'EXCITING OPPORTUNITY' TO OPERATE BRIGG AUCTION MARKET

When Brigg Blog was told that what's widely known locally as Stennett's Market had failed to take place a couple of days earlier, we went straight down to Station Road and found this sign propped up at the front of the auction building.
As North Lincolnshire Council owns the land, we sought a statement and received the following in reply from a spokesperson for the local authority:
"An opportunity has arisen for a new business to take over a vibrant market and auction house in Brigg.
"The market site has traditionally opened on Thursdays with a whole host of different goods including fresh produce, poultry and game, and complementing the Thursday Market which is held in the pedestrianised town centre.
"North Lincolnshire Council is now seeking a suitable partner to deliver a much loved and well attended Thursday auction for Brigg."
Coun Rob Waltham Leader of North Lincolnshire Council, and a ward member for Brigg and the Wolds, says: “This is an exciting opportunity for a new or existing business to take stewardship of one of North Lincolnshire’s many thriving markets. As someone who can remember visiting the old Stennetts market on many occasions over the past forty years, I am really keen that we keep up the traditions of this auction and reinstate it as soon as possible.
“We are really keen to open up discussions with prospective businesses as soon as possible.”
Interested businesses are asked to get in touch with North Lincolnshire Council’s economic development team by either emailing businessinfo@northlincs.gov.uk or calling 01724 297330.
The auction's history can be traced back more than 100 years.
For some time, Thursday morning sales were held on land off Manley Gardens and later on part of the old stockmarket site, near Barnard Avenue (now occupied by the Tesco store).
Things then continued on Station Road, close to the railway station.
A railway campaigner has now emailed Brigg Blog to suggest that a "perfect opportunity" currently exists to re-locate the auction to the far end of the station area.
He believes this will benefit the train service, as passengers using the Saturdays-only service will no longer see any discarded rubbish/litter people have left on Thursdays during the market.
Brigg Blog has happy memories from the early 1980s while on the staff at the Lincolnshire & South Humberside Times newspaper at 57 Wrawby Street.
We took our turn on the rota to visit Stennett's auction 'shed' down Manley Gardens to collect that week's produce prices for inclusion in the following day's edition of this local weekly.
The list included eggs, butter, ducks, chickens and pigeons - written on a pre-printed sheet by the chief clerk, using a very heavy 4B (?) pencil.
Long before email arrived, these had to be telephoned to a copy/typist at the Hull Daily Mail, who took down the details which were set in type - one of the last items to be included in the paper before the Mail's press began to roll.
In the 1990s, a few chickens 'escaped' from Stennett's on the old stockmarket site and made their home on the grass beside the senior citizen's bungalows on Barnard Avenue.
Chicks soon joined the chickens, which lived there for some years until eventually, all the poultry were C-lucky to be re-homed in the country!

A Thursday auction scene in 2011