THE MANY USES OF BRIGG CORN EXCHANGE

Cliff Turner, 91, and living in New Zealand, continues his memories of growing up in Brigg during the 1930s. Today he tells us about the proclamation of the King,  Latin lessons at the Grammar School and recalls musical and theatrical productions.


Latin at Brigg Grammar School was the subject of Mr Lamb. From him we learned sum - I am; es - thou art; est - he (or she or it) is; sumus - we are; estis - you are; sunt - they are. It seemed strange that one word embraced the verb and the pronoun. I think the first sentence we learned was Britannia insula est - Britain is an island. Again it seemed strange that the verb came at the end of the sentence.
I am almost certain that it was during a Latin lesson that we were called into the school hall one day in December 1936 to learn that King Edward VIII was to abdicate. When he came to the throne in January of that year the pupils walked from Glebe Road to the market place to hear him proclaimed King from the balcony of the Angel Hotel. 
This example was not followed at the Grammar School and so I did not hear George VI proclaimed King in succession to his older brother.
Mr Lamb's interrupted lesson proved to be one of the last we had with him, as he died early in 1937. His replacement was called Kemp. He was followed by T G Richards who was already at the school. Tiger, as he was known, lived in the boarders' house and he was our Latin teacher until we took School Certificate. He came from South Wales and like Mr Pratt was a first-class pianist. About 20% of the school's pupils were boarders. Headmaster Daughton also lived on the premises in a quite imposing house next to the boarders' house.
In the autumn term of 1937, Tiger was our form master in Form IVA, and with him we put on a short play for Speech Day. 
Speech Day always took place at the Corn Exchange, which had a stage and was also the venue for productions of the Brigg Operatic Society. I was part of a group of about six boys who made a brief appearance as carol singers. We sang Here we come a-wassailing. The school magazine The Briggensian for the following term contained a review of the play. The carol singers were described as being "Valiantly led by Turner".
It was in 1937 or 1938 that I made another appearance "on the boards" at the Corn Exchange.
Joan Lyon, daughter of a local baker, had theatrical aspirations but worked for her father delivering bread. One day she asked my mother if I would be one of the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella and, of course, I agreed. My friend Billy Cade was the other Ugly Sister; Billy and I had one or two rehearsals just for our parts in the Lyon bakery but most of the rehearsing was done in the town hall with one dress rehearsal at the Corn Exchange. Billy and I had one song, It's three o'clock in the morning. We've danced the whole night through.
Only one performance was planned and when the big day came Jean Bell, Prince Charming, was too ill to appear and Joan stepped into her role. Before the performance, the chairman of the local council gave a short speech and mentioned this change. Somehow I saw his speech notes and noticed he had written Gene instead of Jean; perhaps he did not know that in pantomime Principal Boys are always girls. 
This had an interesting sequel in 1996 when we were on a trip home.
I was in the family shop in Queen Street when my cousin Jean's husband asked if I knew Mrs Dodd who was standing outside the shop. I went to her and asked "Are you Joan Lyon?" to which she replied "I was once". 
I reminded her of my part in her production and for some reason mentioned the miss-spelling of Jean. It then transpired that Jean and Joan had argued for years about who had played Prince Charming. I was able to settle the argument by reminding Joan that so many people came to our first performance, with many being turned away, that we did a second, originally unplanned, performance a few days later. By that time Jean was able to take her part.
Joan then said that she would be meeting Jean in the White Horse pub in a few minutes and asked us to join them. 
Joan's husband, a retired journalist, was also there and he asked us to go to their house the next day. There he took our photo and made a few notes with the result that Nancy and I had a story about us in the local paper. 
Joan went on to successfully produce many stage shows in Brigg. 

MORE TO COME FROM CLIFF ON BRIGG BLOG