FUNDRAISING WENT SWIMMINGLY IN BRIGG - A SHILLING AT A TIME

Ancholme Leisure Centre at Scawby Brook - serving the Brigg area - remains closed until further notice during the Coronavirus emergency.
Brigg Blog thought this a good time to take a few pictures of the centre from an unusual location - the other bank of the New River Ancholme.
Strong calls to establish a public swimming pool in Brigg were made in the early 1960s, with a fund being launched. Contributors included local families who gave sixpence or a shilling a week - collected class by class in the schools.
Older Brigg residents may also remember the 'totaliser' on the front of the Buttercross, then still the Town Hall, showing how much had been raised.
Brigg Urban District and Rural District Councils, which supported the pool project, were disbanded by local government reorganisation in 1974.
However, the new Glanford Borough Council pressed ahead with the well-advanced scheme and just a year later - on May 10, 1975 - Glanford Leisure Centre was officially opened by Sir Robin Brook, acting chairman of the Sports Council.
The centre's Sports Hall was opened by Coun Terry Atherton (Kirton Lindsey), the Mayor of Glanford, on January 21, 1991. So it's 30th anniversary is not too far away.
Perhaps North Lincolnshire Council will mark this milestone in some way.
It took over local leisure facilities in 1996, including our centre and the sports hall next door, and still runs things 24 years later.
For the benefit of those readers who are too young to remember pre-decimal coinage, sixpence was 2.5p in today's money and one shilling equates to 5p. The official switch to decimal currency was made on February 15, 1971 but old coins were still accepted for 18 months after that.

The sports hall viewed recently from the Brigg side of the New River Ancholme.