FUELLING MEMORIES OF OLD BRIGG

Writing earlier this week about a planning application seeking approval to make alterations to the Esso filling station canopy in Brigg - see details here - reminded us that somewhere we had a picture of Bridge Street showing the first fuelling point on that site in the early part of the 20th century.
It took some finding in our archives, but here it is. Taken during the 1920s, it demonstrates that motor vehicles have being topping up their tanks at this location for 90+ years and perhaps even longer.  Could the 100th anniversary be on the horizon?
The original petrol pumps are just visible between two of the trees on the right, together with a sign advertising a tyre-filling facility - free to motorists when only the wealthiest Brigg residents could afford a car.
We thought about attempting a 'Then & Now' view by venturing onto the A18 to show the same scene today, by way of comparison, but 'elf and safety prevailed; Bridge Street is far too busy these days, certainly during daylight hours.
We always found the building on the right, long since demolished, to be an attractive one and something of a loss to the townscape.
Didn't it once house a transport business and distribute potatoes?
Older followers of our blog will recall the petrol station on the other side of Bridge Street, to the left of picture. Latterly, we seem to recall, it dispensed Shell fuel.
Note, too, the ornate gas lamp, and the trees; Wrawby Road and Cadney Road were not the only approaches to the town to sport greenery during the warmer months of the year all those decades ago. Some of the Bridge Street trees have since been removed.
Centre left it's just possible on the original print to see the sign on the front of the historic Brocklesby Ox pub - also now departed but not forgotten.
However, many of the buildings seen here survive today, including what became a three-storey block of flats on the extreme right.
In the 1960s, Doctor Foxton - the well-known local GP - held his surgeries on one of the floors.
Some readers will recall going there for injections to ward off diptheria, measles, polio and other afflictions.