BRIGG HORSE FAIR 2019 PROMPTS US TO LOOK BACK WITH PICTURES AND MEMORIES OF PAST EVENTS

With Brigg Horse Fair 2019 coming up on Monday, August 5 on land off Station Road from 9.30am into the afternoon, we thought it an ideal time to post some pictures of past events going back as far as the 1970s.
If you haven't already seen our full preview of the 2019 horse fair, click here to read it...
We first attended the Horse Fair as a child in the 1960s and still have family photographs taken at some of those held in the early 1970s. Much later we let Wetherspoon's have a selection of these - a couple of which they framed do display in the White Horse pub when it reopened after lavish refurbishment.
Like us you may remember joining the crowds that gathered on Cary Lane and along what's now the access road to Springs Parade, in the days when the old stockmarket was still in evidence (now the site of Tesco and its car park).
While on the news desk at the Scunthorpe Telegraph in the early 1990s, and confined to the office in a supervisory capacity, we sent a reporter to cover Brigg Horse Fair when it reached its lowest point. Just a couple of horses were taken along. Our colleague penned a fine piece and pressed Brigg-based Glanford Borough Council for a comment.
The Telegraph's story helped to publicise the fact that the horse fair seemed to be in danger of dying out.
Things picked up after that, with a community fair being established for some years in the town centre, to accompany the horse-related event held elsewhere.
For some years there have been sizeable attendances at the Station Road side, adjoining the railway station, where most of the pictures seen here were taken.
Some of them come courtesy of Ken Harrison, of Brigg Matters magazine; the majority are by Brigg Blog with the black and white images taken from the Ken Fisher 1970s Archive.

 

Above and below: Scenes on what's now Holland Park, close to the land used near the railway station for Brigg Horse Fair.

 

 

Security evident at the approach to Station Road for Brigg Horse Fair. A reminder to be watchful of steeds being paraded at speed.

A couple of pictures from Brigg Horse Fair in the early 1970s when centred on the old stockmarket.

Homeward bound from Brigg Horse Fair - picture taken in Wrawby, outside the Black Horse pub.