BRIGG TO BE A BEACON OF LIGHT DURING QUEEN'S PLATINUM JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS

Brigg Town Council was ahead of the game when it took a recent decision to install a tall beacon on the grassy mound at the Millennium Green, to be lit to celebrate future royal events.
For just a few weeks after the council's forward-thinking ruling, the government announced that a FOUR-DAY bank holiday is to be held from June 2 to 5 in 2022 to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee (a record 70 years as monarch).
Events to mark the Jubilee will be held across the UK, with Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden pledging it will be a celebration to remember.
We are sure Brigg will be to the fore in June 2022, as it was in June 2012 when the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was marked in style.
A committee was formed to organise various morning events in the Market Place, followed by a parade through the town to the Recreation Ground where many more were enjoyed during the afternoon. In the evening there was a well-attended dance and social night in the Angel Suite.
Town Mayor at the time, Coun Carl Sherwood, was so impressed with the efforts of the organising committee that he tabled a motion at the June 2012 Town Council meeting, which resolved to send official thanks to those involved in organising the community celebrations enjoyed by hundreds of local people.
Coun Carl told that meeting in the Angel Suite: "I just cannot say enough about what the committee did in such a short space of time."
Coun Ben Nobbs, who chaired the Jubilee Committee, said in 2012 that the event would not have happened without the Town Council pledging a "case of need" grant "to allow things to get started." Further support had then come from North Lincolnshire Council. He said of the Jubilee Celebrations: "I think it was a good day."

Public meetings were organised, with volunteers stepping forward to offer their time and know-how.
The Queen famously came to Brigg in 1977 as part of her extensive Silver Jubilee tour marking 25 years on the throne.
Local schoolchildren performed a pageant on the Rec Ground, off Wrawby Road. Among those presented to Her Majesty after she arrived in the royal car were Brigg's Robert Crosby, clerk & chief executive, Glanford Borough Council; Brigg Town Mayor, Coun Bryan Robins; Coun Phil Wood, of Hibaldstow, Mayor of Glanford; and Joseph J. Magrath, Brigg's Town Clerk and former chief officer of Brigg Urban District Council.
There was also a parade through the streets, involving members of local groups and organisations, with various events held at Brigg Town Football Club's Hawthorns ground.
The metal beacon has yet to go up on the Elwes Street area of public open space, now managed by the Town Council, but is expected to be erected over the next few months.
Two tall beacons stood either side of Station Road, near the Hewson House offices, for many years but were subsequently removed - leaving Brigg without a traditional way of marking major milestones. Beacons have been lit across Britain for centuries, some examples being the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 when an invasion fleet was defeated, and the end of world war hostilities in 1918 and 1945.
PICTURED AT THE TOP OF OUR POST: Celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in Brigg - June 2012; Couns Ann Eardley, Sheila Boughey and Ben Nobbs at one of the public meetings held in the Angel Suite to plan the Diamond celebrations; and one of the beacons that previously stood on Station Road.

 

A poster from 2012 showing some of Brigg's Diamond Jubilee events.