Thursday, June 11, 2020

'THE NEW HOUSES' HAVE SERVED BRIGG WELL


Local man Neil Stapleton supplied this fine and recently taken Brigg picture showing a good deal of the Springbank housing estate.
It was an extensive post-war development by Brigg Urban District Council - an authority with a very good record when it came to providing homes to rent across the town.
The first Springbank properties were let circa 1950 and building continued into the late 1960s on the border with Wrawby.
Bottom left is part of Woodbine Park, created on land once occupied by dozens of post-war prefabs - intended to be short term and removed in the early 1970s.
The area seen front right is now part of the Recreation Ground, but for many years was fenced with barbed wire on top to keep ball-playing youngsters off the Rec's well-kept football pitches that were hired out to local teams for matches.
When Brigg UDC planned the Springbank estate 70 years ago there were relatively few family cars owned by its prospective tenants. So the single entrance/exit provided via Grammar School Road was perfectly adequate.
However the growth of car ownership and the construction of two schools on the edge of the estate contributed to traffic congestion in later decades.
Children in the 1960s and 1970s used to refer to the Springbank estate as The New Houses.
That term fell by the wayside long ago but the estate of solidly-built properties continues to serve its original purpose, although the council is no longer the landlord and the Right to Buy scheme means many residents stopped paying rent many years ago and instead became home owners.