CHANGING TIMES

The popular Brigg business - known to scores of us just as "the Spar Shop" - has changed to a Nisa Local outlet.
A front view of the Queen Street convenience store, in its distant Spar days, was featured in the annual calendar produced by Brigg Amateur Social Historians (BASH). And that must have dated from the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Returning to the present, you, like me, may have been alerted to the change from Spar to Nisa Local by a leaflet delivered to Brigg homes with last week's Scunthorpe Target.

WELCOME NEW VENTURE

Coleman's Restaurant is opening in Queen Street, Brigg, next Friday (Nov 7).
It is sited in the former premises of the CeeCee's eatery, in what was once the Parker's Carpets showroom.
Coleman's is to offer a selection of free trade coffees and teas, plus home-made pastries and sandwiches, then additional British dishes in the evening.
Brigg Town Council this week raised no objections to the licence application being made for these premises, members being reminded that CeeCee's was no licensed to sell alcohol.
The signs for Coleman's Restaurant have yet to go up, but the one for the former restaurant has been removed.
For further details about this new venture call (01652) 659993.

BLOG READERS HELP

A thank-you message has arrived from Janice Siebert and John Simpson, in faraway South Africa.
Regular Brigg Blog followers will recall we recently appealed for information, on their behalf, about the Gurnell family. That appeal proved successful.
The email says: "Just to let you know that we have had two responses to our enquiry via your Blog - one from the grandson of the late Peter Gurnell and one from a lady who used to live on the farm next to Station House Farm (once a public house) who knew the family.
"There were a lot of farm names for Gurnell in all the available census from 1841, including Brumby House, Roxby Grange Farm, The Lodge, and two George Gurnells, father and son, were also innkeepers of The Queen’s Arms, either at Wrawby or Scawby (the census transcription is unclear)."
Our South African correspondents ask if we know whether these places still exist, and a reply has gone back giving information about the Queen's Arms, in Wrawby Street, recalling how it became the Fish Inn and now The Vines.
Our friends add: "One of these days the South African family would like to make a tour of the area to see where their ancestors lived.
"Again, many thanks for your help. Your Blog is so informative and puts our local free newspaper to shame for its content!"
With kind comments like that, they can't really go wrong, can then, if they want our help in the future!

The picture shows George Gurnell, a British member of the family the South Africans have been trying to trace, during a Briggensians' Association tour of Sir John Nelthorpe School, with headteacher Linda Hewlett-Parker.

STALWART MOURNED

Well-known Brigg man and long-standing resident of the town, Clarrie Middleton has died, aged 78.
As a painter, he was a familiar figure at houses in Brigg for many years, and was a worshipper at St John's Church over a long period being (if memory serves me correctly) both a sidesman and churchwarden at different times.
A service in his memory will be held today at St John's, in Bigby Street, at 1.45pm, followed by interment in Brigg cemetery.

WATCHING BRIEF

With one of Brigg's most important set of traffic lights out of action this morning it will be interesting to see how drivers react, and how much congestion results.
North Lincolnshire Council is clearly aware of the problem, as a colourful sign indicating the lights are not working has been pinned to at least one of the poles.
The failed lights are at the junction of Barnard Avenue (on the A18), Cary Lane and Ash Grove.
Obviously, making right turns out of both Cary Lane and Ash Grove this morning will be very, very difficult - without the assistance of the lights - as there is such a heavy flow of traffic along Barnard Avenue.
So how many thinking motorists, emerging from Cary Lane, will elect to go left at the lights and use the roundabout near Tesco to turn back into Barnard Avenue and then head off towards The Monument?
The 'no right turn' restriction, introduced some time ago for vehicles emerging from Tesco's main entrance road, has proved a great sucess. Cars and vans must now go left to turn at the roundabout.
You have to have sympathy for council highways and traffic staff. For however they adjust the timing of the Cary Lane or Old Courts Road lights, in response to complaints, it is bound to affect traffic flows in another direction.
There are just too many vehicles wanting to go in too many directions to please all the motorists all of the time. The best they can hope is to keep most people happy most of the time.

TAKING THE MINUTES

It would be unfair to apply the old phrase 'clock watchers' to staff at North Lincolnshire Council. Especially as the town's main timepiece, on the Buttercross, is still an hour fast this morning - four days after everyone else in the country seems to have adjusted their watches, alarms and digital displays for the winter.

PRIZES NEEDED

A lot of good work is done by the Brigg and District Breast Cancer Support Group, and tombola prizes, to help with fundraising, are now being sought.
If you can help, pop in at Bedroom Creations, near The Monument, on Bigby Street. Tel (01652) 651801.