NEW BRIGG ALLOTMENTS ON LAND WHERE TENANTS ONCE GREW PREFAB SPROUTS

Taken in Brigg on Thursday (July 8) these colour pictures show work progressing to create a new allotments site. They show the scene from Preston Drive where protective fencing is in place for safety reasons.
Heavy plant can be seen on the part of Woodbine Park which is being converted to provide vegetable growing plots to be hired to tenants by Brigg Town Council.
This sizeable site will replace the well-established one off Grammar School Road (not far from the M180 flyover) which is earmarked by North Lincolnshire Council for future development.
Until their demolition by Brigg Urban District Council in the early 1970s, post-war prefab bungalows occupied all the land later grassed over to provide this park - extending as far as the South View Avenue and Atkinson Avenue junction near the Recreation Ground.
There were dozens of prefabs set out in neat rows (to use a veg-related phrase) and they all had front, rear and sometimes side gardens, which the tenants (often with assistance from younger members of the family - see picture above) used to grow potatoes, cabbages, brussels (Prefab Sprouts!), carrots, peas, beans and soft fruit - all destined for the table.
So completion of these new plots will see the wheel turning full circle in Brigg.
The prefab pictures seen here were taken in the late 1950s and show gardens being used to grow a variety of veg and also roses and other blooms. This was an era of prosperity, according to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who famously suggested that "most of our people have never had it so good."
The politician known as Supermac, of course, never lived in a tiny prefab with two bedrooms as we did at 16 Woodbine Grove (close to the back gardens of some council properties on Hawthorn Avenue).
Many Brigg couples in the 1950s and 1960s began married life in the Woodbine Grove prefabs, and there was another smaller estate of them on Elwes Street of a different design.
The council later rehoused tenants from both sites into rented brick-built homes on estates across the town. They had three bedrooms and therefore rents were higher.
In addition to two small bedrooms, the Woodbine prefabs had a sitting room, a small fitted kitchen (with fridge), a bathroom and an inside toilet. However, the bungalows were heated by a traditional coal fire in the living area. Metal sheds were provided near the side door to store bulky household items and garden tools.
We believe there will also be storage facilities on the new allotments once the project is completed, so history will again be repeating itself.
Brigg has another set of allotments off Atherton Way/Redcombe Lane.
Anyone wishing to obtain further details about hiring an allotment on a yearly tenancy should contact Brigg Town Council. Email enquiries@briggmarkettown.co.uk or write to/inquire at the authority's office within the Angel building, Market Place.