BRIGG DATES TIMELINE PART SIX: 1086 TO 1799 - POSTED APRIL 2020

Brigg Blog today posts the sixth and final part in a Dates Timeline series featuring events of note in our area from the 11th century through to the present day. Here we look at the period from 1066 to 1799.
If you have additional entries to include for these years, please email scoopfisher@aol.com
Your contribution will be included next time we update our Brigg Timeline with additional entries.
Brigg Blog's aim is to create a database tracing the development of our town from a humble fording place on the Ancholme, with a few properties nearby, to the popular market town it is today.
Although our Dates Timeline is centred on Brigg, some entries relating to the surrounding district have been included, and more are welcome.

1066: Anglo-Saxon England was invaded by the Normans. The Lindsey part of well-populated Lincolnshire, including the Brigg area, was already established by the time the French landed on the country's south coast. Taxes were imposed by the Normans, under King William I, and land awarded to French noblemen. Lincolnshire had thousands of free peasants or sokemen.

1086: Local settlements were mentioned in the Domesday Book, drawn up on the orders of William the Conqueror to show the value of his new lands. They included Castlethorpe, Wrawby, Cadney, Barnetby, Elsham, Scawby, Broughton, Kettleby, Bigby, Grasby, Searby, North & South Kelsey,  Hibaldstow, Kirmington, Redbourne, Croxton, Worlaby and Melton Ross. The author of the Domesday Book made reference to Brigg as Glandham and Glantham, Edward Dodd suggested in his book Brigg (published in 1974).  The River Ancholme could be forded by people on foot, with or without animals. Ted suggested the Ancholme valley was then a morass, narrowing to the one point where a crossing could be effected with safety “and leading to the one piece of high ground - the site of the present Market Place.”


1166: An Augustinian Priory was established in Elsham.

1171: Newstead-on-Ancholme Priory at Cadney founded.

1183: Brigg was “established as a town” but known as Glanford or Glamford (various  spellings being employed back then).

1205: Hugh de Neville - Sheriff, Chief Forester and Crusader -  was granted a royal charter to hold a market and fair in Brigg

1236: The word ‘Brigg’ had been added to Glanford, suggesting the creation  of the first bridge. Ernisius Neveille, Hugh's son, acquired the market and fair rights.

1287: The River Ancholme was being used by commercial barges.

1313: It was reported to King Edward I that “men and cattle passing over Glaunford Brigg in the time of such flouds were seldom out of danger.”



1330 (circa): The Hospital of St John opened in/near Brigg to help the old and poor.

1334: A national taxation survey valued Brigg and Wrawby together.

1349: The Black Death plague hit Lindsey, killing hundreds of inhabitants.

1400: Estimated date for the opening of the Angel Hotel, originally a coaching house. An advertisement for the Angel in the early 1970s proclaimed: “Visitors have been welcome at this hostelry since 1400 and it is our hope that they will enjoy our surroundings for many more years to come.”

1500: Brigg consisted of about 30 properties clustered around the Market Place.


1538: Newstead Priory, Cadney, was dissolved.

1541/1542: King Henry VIII stayed at Kettleby Manor, being entertained by the owner Robert Trywhitt.




1555: Local parishes became responsible for the upkeep of any roads in their areas.
 
1577: A grammar school was established in Kirton Lindsey.


1600: Mr Smith, founder of E.H. Smith's Ironmongers, came to Brigg from Whitby to visit friends; he never went back and the business went on to trade in the Market Place for over 350 years, closing in 1969. (Information kindly supplied by Josie Webb).

1601: Richard Nelthorpe moved to Brigg, having married Ursula Graynyer, from Bigby, at Wrawby Church.


1601: Every parish was required, by law, to level a rate to 'keep' its local poor.

1603: Work began on building Scawby Hall.

1604: Catholic Mass said in Brigg by Henry Garnet in what is now the Lloyds Bank building on Wrawby Street. Henry was executed two years later for his links with Guy Fawkes’ whose Gunpowder Plot in 1605 aimed to blow up Parliament.

1607: A writer called Camdenir noted that the Ancholme was crossed by a bridge at Glanford, a small market town that inhabitants called Brigg (from the bridge). He described the river as a muddy little stream abounding in eels.

1635: The new 'cut' of the River Ancholme was created over four years, greatly improving drainage and navigation. Sir John Monson oversaw drainage of 18,000 acres within the valley.

1643: Brigg was a fortified garrison “in the hands of Cromwell’s Parliament” during the Civil War.

