SECOND WORLD WAR HOME FRONT TO FEATURE IN BRIGG HERITAGE CENTRE EXHIBITION

An interesting pop-up exhibition about what everyday life was like for Brigg people on the so-called Home Front, and the town's Home Guard, is being planned at the Heritage Centre, located within the Angel building.
In line with the aims of a famous war-time poster campaign, the centre's volunteers need YOUR help to supplement items they already have to hand.
Do you have any pictures or written information about life in the town during the Second World War?
If so, please share what you have for possible use in the exhibition.
You can take items along to the Heritage Centre and/or email kay.rothery@live.co.uk
The Fisher family has made available an interesting Home Guard log book, later taken into safekeeping by our grandfather Sgt Charles Taylor (1896-1990) whose duties included detailing men to guard and patrol at various locations within the town.
The Home Guard used the Exchange Club (now the Exchange Coach House Inn) as headquarters and owner Joe Mullen recently showed Brigg Blog an alcove in one of the upper rooms where rifles were stored. The authorities opened a war-time restaurant in Brigg during the war, where people could go for basic meals. There were so-called British Restaurants across th UK, staffed by volunteers.
Read more about British Restaurants through this link...
https://www.1900s.org.uk/1940s-british-restaurants.htm
With German submarines (U-boats) sinking many supply ships in the Atlantic, food was in short supply with rationing in force on many foodstuffs. Perhaps someone locally has old ration books.
It was a case of Dig For Victory on the home front, with Brigg gardens and public land turned into allotments to grow vegetables.
There was also a Brigg Pig Club with porkers being raised in sheds and back yards to provide meat.
Metal railings were taken away and melted down for war use.
Clothing was 'on ration' with coupons tendered in shops before purchases could be taken home.
Life on the Home Front was tough by today's standards, and rationing continued on some items well into the 1950s.
When the war finally ended, in 1945, there were major celebrations in Brigg Market Place, with a local police officer being carried shoulder high by some of the revellers.
Brigg Blog thought we'd set a good example by having a quick look through our archive of old prints to locate some taken on the Home Front during the war.
The four seen here were passed to us by the family of the late Cliff Padley, who lived in Brigg and later Scawby. Cliff was a former colleague of ours at the Scunthorpe Telegraph, having earlier worked for The Star in the steel town and in Brigg. He was a long-serving official of Brigg Rotary Club.
The above picture is thought to feature the British Restaurant on Elwes Street. It shows stallholders and helpers at a Brigg Bourne Methodist Church bazaar.
The pictures below show the Brigg & District War Supplies Depot, a fundraising sale for the RAF Pilots & Crews Fund, and the opening of Brigg Warship Week with a Rear Admiral of the Royal Navy in attendance.
 

Knitting for victory - ladies from Brigg busy with their needles to help the war effort. The sign reveals that the Brigg & District War Supplies Depot had by then sent 4,500 garments to the forces and hospitals.

W.H. Webster, right, hands over a £50 cheque to C.C.M. Taylor in aid of the RAF Pilots and Crews Fund, following a sale held in Brigg. The total raised in the town then stood at £3,120 - a considerable sum in the early 1940s. Mr Webster was a local magistrate. Was he the Mr Webster who operated the town's cinema for many years?

Rear Admiral Frederick Arthur Buckley, Royal Navy, second left, with Coun Edgar Taylor, left, chairman of Brigg Urban District Council, and J.T. Daughton, right, headmaster of Brigg Grammar School, at the opening of Brigg Warship Week - another fundraiser to support the war effort. Rear Admiral Buckley served in both world wars, attaining this rank in 1939.