'VIRTUAL' BRIGG SCHOOL REUNION MAY GO GLOBAL

An annual Brigg school event which can trace its roots back almost 100 years could go global this year for the first time.
The Briggensians' Association - representing former pupils and staff of Sir John Nelthorpe School, Brigg Grammar, Brigg Girls' High and Brigg Sixth Form - cannot hold its annual dinner in March due to the Coronavirus restrictions on gatherings.
But it is hoped that the showpiece event will go ahead in 'virtual' format via the internet, which means that former pupils living across the globe, and as far away as Australia, will be able to watch and listen to the guest speakers at the same time as those 'old boys and girls' based in the Brigg area and elsewhere in the UK who would have bought tickets to attend the Spring 2021 event in the restaurant at Elsham Golf Club.
We'll keep Brigg Blog followers posted on this subject once details are confirmed.
The 2020 Briggensians' dinner/reunion was held just a few days before Lockdown 1 took effect last March.
The association was founded in July 1923; its first annual dinner was held on January 5, 1924 at the Woolpack Hotel, in Brigg Market Place, when tickets cost five shillings (25p).
Brigg's Angel Hotel, and possibly the Corn Exchange, hosted later get-togethers.
Elsham Golf Club - located just a couple of miles from the motorway network - has been the venue for many years with ex-pupils travelling from all parts of the UK, and occasionally from abroad, to attend pre-Covid.
If the 'virtual' event goes ahead in March, it will be interesting to see whether the traditional communal singing of the Brigg Grammar School song, Fortitudine, is included. The lyrics pay tribute to Brigg-born Sir John Nelthorpe who died 'without issue' in 1669 and made generous provision in his will to found the town's first school, which opened some years later.
The original schoolroom - now grade one listed - has survived and forms part of today's Sir John Nelthorpe comprehensive, established in 1976 when the grammar and high schools were discontinued.
Humberside County Council, then a fairly new education authority, was against 11-plus selection on policy grounds. Humberside took over local control from Lindsey County Council in 1974.

PICTURED: The oldest part of Sir John Nelthorpe School and some of the guests enjoying the pre-Covid 2020 Briggensians' dinner & reunion at Elsham Golf Club last March.