HOST OF BRIGG CHRISTMAS MEMORIES FROM THE 1960s & 1970s - BUTCHERS, BAKERS, EVEN CIGAR MAKERS!

Brigg households are now busy stocking up with food and drink to see them through the Christmas and New Year period, with huge quantities of frozen produce being stored away in chest freezers. But things were very different 50 or 60 years ago.
Those of us who enjoyed Christmas celebrations in the 1960s and 1970s will recall friends, family and neighbours dropping by at various times of the day to exchange cards, gifts and seasonal greetings, and to receive mandatory refreshments from their hosts. 

Festive food provision back then required considerable time management and forward planning.
With very few homes having freezers and many still being without fridges and relying on metal 'safes' at the back of the pantry, fresh food had to be purchased just prior to Christmas Day/Boxing Day.
Meat was ordered from Barnard's, the Bridge Street butcher's (still open today) but the town centre has since lost some other outlets like Turner's and Waters. 

Pork specialist Turner's very tasty pork pies featured in scores of local households across the Brigg area, together with boiled ham joints, sausages and haslet. Pork pies came with a layer of 'jelly' under the thick crust. Pictured above is a circa 1970 advert.
Pre-Christmas queues to collect bread and cakes (requested in advance) often formed outside Bowen's (Wrawby Street and Grammar School Road) and Dunham's, on Bridge Street (the latter still being with us today).
Brigg Market, with stalls on both sides of the A18, did a roaring trade.

When it came to specialist 'deli' items and cheeses, many housewives called at Instone's, on Wrawby Street.
With no large Brigg supermarkets present in this far off era, people relied on deliveries by grocery shops like Melias and George Mason - some coming by van, others courtesy of a boy or girl riding a box-carrying bike.
 

 

Stocking up with Christmas drinks was done differently 50 or 60 years ago. 'Pop' for the children was delivered to the door by lorry drivers from Brigg-based LAWS (Lindsey Aerated Water Supply). Latterly, this company also provided bottles of ale for home consumption.
 

 

Huge stocks of beer, wine & spirits were sold by dedicated off-licences -, including Hull Brewery (Queen Street) and the Angel Hotel Wine Shop in the Market Place - pictured above, to the left. There was a similar outlet on Bridge Street, belonging to a Lincoln-based firm.
Most households - even those which did not consume much alcohol at other times of the year - had a bottle of sherry or port to hand ('just in case someone pops round') or perhaps Woodpecker cider or Babycham ('the champagne perry').

Ginger wine was another local favourite (we think it was stocked by the Hull Brewery 'offie').
 

 

Home baking was an art practised by most housewives 50 or 60 years ago - lemon curd and jam tarts often being filled from jars made at Spring's riverside factory in Brigg. British Sugar, with its large processing facility at Scawby Brook, always faced rising demand in December - for obvious reasons.
In line with the popular Christmas song, many Brigg households bought chestnuts to roast on an open fire - coal-using grates still prevailing in most Brigg homes. The urban council finally installed central heating in its rented properties in 1973/4.
A bowl of fresh fruit (rather than tinned) was a Christmas treat for many families. Ours also had a few boxes of dates and figs bearing Arabic writing - a throwback to the late 1940s when Dad served in Egypt with the Royal Engineers and grew partial to these delicacies grown in northern Africa.
Packs of Lincoln biscuits were another popular 'Christmas past' staple, accompanying Lincolnshire plum bread layered with 'marge' or (due to the special time of year) Lurpak butter in its distinctive foil wrapper.
Long before the internet arrived and Amazon came to meam much more than a river, all Christmas shopping had to be done in person by visiting retail premises within Brigg town centre, with Woolworth's (housed in today's Martin's shop) a particular favourite due to the wide range of goods it sold.
Boxes of chocolates, packs of sweets and selection boxes flew off Tierney's shelves; Councillor Mike, an old boy of Brigg Grammar School, swapped premises on Wrawby Street as demand rose over the years.
Together with Hounslow's, he also catered for those who yearned for a good Christmas cigar after tucking into December 25's roast chicken dinner (turkey was to come much later for many local families 'on a budget').  
Tobacconists were kept busy in the 1960s and 1970s selling gift packs of 100 Senior Service (a strong brand of ciggies),  pipe cleaners, tins of Redbreast rolled tobacco (with a Robin on the front), plus attractive presentation boxes containing several hundred 'safety' matches, decorated with pictures of attractive scenes,
However, much of the Christmas trade came from cigars - many Dads and Grandfathers sinking down into their easy chairs to watch the Queen's Speech on TV as a plume of smoke rose slowly from a slow-burning King Edward.
Children's toys were bought from Bennett's, Sherwood's and Ernie Taylor's shops - often paid for over many weeks through a 'Join our Christmas Club' instalment plan.
Getting a new bike for Christmas was a thrill for boys and girls, while many Brigg youngsters could be seen on pavements near their homes trying out model Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox vehicles received as presents - accompanying sound effects being added. Brrmm! Brrmm!
Airfix model kits made good gifts. "Put plenty of newspaper down and don't make a mess!" was an instruction heard in many Brigg homes as children took to the kitchen table after Christmas to assemble their trains & boats and planes. Soon the air was filled with a whiff of Bostik glue, squeezed (not always carefully) from a metal tube pierced by a pin to get things flowing.
Many boys received a new leather football as their main Christmas present - a choice with a hidden agenda. It meant these noisy and excited youngsters could be ordered down to the playing field for a kick-about, giving parents an hour of two's peace during the season of goodwill to all men (and women).
Then, as now, parcels of presents were posted to people living far away. The original Post Office on the corner of Queen Street and Bigby Street was still offering a full counter service in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as dealing with parcels.
Although available today in this era of 'gift' cards to spend online or in-store, postal orders were particularly popular 50 or 60 years ago.
In the run up to Christmas, many wise men (and women) who were concerned about sending a present that the child already had or might not like, instead paid cash at the Post Office in return for a card with a monetary voucher attached which could be exchanged at leisure for something suitable.
We recall receiving one in the mid-1960s for 10 shillings (50p) which we cashed in for a cowboy set, including sharpshooter pistol, at Winnie's (Richardson's) on the corner of Cross Street and Wrawby Street (part of the premises now used by Shipley's CuriosIteas).
Children, and some adults, were dreaming of a white Christmas 50 or 60 years ago. The term 'global warming' was unknown long ago era, but even the very deep mid-winter of 1962-63 failed to deliver an abundance of the white stuff in until after Christmas Day!

PICTURED AT THE TOP: Sherwood's and Taylor's circa 1970, with Christmas lights evident; inset - Spring's lemon cheese.