BRIGG SHOPPERS ENJOYED THE WONDER OF WOOLIES

Brigg Blog followers who are aged under 40 might be surprised that one of the world's biggest retailers of the 20th century had a store in our town centre.
Woolworth's is pictured here circa 1980 - a few years before the giant company closed its Brigg outlet.
The Brigg store stocked a wide range of goods - from books to clothing, homeware to food, plus toys, sweets and even cut-price broken biscuits - a clever way of using up stock that would otherwise have gone to waste.
Losing woolworth's was a major blow for Brigg town centre. Having a 'Woolies' was a benchmark for UK high streets and a mark of prestige.
Thankfully, we've since gained Martin's - the nationally-known newsagent, also selling food, sweets, stationery, books and alcoholic drinks.
Next to Woolworth's, seen in the centre of this view, was Jackson's original Brigg supermarket in premises later occupied (for many years) by Poundstretcher and today used by Costa - the coffee specialist.
In the early 1980s Hull-based Jackson's was granted planning permission by Glanford Borough Council to build Brigg's first big food store - today occupied by B&M, having also hosted Presto, Safeway and Lidl down the decades.
Although concern was expressed by some locals about loss of trade by smaller shops in Brigg, there were no solid grounds for refusing approval for Jackson's riverside store, branded Grandways.
We recall penning several reports for the Lincolnshire & South Humberside Times as the scheme made its way through the planning process, and many members of the public contacted our office at 57 Wrawby Street to express their views - some in favour of the development and some against.
It was a landmark moment for retailing in Brigg when the local authority gave the go ahead, and many shoppers eagerly awaited the store's opening in 1981.
Today the premises occupied by B&M are not particularly large when compared with 'superstores' but, in the 1980s, Grandways was the biggest for miles around. The premises also attracted shoppers from Broughton and villages (large and small) within the Brigg area.
Some of these town visitors did their 'big shop' at Grandways but, while in Brigg, called at other retail premises, although probably not for groceries.
Forty years ago the bank on Wrawby Street was TSB, not Lloyds which had a branch of its own where Bigby Street meets the Market Place (today occupied by the Bank hairdressing salon). TSB's frontage is visible on the right of the picture taken 40 years ago.
The Trustee Savings Bank planned for the future; in the 1960s, pupils of Brigg County Primary School, on Glebe Road, had the option to take a shilling or two to class on Monday mornings to be deposited into their savings account through a green passbook. Birthday and holiday money was also banked.
TSB bosses hoped that, as they grew up, these young savers would continue to bank with the company. And many did.
A range of building societies established agencies within local companies' offices in Brigg town centre, including the famous Halifax at Bell Watson, on Wrawby Street.
As many companies phased out traditional weekly pay packets containing notes and coins during the 1980s, Brigg building society agencies were where many local workers paid in their cheques.
Boots (the chemist) features on both pictures.

 

 

The colour image below, featuring part of the Grandways supermarket, is part of an artist's impression produced when the Springs Parade business development, on the left, was at the planning stage.