SATURDAY MEMORIES OF BRIGG 1965-1999

Yet another Saturday night spent at home in Brigg during lockdown set us thinking yesterday about Saturdays long ago in the town when people were able to get out and about.

During the period 1965-1999 many kids had jobs, including paper rounds which included early Saturday morning and evening deliveries for Richardson's, Jack Clark and W. H. Smith.

Some youngsters were also sent out around 6pm to the Angel Hotel's frontage, in the Market Place, to buy a copy of the Saturday Sports Telegraph (dropped off by van from the printing works in Grimsby).
Youngsters' routine Saturday chores included collecting the family bread order from Bowen's bakery on Grammar School Road, washing out the empty pop bottles ahead of collection by the Laws company, and chopping sticks, filling the coal scuttles and making firelighters (prior to central heating being installed in dozens of council houses during the 1970s).
If you passed your 11+ and were sent to Brigg Grammar, this seat of learning had mandatory lessons from 9am to 12.30 on Saturdays.  This historic practice was abolished in July 1968 - cause for celebration among many pupils and (on the quiet) its staff, no doubt!
Glebe Road School played football matches in a Scunthorpe League on Saturday mornings - home games at the Recreation Ground and away fixtures courtesy of buses hired for this purpose when Reg Stocks was headmaster. A quarter of sweets bought from Mrs Gray's shop on Glebe Road helped to pass the time as pupils headed to Scunthorpe to play Gurnell Street, Riddings, Lincoln Gardens and others.
Summer cricket matches saw those picked to represent Brigg Grammar heading for Lincoln, Gainsborough, Barton, Market Rasen and Grimsby on Saturdays.
Youngsters who managed to gain selection for 'adult' sports teams at The Rec enjoyed Saturday fixtures with Brigg Amateurs FC (three teams for a few years in the 1980s) or White Horse. 

Brigg Hockey Club (various teams) was still playing friendly matches on three grass pitches.
Home and visiting players would then make the short walk to The Hawthorns to join spectators who had watched that afternoon's Brigg Town game. The clubhouse would be packed (both sides of the bar) with teas, prepared in the kitchen, being served to the hockey players - often pie and peas. Later, Bob & Sue Nicholson, who took over the Queen's Arms on Wrawby Street, provided after-match fare.
Saturday was the main playing day for Brigg Town Cricket Club (re-established in 1974) although after the first season or two they gradually added midweek and Sunday games. Matches were first played at The Rec prior to using Sir John Nelthorpe School and the Brigg Sugar Factory ground in Scawby Brook (into the early 1990s).
Many Brigg families 40 years ago would have a Saturday lunch-time treat - fish & chips - bought from Neall's on Coney Court, what's now The Garden on Grammar School Road or Evy Wojak's on Glebe Road.
The arrival of Bakers Oven on Wrawby Street in the 1980s and Tesco's store in the late 1990s gave additional options for a cafe-type Saturday morning snack.
Some hostelries now lost to the town were available for Saturday nights out decades ago, including the Nelthorpe Arms (run by Myles and Mary Scanlon), Alan Long's Ancholme Inn, the Brocklesby Ox and the Queens Arms (managed by Jim and Jean Cunningham before the Nicholson era).
From the late 1950s through to the early 1980s, there were sufficient Grimsby Town fans in Brigg to make it economic for the Supporters' Club to run a bus to all Saturday homes games at Blundell Park - Cary Lane and the cemetery stop on Wrawby Road being the main pick-up points.
Scunthorpe United had more Brigg fans but there was no organised transport to and from the Old Show Ground.
Saturday was a popular day for trainspotting in Brigg but it lost its appeal for most of them when British Rail phased out steam traction in this area in the mid-1960s.
However, when Brigg station still had a decent number of trains running on Saturday, bucket & spade summer excursions were made to Cleethorpes by some families who also used rail as a way of taking a week's holiday at other English resorts.
The arrival of the video machine age in Brigg during the 1980s resulted in many people hiring films from premises near the Monument and in the Market Place to watch at home on Saturday evenings, resulting in some loss of trade for town pubs.

PICTURED: A Brigg Town FC match at the Hawthorns in the early 1970s, Grammar School pupils exiting the drive in the late 1960s, Videorama, and the Market Place looking towards the County Bridge circa 1972.