1654: Famous diarist and author John Evelyn - a friend of Sir John Nelthorpe - visited Brigg and observed it was a place "famous for its plantations of liquorice."

1665: Bridge built over the "old" river in Brigg. “The Court at the Angel” was delivering justice.

1666: John Nelthorpe (pictured above) became Sir John, having acquired a Baronetcy in the reign of King Charles II. Sir John was a lawyer, army officer and the owner of considerable land and property in Lincolnshire.

1669: The first Brigg ‘free’ school was founded by Sir John Nelthorpe in his will. He had been born in 1614 – probably in a Market Place property where the former HSBC bank now stands. This school, built on Townsend Closes, became known as Brigg Grammar.  Sir John stipulated that Latin Greek, Hebrew and arithmetic should be taught to the boys; he left land in trust to generate income for the upkeep of the facility.  The Brigg Grammar School song (early 20th century) relates that "Our founder gave broad acres to open wide the door of learning's mystic temple to every devotee."  The song is still sung at the annual dinner of the Briggensians' Association by former pupils and staff.
 
1674: Jeremy Elwes bought the Tyrwhitt estates of Wrawby, Brigg and Bigby, previously held by the Tyrwitts.

1680: Brigg Grammar School’s first master, The Rev Nathaniel Taylor, was nominated before 1680, and in March that year the first usher was appointed - William Barrett, of Barton- when it was noted that  the school house and dwelling house "were then nearing completion.” The only surviving reference to the school having been completed came in 1681.

1690: Eye-witness account from Mr Morley, of Redbourne, of 'a mighty rain' which hit Brigg, flushing young pike into the gutters of the streets.

1696: The original Kettleby Hall was demolished. Castlethorpe Castle that stood during King John’s reign was reported to be in ruins.

1699: The Rev Abraham De La Pryme, Vicar of Broughton and diarist, recorded a walk past St Helen’s Well at Wrawby; he called it "a great spring - famous in days of old."

1705: Brigg was described as being the seventh largest settlement in the district behind Haxey, Epworth, Belton, Barton, Crowle and Owston Ferry.

1723: The stagecoach journey from Brigg to London took four days.

1749: The White Hart pub, on Bridge Street, Brigg, was built.
 
1752: Brigg town centre expansion was started by the Elwes family - property and landowners. Changes made nationally to the calendar used in Britain altered the annual Brigg Fair date by 11 days to August 5.

1756: Eminent artist George Stubbs studied animal anatomy while renting a cottage in Horkstow; over the years he undertook a number of commissions for the Nelthorpe family, including Sir John Nelthorpe, 6th Baronet, Out Shooting with his Dogs in Barton Field 1776.

1760: A large detached property was built on Bigby Street (now the Exchange Coach House Inn, grade two star listed); it has had spells as a school and a gentlemen’s club; Major additions were made to Elsham Hall.

1765: Trust established to maintain the road from Lincoln through Brigg to Barton, with the route between Brigg and Caistor included the following year.

1767: An Act of Parliament set out more effectual drainage of land within the Ancholme valley to make the river navigable from Ferriby Sluice, through the town of Glamford Briggs to Bishop Bridge.

1770: Somerby Monument was erected (now grade two listed).

1772: The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, of Epworth, preached in Brigg – describing it as a noisy and turbulent town. However, “the fear of God fell upon the whole congregation” and he was well received by a large gathering. He returned in 1774, to less of a welcome, and again in 1781 when he was “constrained to preach in the Market Place.”

1780: Wrawby Windmill was built. The suggest peak for the rabbit fur processing trade in Brigg, much of which went to make hats.

1786: Turnpike road improvements reduced the stagecoach journey time between Brigg and London to 30 hours.

1787: The Rev James Walter was appointed headmaster of Brigg Grammar School, following a meeting of trustees held at the White Lion, in the Market Place.

1790: Jail opened at Kirton-in-Lindsey, serving the district, including Brigg; Bigby Rectory was constructed.

1791: A Quarter Sessions court for the district was held at Kirton; more serious offences were tried at the Assizes.

1794: Brigg Fair attracted 200 people from Hull who crossed the River Humber by boat.

1795: Plays were being performed and enjoyed by audiences at a theatre in Brigg.

1797: A ruined Roman villa's mosaic pavement was unearthed by workmen at Horkstow.

1798: Sir John Nelthorpe established the Brigg Independent Volunteer Armed Association force during the Napoleonic Wars.

PICTURED: The dedication stone above the original door of  what became Brigg Grammar School, established in Sir John Nelthorpe's will, 1669; Somerby Monument, erected in 1770; Wrawby Mill, built in 1780.