BRIGG AREA FOOTBALL MATCHES WERE PLAYED ON CHRISTMAS DAY WHEN TRAINS STILL RAN ON DECEMBER 25

Christmas Day in the Brigg area was once seen as a good time to play, or watch, local sports fixtures.
Lee Fielden - Barnetby United Football Club's stalwart player, official and historian - has kindly furnished Brigg Blog with details of a couple of games which were enjoyed on Christmas Day.
Match report cuttings in Lee's extensive archive show a 'seven-goal classic' home match circa 1937, which was watched by more than 300 spectators!
Post-war in the 1948-49 season, Barnetby played at home to Louth United on Christmas Day and won 10-0 in a Grimsby League first division encounter.
Nicknamed The Railwaymen, Barnetby's footballers then travelled to Louth on Boxing Day and won 7-1.
This prompts us to wonder if, as a passenger train service still operated on Christmas Day, this was how Barnetby's players got to and from Louth - family car ownership not being widespread in those days.
Passengers could board trains at Barnetby station to Grimsby Town and then change to head south to Louth along the East Lincolnshire Line. It closed in 1970, as part of British Rail's so-called Beeching Cuts.
This route ran through North Thoresby and Ludborough, whose village stations have since been reopened by enthusiasts as the popular Lincolnshire Wolds heritage railway.
A quick check online today suggests that BR was still timetabling trains in England on Christmas Day in the mid-1960s.
Perhaps someone who follows Brigg Blog has archive material showing the last time Brigg Town FC, or other local teams, played  league games on Christmas Day.
Barnetby players decades ago must have been well chuffed to be supported by 300 villagers on Christmas Day!

PICTURED ABOVE: A now-preserved B1 4-6-0 steam loco, built in the 1940s, arriving at Barnetby railway station. Image courtesy of Lee Fielden.

 

Click on these images to take a closer look at the reports.