped. Houses in Revendale St (off Station Rd) were destroyed;
87 year old Mrs Markham,
of Trent Street threw a burning incendiary, which had come through her roof and landed on her bed, out of the window using a bucket.
L13 last seen over Ashby about midnight.
Assumed L13 then enroute to Spurn Point - directly east of Ashby, with Wrawby directly under flight path.....at Spurn, it would give skipper a positive land-sight location and L13 would be able to pick-up German radio-homing signal to cross North Sea.
Unexploded incediary bomb found in fork of tree by a Mr Hankin (needs to be identified) who was lopping trees in a Wrawby garden.....in 1924!! (the same year that Hitler was both sent and released from jail).
Raid developed the urgency to establish anti-Zep defences in area - hence RFC airstrips at Elsham, Kirton-in-Lindsy and Scampton.
From mid 1916 - better aircraft and mixed ammo - high-explosive and tracer - meant the HE bullet would blow a hole in the gas tanks and the tracer would ignite the gas...BANG!!!!
By the autumn of 1916 - Zeppelins were being brought down in flames and their impunity ended.
Airship L13 survived wartime operations...and was scrapped in late 1917.
But her 17-man crew who had transferred to L31 all perished in flames when the airship was brfought down over Potters Bar, just north of London in October, 1916.