CHRISTMAS PAST IN BRIGG - PART TWO: FOOD, DRINK & CUSTOMS

Brigg youngsters 50 or more years ago had little hope of making their limited weekly pocket money stretch far enough to buy all the Christmas presents they were required to provide.
So part-time jobs were in great demand, including delivering boxes of groceries by bike for local shops, signing up for newspaper delivery rounds with Richardson's (known as Winnie's after the manageress), W. H. Smith or Jack Clark. There was also autumn potato-picking available at local farms, including Jack Day's at Wrawby.
Sizeable supermarkets having yet to appear in Brigg half a century ago, families relied heavily on town centre grocers like Eddie Instone, C.W Davis, George Mason and Melias when it came to Christmas fare.
Large chest freezers for domestic use were not common-place in Brigg back then; indeed, some households were without even a basic fridge. So for perishable items, it was a case of buying what was needed for the table only a day or two in advance.
Brigg households ordered their bread and cakes in advance to collect on Christmas Eve from bakers Bowen's and Dunham's, and a similar arrangement applied to Turner's pork pies, bacon joints and Lincolnshire haslet. Remember queueing outside these premises in the old days?
Butchers offering more than pork products, including Waters and Barnard's, supplied Christmas period joints, with roast chicken far more prevelant on the December 25 dinner table than the more expensive turkey - then something of a luxury item.
Stennett's Thursday produce auction down Manley Gardens (located on land behind what is now the China Royal, then the Bridge Street Cafe) did a roaring pre-Christmas trade selling eggs, butter and birds for the table.
The festives prices attained would duly appear in the next issue of the Lincolnshire Times, based at 57 Wrawby Street, whose duty reporter, assigned to collect the list in person, would have to resist the temptation to pop into the Nelthorpe Arms on his/her way back for a pre-Christmas drinks served by landlord Myles Scanlon.
Popular Christmas tipples to consume at home included bottles of brown & light ale or stout purchased from specialist off-licences in the Market Place (the Angel Hotel's wine shop), Queen Street (Hull Brewery) and Bridge Street.
Van drivers working for LAWS (Lindsey Aerated Water Supply), which had premises in Brigg, were very busy before Christmas delivering glass bottles filled with 'pop' of various flavours, also also Davenport's ales brought right to the door.
Those under-18 were often permitted to have a cider or two (from a glass bottle, not today's ubiquitous plastic containers!).
Mums, aunts and grandmothers would often enjoy a sherry, a glass of port (with or without lemon), ginger wine or Babycham.
There might also be a half-bottle of spirits available for a nightcap, once the kids had been sent to bed.
Pre-Christmas fresh fruit and veg were delivered to the door by local traders like Peter Addison - produce being weighed out on scales in the back of the van as customers looked on. Peter is pictured below making his rounds.

 

 

Boxes of exotic dates and figs (often with Arabic lettering), Turkish delight and orange & lemon slices were given as presents, to be shared generously among family members by the recipients. The same applied to boxes of chocolates, the contents of selection boxes and tins of toffees.

We recall being impressed that Black Magic offered a smaller single-layer box which gift-buying kids could afford. Clever thinking on someone's part.
Many Brigg youngsters would be getting a bit sick of luxury treats when Boxing Day had been and gone; quite literally, in some cases... especially so if they had sneaked a few whisky-liqueur chocs while no-one was looking.
Nuts in their shells were bought by the paper bagful on Brigg Market, including walnuts, beech nuts, Brazils and chestnuts.
The latter were roasted in the evenings over Christmas and New Year in many Brigg households which still had coal fires, with pikelets (crumpets) stuck on a long three-pronged fork to toast.
Brigg Urban District Council installed central heating in all its properties in the early to mid-1970s, ending this widespread toasting tradition. However, the authority did not go to the expense of fitting time-clocks so the first family member who got up early on Christmas morning would still have to flick the heating's on-switch downstairs... perhaps having first scraped the ice off the inside of the single-glazed bedroom window before looking out to see if Christmas Day was a rare snowy one.
Although there were still only three channels 'on the box' in the late 1960s and early 1970s, most local homes bought the bumper Christmas editions of the Radio Times and the TV Times to see what BBC1, BBC2 and Anglia had to offer. ITV later provided Yorkshire programmes from Lincolnshire's Belmont transmitter.
Christmas in Brigg schools 50+ years ago included nativity plays and bring-and-buy sales at Glebe Road Primary, followed by festive parties in the hall. There were also makeshift postboxes in the classrooms where pupils could post cards to each other and the teacher(s).
We can't recall Brigg Grammar School hosting any Christmas parties while we were there. Looking back down the decades, this now seems rather surprising. We brewed beer as part of the chemistry course in the fourth or fifth year and if some had been bottled and stocked up... Well, maybe not!
New Year's Day used to see a lot of 'first footing' in Brigg with neighbours visiting each other. This ancient tradition required the caller to carry a lump of coal and the practice was supposed to ensure good luck for the 12 months ahead, but only if the host family furnished suitable refreshments, often of the alcoholic variety.
Do many people in Brigg still carry on this practice which was commonplace 50 years ago? We think it's still popular in Scotland and perhaps north-east England. 

This is the second part of our Christmas Past feature. If you missed the first post, here's a link....