BRIGG FOLK LIVED THROUGH 'THE BLITZ'

Some Brigg people today will remember living through 'The Blitz' in 1973/4, although no enemy bombs fell on the town.
Brigg Urban District Council embarked on a radical modernisation programme to refurbish its older council houses, including installing central heating, inside toilets, bathrooms and new windows (not double-glazed).
Some tenants re-located to a limited number of caravans parked specially nearby while the project proceeded, but the majority stayed put.
Contractors arrived early in the morning and families were expected to vacate their homes until tea-time when the workers left and the water was switched on again so toilets could be used overnight. Dust and grime were everywhere.
Some of us were trying to revise for important exams while this was going on, day after day.
In that era where was no point in grumbling to the teachers or headmaster and little or no chance the exam boards would have taken such factors into account even if they knew the circumstances.
One angry and outspoken tenant who lived through all this visited a Brigg pub one evening and protested in earshot of a local newspaper reporter (not us), resulting in a hard-hitting front page story in the next edition.
However, it was explained that the UDC had planned much more extensive refurbishment, only for the government to question the high cost the authority was intending to expend on each property. Presumably central government grants were involved.
So a less elaborate scheme had to be substituted, which might well have contributed to the living hell that families had to endure.
It was particularly difficult for shift workers - and there were many of them in Brigg at that time. How could they be expected to sleep  during the day with all this going on?
After completion of the improvements, tenants liked and appreciated what the council had done.
Central heating was a particularly welcome addition, but no timers were installed.
So instead of someone getting up early to make and light the coal fire(s), the first person downstairs had to flick the switch to start the back boiler and provide heat and water for the day.
Brigg council house properties requiring the most attention and investment had been built in the 1920s.
Those on the Springbank estate (post-Second World War) had more 'mod cons' when they were constructed.
It's all long behind us now but those grim times spent living on what amounted to a building site still remain fresh in the memory of some Brigg residents today.
Our picture, taken in the late 1960s, shows the back yard of our family's council house on Central Square, with the outside toilet on the left and the door to the coalhouse on the right.
Brigg UDC installed a bathroom with toilet in 1974 by shaving off part of the largest upstairs bedroom. The outside toilet was retained and given modern plastic fittings and pipework.
There was more misery for Brigg council house tenants in the early 1970s when successive UK industrial disputes resulted in extensive power cuts.
Just prior to the council house refurb and while our family's only toilet was still across the yard, it was nicknamed The Candle Khasi because it would have been pitch dark in the evenings but for makeshift illuminations installed beside 'the throne'.
There was no danger of those who grew up in Brigg council houses back then being dubbed The Snowflake Generation, although some flakes were encountered on trips to and from the outside 'bog' across the yard during the winter!