NEW STUDIO TO OPEN IN HISTORIC BRIGG BUILDING

An historic Brigg building which has seen many changes over the past couple of hundred years is soon to have a new use. It is welcome news that premises within the town centre, which have been empty for many months, are to reopen.
The ground floor of 57 Wrawby Street - adjoining the brick archway leading through to the Exchange - is being converted to host Brigg Hearing Studio, which will be "coming soon."
Internal work to convert the former shop premises is now proceeding.
Twentieth century tenants included a signmaker/writer, a painting & decorating firm and the Lincolnshire Times weekly newspaper from 1952 until 1985 when it closed.
The three-storey property was then acquired by a local businessman who converted it into flats.
Following another change of ownership, the ground floor was used by a variety of small businesses ranging from haberdashery to computer repairs and shoes. Residential accommodation continued above.
The Lincs Times based its reception and photography staff on the ground floor, with editorial and advertising on the second.
The top floor was storage only by 1980 when we went to work there and was very rarely accessed by staff.
However, during one visit to the upper reaches of the building we noted very small-sized bricks in the walls, of a type popular in Brigg during the late 18th century and early 19th centuries.
So we reckon this property has been a feature of Wrawby Street for well over 200 years.
Brigg businessman Joe Mullen redeveloped the former Lincs Times car park and storage buildings at the back (accessed through the archway) in the 1990s to provide additional bedrooms around a courtyard for his mid-18th century grade two* (star) Exchange Inn, fronting Bigby Street.

PICTURED: The ground floor shop yesterday (Friday, July 23) and in the late 1960s/early 1970s while it housed the Lincolnshire Times newspaper's reception area. Note the display of news pictures in the front window (updated weekly). Many passers-by stopped to look at them, with particular interest being shown in wedding, school and sports-related prints. People used to buy black and white copies - a lucrative sideline for this traditional paper which was edited and printed in Hull on the city centre presses of the Daily Mail - then part of Hull & Grimsby Newspapers Ltd which also published the Grimsby Telegraph and the Scunthorpe Telegraph.