SATURDAY BRIGG CHORES 'STICK' IN THE MEMORY

Following Brigg Blog's recent post about the Saturday morning chores that youngsters in the town used to be assigned by senior members of the family, we found this picture in our archive - dating back to the era when scores of local council houses still had coal fires.
It was taken in February 1973 - the year before central heating was installed in many homes by the Brigg Urban authority - and features 'yours truly' on the right, alongside our good friend Dean 'Chip' Nutbrown.
Before we could set off for Saturday morning football kickabouts on the grassy area near South View Avenue, chores had to be completed. The axe we are holding was employed to chop sticks for fire-lighting.
Logs were bought in bulk by a householder who lived on our estate and sold on to local households. Some full bags can be seen in the Fisher family's cart on the left of the picture, taken on Central Square. Some logs went on fires; others were chopped up for kindling. Fire-lighters also needed to be folded from old newspapers.
Coal - brought from collieries in railway wagons to sidings near the station - was delivered by Joe Brocklesby's lorry and stored in a bunker - metal scuttles then being filled and taken indoors.
By the early 1970s, many Brigg council houses had the benefit of a gas point near the living room's coal fire into which a gas poker could be plugged to make ignition much easier.
Demand for logs, coal and fire-lighters fell through the floor when Brigg UDC modernised its more elderly council properties, just prior to the authority being wound up by local government reorganisation.
This might be seen as a parting gift from a council which had served the town well since the 1890s.
Newly-created Glanford Borough Council took over the entire council house stock in 1974.
Dean Nutbrown, whose family lived on Poplar Drive half-a-century ago, went on to become a football goalkeeper with local clubs and also played cricket for Brigg Town and then Broughton.
Despite this picture being taken in the depth of winter, family washing is on the line. We had an ancient drying machine, made by the famous Cotto company in Scunthorpe, but its capacity was limited. Perhaps it had finally packed up by February 1973. Although electrically operated dryers are a family 'must' today, not many council tenants had them in the 1960s and 1970s. Cotto appliances were built to last but our dryer was rudimentary. Wet washing was hung over wooden poles which slotted into the top. Can anyone else in Brigg today remember having to carry out this rather laborious task?
Brigg UDC's idea of central heating was basic, There was no time clock; households still woke up in winter to a cold property; the first person out of bed had to go downstairs and flick a switch to start the back boiler to warm the radiators. But compared to the work needed to light coal fires, no-one seemed to mind.