For many decades while Brigg Sugar Factory was still functioning, Wrawby Road was the scene of an interesting local phenomenon - bouncing beet!
Lorries and tractor-hauled trailers from farms spread over a wide area, which were heading for the processing facility at Scawby Brook, sometimes parted company with part of their load. Beet then bounced along the road, sometimes coming to rest on the adjoining pavements on which pedestrians were evident.
Beet processing ceased some time before the factory closed in the early 1990s; it also bagged sugar.
Wrawby Road stretches from the border with the nearby village to the Monument roundabout on the edge of Brigg town centre.
When the war memorial was dedicated in 1919 it was close to Brigg Workhouse - erected in the 1830s.
In many ways Wrawby Street has changed little over the past 50 years, with its mix of sturdy and sought-after detached and semi-detached houses and bungalows, of various styles, still being prominent today.
However, there has been considerable change of use since the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Glanford Hospital - originally Brigg Infirmary which opened in 1915 - closed in the 1990s and was tastefully transformed into health trust offices (Health Place is pictured above).
Nearby Beldon House is no longer a doctor's surgery but a popular bed & breakfast business - recently put on the market - which has featured on TV.
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| Viewed across Wrawby Road... Beldon House on the left, Orchard Court on the right. |
The former Thornholme Hotel now houses the Orchard Court Care Home.
On the other side of Wrawby Road, close to the junction with residential Glanford Road, are a couple of long-established retail units which have hosted various business ventures over the years. Currently they are occupied by Joanna Leigh Couture and a very recently launched hair salon called Earth
The Brigg Girls' High School complex, built in the 1930s, became the Sir John Nelthorpe Lower School following the introduction of comprehensive education in the mid-1970s.
Brigg Recreation Ground, established in the early 1950s on part of the former Woodbine Farm by our Urban District Council, was extensively refurbished in 2017 by the North Lincolnshire authority, with the addition of a floodlit all-weather 'Blue Astro' hockey pitch and top grade changing facilities.
The Rec's entry road also provides the only vehicular access to Brigg Town Football Club's Hawthorns ground, licensed clubhouse and Pips Kitchen eatery.
However, pedestrian access is still available along the track off nearby Hawthorn Avenue.
Brigg's Victorian cemetery with chapel (pictured) off Wrawby Road was established in 1857, also serving Wrawby. The cemetery has seen significant changes of late with a side extension near Holme Close now being used to provide many more final resting places.
Over many decades some of the large gardens adjoining properties along Wrawby Road have been used to provide additional housing.
Nicolgate Lane - opposite the school - saw a number of new homes developed from the 1960s. For many years it remained nameless - simply being "Off Wrawby Road."
Only very recently, permission has been granted to build on garden land adjoining the quaint gothic-style Cemetery Lodge.
Since Queen Victoria took to the throne and probably even earlier than that, Wrawby Road has been popular with Brigg folk enjoying pleasant strolls into the countryside - perhaps taking in one of Wrawby's pubs as a refreshment stop.
North Lincolnshire Council extended this by creating a cycle way through the division of one of Wrawby Road's footpaths; riders on one side, pedestrians on the other. This allows cyclists to avoid traffic pedalling along the A18.
In view of the popularity of Wrawby Road with walkers, a number of public seats have been provided over the years at various locations - some dedicated to local people, now departed, who enjoyed walking this route. One seat was provided close to the entrance to Eastfield Road - a suburban cul-de-sac featuring a mix of properties.
Wrawby Road also has a couple of welcome bus shelters at the well-used stop near the cemetery gates which is served by Hornsbys and Stagecoach, making possible travel to and from Scunthorpe, Ashby, Broughton, Barnetby, Wrawby, Kirmington, Barton, the Wold Villages and other destinations.
This road's largest and most striking detached property is St Helens - located on the border between Brigg and Wrawby (pictured above in the distance, with the lodge nearest the camera).
St Helens is accessed by a tree-lined and inclined drive which we had to cycle up in the late 1960s/early 1970s while delivering morning papers to the then owner Colonel Bletcher, on behalf of Richardson's newsagents, on Wrawby Road, Brigg, managed by the affable Winnie Cammack. This was the last 'drop' on our round and it was a grand ride back down the hill after popping that day's Yorkshire Post through the letterbox.
In the early 1970s when the famous Hovis advert began appearing on TV, featuring a delivery boy going up hill to his bakery, accompanied by Antonin Dvorak's evocative New World Sympthony, it always reminded us of rides to St Helens.
Other well-known Wrawby Road residents have included Dr John Foxton, the long-serving Brigg GP, and his wife - a local magistrate. We also delivered newspapers to their large detached property - still standing and the first on the right as you enter the town from the direction of Wrawby.
Wrawby Road once formed part of the main route between Doncaster and Scunthorpe to the west, Grimsby and Immingham to the north-east and Lincoln to the south. However, the creation of the M180 in the late 1970s and the subsequent addition of the Briggate Lodge to Redbourne link road (A15 extension) helped to remove a great deal of through traffic, particularly lorries and tankers, that would otherwise have used Wrawby Road.
'Brigg By-Pass' was the official name for the stretch of the M180 from Barnetby Top to Broughton when the project was undertaken in the 1970s, including the creation of the flyover at the northern end of Grammar School Road.
At some point in the future, Wrawby Road's northerly section is set to undergo considerable transformation, with plans to create a large housing development on currently agricultural land near the Recreation Ground's tree-lined boundary and the edge of the Springbank estate. This is expected to mean the creation of an entry/exit near Wrawby Road's junction with Churchill Avenue.
Today's post forms part of an ongoing series of articles about Brigg streets.
In case you've missed all, or some, of them here are links to previous articles...
Queen Street...
Bridge Street, from the County Bridge to the A18 near the Yarborough Hunt...
Glebe Road...
Albert Street...
Elwes Street...
Cary Lane...
More posts to follow about other Brigg streets as time permits. The series is proving popular, judging by our site statistics.
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| Wrawby Road beginning near the Monument roundabout on the A18. |
