BRIGG MEMORIES OF THE IRON HORSE NEAR THE RAILWAY LINE

Our recent post about the removal - on safety grounds - of the slide on the Davy Memorial Playing Field in Brigg brought back memories for former town resident Denis Laycock, now living in Derbyshire and a regular reader of our Blog.
We explained in our initial post that the slide that's now been taken away is not the original one, and wondered when the first might have been installed.
Denis says that arrived during the early 1950s, and explains: "At that time I was living in Bigby High Road and my brother and I spent a great deal of time there. I would guess the original slide was erected in 1951. (I was eight years old at the time.)
"At the same time a new green see-saw was installed and a brown five- or six-seater iron rocking horse. I always found the latter item somewhat frightening as some of the bigger lads could get it to rise quite high on the folding metal supports which created the rocking motion. It came back down with great force which was dangerous. I’m sure it would not have passed any modern day safety laws.
"One of our favourite games at the time was to collect a large tin barrel from the area between the playing field and what became Platts’ depot. (It had previously been the garage for Fergus Proctor’s lorry fleet prior to nationalisation).
"We would then climb into the barrel, curl up against the side, and roll down the slope between the road and the playing field. The danger of that manoeuvre never seemed to bother me, and none of us came to any harm.
"Another memory from that time concerns the arrival in Brigg of consignments of Irish cattle by rail. They were unloaded into the cattle pens between the station and the level crossing before being herded along Bigby Street and the Market Place to the cattle market.
"On more than one occasion disaster followed when they reached the Elwes Street junction, with some of the animals crashing into the widows of Kettle’s Furniture Store."
Brigg Blog has childhood memories from the 1960s of the rocking horse, see-saw and tall slide mentioned by Denis. So the Urban District Council certainly got its money's worth from the play equipment!
Pictured above: The plaque on the Davy Memorial Field explaining its history.