BRIGG CURRYS FAVOUR WITH BIG NAME IN RETAILING

How many people today remember when national company Currys had a shop in Brigg Market Place?
Along with other famous retailers like Woolworth's and Binns, Currys eventually closed its outlet in our town centre. But the memories live on for some of us, and today we offer Currys-related images from the late 1940s and early 1970s.
Although it became renowned for selling electrical 'white goods' and other applicances, Currys was also a major player in the lucrative cycles market, as well as dealing in radios at a time when relatively few local homes could afford a TV.
While looking through an interesting and varied collection of printed archive material recently made available to us by veteran local sportsman Col Mumby, Brigg Blog's eye was taken by a Currys advert from 1949.
"Hurry to Currys for your cycle or radio," was the post-war austerity period message to northern Lincolnshire folk.
As well as offering bikes from well-known makers Raleigh and Triumph, Currys sold its own brand of cycles, and others from the Hercules factory.
Hercules cycles, as the name suggests, were strong and rugged, and we recall some of them were still being ridden in Brigg during the 1960s and 1970s. They were built to last!
It's not widely known that George Layne - later to become a big name in motor vehicle sales - started out as a cycle repairer and maker. In 1914 he finally settled into premises on Bigby Street, adjoining the Dying Gladiator, and the business he established continued on the same site until 50-or-so years ago.
Bennett's, on Wrawby Street, was a major post-war cycle seller, with Sherwood's being established on Bridge Street in the early 1960s.
Today, Brians DIY, on Wrawby Street, has a cycle sales and repairs section.
Falcon Cycles, on Bridge Street, was a major local employer with its Brigg bike-making factory being famously visited by The Princess of Wales (Lady Diana) in March 1988 as part of a royal trip to the town.
Among the shops providing radios and repairing them in Brigg following the Second World War was Ernest Taylor's, on Wrawby Street. Coun Ernie moved with the times in later decades and sold and mended an increasing number of televisions as demand for 'the wireless' tailed off.

We'll feature more of Col Mumby's archive material in a future post - this time, football related memories.

PICTURED: A Currys advert from the late 1940s and the company's Brigg shop in the early 1970s when it sold electrical goods as well as cycles.