NEWS MILESTONE LOOMS LARGE

Thirty years ago this month a certain young reporter joined the weekly Lincolnshire and South Humberside Times newspaper and trudged his way along the snow-covered footpaths of Brigg to do his first day's work at 57 Wrawby Street.
It proved to be a long day, with a meeting of Brigg Town Council in the evening at which concerns were expressed over the Recreation Ground and the town's train service.
Back then (before the Angel Suite) the town council met in the handsome 'chamber' owned by the much grander Glanford Borough authority at what is now Hewson House - with its polished wooden panels and ornate, semi-circular stepped seating for councillors. A wonderful venue for debates.
Brigg town clerk was Joseph J Magrath - and still serving on the town council were other Brigg Urban District veterans like George Hewson, Herbert Forman, Les Watkinson, Bill Smart, Ivor Strudwick, Derek Lawtey and Ernie Taylor.
The major talking point in January 1980 was the on-going and bitter steelworks strike, which affected many families in Brigg and district. With mounting losses and growing foreign competition, the British Steel Corporation was being forced to cut back, and the workers were not prepared to accept what was taking place.
Thirty years ago, of course, through traffic was still using Wrawby Street (pre-pedestrianisation) and you often had a lengthy wait for a gap in the traffic to exit the Lincs Times car park through the brick archway which now leads through to Joe Mullen's Exchange Coach House Inn.
One of my first ordeals at the Lincolnshire Times was the company driving test. You had to motor down Bigby High Road in a big red Lincs Times van while your performance behind the wheel was checked by branch manager Cliff Hatley, from the passenger seat. He had to be confident you were OK to take charge of the firm's fleet and go on the insurance policy. I'd never driven a delivery van before but he must have found my driving satisfactory. Just as well, too, for we had to drive over to Barnetby railway station (evenings) and New Holland (lunch-times) to deliver carefully labelled packets containing our typed-up stories, and Bryan Robins' photos, which were taken over to head office, the Hull Daily Mail, via the Humber Ferry.
Other bread and butter duties included covering meetings of Glanford Borough Council (every Thursday) and attending Brigg Magistrates' court (Wednesdays and Fridays). Early morning visits were made to the police station, where Chief Insp Bill Horsfield was based, overseeing the Brigg and Barton Sub-Division. Often they would hand you the lever-arched file containing the most recent incidents attended, and let you copy down what information you wanted. The likeable Bill also prosecuted all the court cases - before the Crown Prosecution Service came on the scene. Magistrates included Lt Col Roger Nelthorpe and the Earl of Yarborough (father of the present title-holder), whose families had been dishing out summary justice locally for centuries.
Lightest shift of the week for a solitary member of the three-man Brigg editorial staff was definitely Saturday morning, when there was little to do other than type up some press releases - generally of a farming nature - and visit the 'cop shop'.
J J Magrath would arrive around 10am and had special permission to park his car behind No 57 - after which he would share a cuppa with us downstairs before going off to do some shopping.
Saturday's half-day finished at 12 or 12.30 but rather made a mess of the rest of your day - just as Saturday morning school had done at Brigg Grammar (until they wisely discountinued the old-fashioned practice).
In my archives I have a copy of the Lincs Times from that initial week, when I got a couple of decent pieces on the front page - one about the steel strike (which I knew a lot about) and another about a housing dispute in Caistor (my very first contact with West Lindsey District Council).
It really doesn't seem like 30 years ago. But a glance at the yellowing, somewhat creased back issues of the Lincs Times from 1980 is proof enough. This picture, by the way, was taken in the spacious Times car park at the back of 57 Wrawby Street.