Our recent post about confusing house numbering on some Brigg streets interested local resident Ken Harrison, of Brigg Matters magazine, who has kindly highlighted other other examples that we didn't mention.
"There's no No 1 in Redcombe Lane," he points out. "In Glebe Road/Albert Street, houses are numbered sequentially...i.e. 1, 2, 3 on one side of the road and then the numbering returns on the other side of the road. No 1 could be opposite No 45, for example.
"In Glebe Road, numbering is further compounded with 1930 semi-detached houses towards Central Square being numerically isolated at the far end of the road.
"The numbering along Bigby Road has always been confused....the large mock-Tudor houses have always had names, while the houses opposite are alternatively numbered.
"There is a geographical problem with the route of Bigby Road.....it starts at the junction of Queen Street, which is not readily appreciated.
"When I lived in one of the named houses near the Monument, emergency services/personnel, at times, knocked at the front door eager to locate low numbered houses, as house numbering seemed to start at number 11 (for example).
"These houses are within the row behind Parkers Carpets/the Britannia."
Ken's comments reinforce Brigg Blog's view that our posties and those in cars and vans who deliver items ordered online or from food outlets by Brigg addresses deserve congratulations for picking their way through a maze of street numbering anomalies.
Some street names add to the uncertainty.
It was a poor decision, we suggest, to add Springfield RISE to the St Helens housing estate when Springfield ROAD already existed not far away. This has caused confusion ever since the former was instigated. Both streets are cul-de-sacs of similar length.
As Ken points out, Bigby Street giving way to Bigby Road can be an issue for delivery folk and the emergency services.
Bigby Road then meets Bigby High Road at the level crossing over the railway line.
Brigg Urban District Council, in the early 1950s, named its extensive new prefab estate Woodbine Grove, despite the fact that Woodbine Avenue had been created between the two wars.
A little later, Barnard Avenue (long before it became the inner relief road) was added although the town already had a Barnard Street (not far from Bridge Street). Both names honoured a well-known local family - prominent in business and the community.
When we reported Glanford Borough Council meetings regularly in the early 1980s, proposed new street names and numbering systems were considered by one of its committees which comprised 41 elected councillors representing all local towns and villages between Butterwick and Barton and Killingholme and Redbourn.
This meant a great deal of local knowledge could be applied and suggestions passed on to housing developers before final decisions were taken, the street nameplates created and maps updated.
Glanford's seemed to be a very good system at the time and it still does 40 years later.
When with the Lincolnshire & South Humberside Times newspaper and based at 57 Wrawby Street in the early 1980s, we made regular visits to the town's police station. While in the foyer on the hunt for newsworthy items, it was common for delivery drivers to pop in and ask for directions to various Brigg streets. A helpful map was displayed on the wall to assist them.
As the old saying goes: "If you want directions, ask a policeman." Today, of course, "policewoman" should be included. Or, perhaps, police officer and/or PCSO!
PICTURED: Above - a recent bird's eye view of Brigg by Neil Stapleton; below - the opening of the town's new Barnard Avenue police station in 1978 by the Humberside force, with Chief Insp Bill Horsfield, head of the Brigg & Barton sub-division, second from left. He lived in Brigg and often prosecuted local cases, in person, before magistrates sitting at the courthouse on Wrawby Road.
