UNUSUAL BRIGG LANDMARK MANY WILL REMEMBER

Plenty of interest has been shown in a recently taken picture of the former River Ancholme barge turning area near Brigg town centre that we posted some days ago.
During conversations with a couple of people on this topic, we mentioned that, somewhere in our archives, there was a picture showing the so-called sunken barge close to this location - something of a local landmark on the 'Old' river for many years.
So far we've been unable to dig out the early 1970s image we had in mind (taken by Ken Fisher) but we have found the one seen above.
It's a little earlier in date, as it features Sergeant's Brewery, which made its last beer in 1967.
This brewery used spring water drawn from nearby Castlethorpe and was down the towpath from the White Hart pub. The brewery buildings were eventually demolished.
 

The former barge turning area pictured by Brigg Blog during Christmas week 2019 when the level of the River Ancholme had been dropped considerably.

There used to be a number of commercial wharves on the Old Ancholme, not far from the County Bridge, together with the town's gas works.
Laden barges arrived from Hull and other destinations, unloaded their cargoes and turned round at a point where the river had been widened (near the brewery) to make this possible.
Did the so-called sunken barge actually sink? Or was it removed from its watery resting place? The latter suggestion seems more likely.
Anglers today still cast their lines on this part of the Ancholme - known as the Spring's Stretch due to the famous preserves factory being sited nearby until the 1970s.
Over the years, Brigg Blog has featured some pictures of anglers with handsome pike landed on this stretch of the Old Ancholme.
There was once rumoured to be a giant pike that lived near the riverside warehouse on the other side of the County Bridge, close to the Nelthorpe Arms. After this riverside structure had been removed, the pub's attractive beer garden occupied the land. The pub has since closed for good and now offers residential accommodation.
Hundreds of Yorkshire anglers used to come to Brigg by train in the 19th century and the first five or six decades of the 20th, many of them staying for a few days at the Nelthorpe Arms, the Woolpack and the Butcher's Arms, on Wrawby Street. The latter premises today house Parris Watson's Deli Diner.
Anglers still come to Brigg to fish various stretches of both rivers, some taking part in organised matches.

A couple of handsome pike landed by anglers on the stretch of the Old River Ancholme near the former Spring's jam factory site in recent years - duly recorded by Brigg Blog as we happened to be passing by at the time.