With nominations now being invited by Brigg Town Council for its annual Joseph J. Magrath OBE voluntary public service award, younger followers of our blog may well wonder who Joe was and what he and the forerunner of the current Town Council, the Urban District authority, did for the town.
The UDC was created in 1894, replacing a Local Government Board comprising worthy folk and businessmen who kept an eye on matters like public health and safe water provision for the majority of Queen Victoria's long reign.
Joe Magrath came to our area from Warrington in the early 1930s to work in the rating department of the Rural District Council which had an office in Brigg but provided local government services to surrounding villages.
He transferred to the finance staff of Brigg UDC in 1934, gaining a couple of promotions and being appointed Town Clerk - the top post - in 1938.
Joe retired as chief officer in December 1972 but continued to work part-time for the UDC after that.
Urban and rural district councils and Lincoln-based Lindsey County Council were disbanded in 1973/4 by local government reorganisation, which involved the creation of Beverley-based Humberside County Council, providing major services like education, highways and refuse disposal; second-tier Glanford Borough Council, based in Brigg, dealing with council housing, markets, refuse collection, public health and planning; and Brigg Town Council, on a par with parish councils but with the right to elect a Mayor and comment on issues of note and concern.
Joe continued his public service as clerk to the town council for some years after its formation and was still in charge when we reported on our first meeting of the authority for the Lincolnshire & South Humberside Times in January 1980!
Brigg UDC had a very small staff by today's standards but did a great deal for the town.
Between the early 1920s and the early 1970s it built and managed scores of council houses, notably on the Newlands estate, Hawthorn Avenue, Central Square, Woodbine Avenue and the Springbank estate, plus the post-war prefabs on Woodbine Grove and Elwes Street (demolished in the 1970s).
Joseph J Magrath, who was a nationally renowned figure in road safety, was instrumental in the purchase of Woodbine Farm, off Wrawby Road, to provide the Recreation Ground, which opened to the public in the early 1950s. The 18 acres were acquired for £3,500!
During Joe's spell as chief officer, the UDC developed the sizeable Corn Exchange as a community venue to be used by local groups for events, productions and functions.
For many years the town also had its own gas works, supplying not only Brigg but some surrounding communities.
Brigg's busy Thursday and Saturday markets and the stockmarket off Cary Lane (built in the early 1960s) were also managed by the UDC.
In his renowned book about Brigg, published in 1974, long-serving local journalist Edward Dodd paid tribute to the era of Brigg Urban District Council, noting that it had served in the best traditions of community service for nearly 1,000 months.
Ted's three-page article about the UDC featured a picture of Town Councillors and the entire staff, including Joe Magrath.
About a dozen staff administered and ran the town, though there were also workers (not pictured) who emptied the dustbins and maintained plumbing, drains and the fabric of the extensive council house stock, much of which was refurbished in the early 1970s with central heating, internal toilets and bathrooms and new windows installed in all the older properties.
Many of the UDC officers doubled up, with the accountant also being deputy town clerk, the finance clerk venturing forth to collect rents from properties across Brigg, and the deputy surveyor also being public health inspector.
UDC councillors in the early 1970s included a number who would later gain seats on the new Brigg Town Council.
They included Bryan Robins, the Lincolnshire Times photographer and official of Brigg Town Football Club; George Hewson, after whom North Lincolnshire Council's Station House office block in Brigg was named; Bill Smart, the local hospital administrator; Vic Gray, local cafe owner; Jack Wattam, a steelworker who ran a chip shop on Wrawby Street for some years; Ivor Strudwick, from St Helen's Road; Eric Robinson, who had lock-up garages off Glebe Road; and the Chamber of Trade's Ken Pearce, who became the very first Town Mayor of Brigg.
Brigg UDC never had a Mayor, but it did elect a Chairman, who had a chain of office, to serve for a year as head of the authority.
The UDC was based in the Buttercross for many decades, but later built a small two-storey office block on Cary Lane, close to where the Wilko store now stands.
This had the grand title of Town Hall, and is still in office use today, with Humberside Police as the tenant.
Today there's not much left in Brigg to remind us of the era of the UDC.
Some manhole and drain covers carry the UDC's initials, while the lettering 'Brigg Urban District Council' can still be seen on a few old black and white street signs.
Last but by no means least, of course, there's the Joseph J. Magrath OBE Award for Public Voluntary Service.
Joe, who is pictured above in the early 1970s, enjoyed a small perk afforded him by staff of the Lincs Times - permission to use our large car park when he ventured into the town to do some shopping or make calls on local contacts.
Pre-pedestrianisation, this was accessed through the brick archway which now takes those on foot to Joe Mullen's Exchange Coach House.
The town clerk would also join staff on Saturday mornings for a cuppa at the 57 Wrawby Street offices - giving reporters an opportunity to ask him about issues in the town.
Brigg Town Council originally had a base at what's now Hewson House and held its meetings in a wonderful wood-panelled council chamber that had belonged to the Rural District Council.
The Town Council moved to the Angel Suite in the mid-1990s after this had been created from part of the former hotel, including the ballroom.
Brigg UDC, as Edward Dodd said in his book all those years ago, served Brigg well, as the current Town Council continues to do today, though its role is rather different.
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