FORMER BRIGG JOURNALIST RETURNS TO TOWN 50 YEARS AFTER STARTING HERE AS A 'CUB' REPORTER

Many people of a certain age in Brigg still miss the Lincolnshire & South Humberside Times newspaper which had its branch office at 57 Wrawby Street.
Founded during Queen Victoria's reign, this weekly - published on Fridays - closed in 1985 for economic reasons.
Employed by parent paper the Hull Daily Mail on whose presses the Times was printed, many of the 'rookie' reporters assigned to the Brigg office were trained decades ago by veteran Brigg journalist Edward (Ted) Dodd, then the news editor. 'Doddy' lived on St Helens Road.
On Thursday, ex-Times scribes Roger Ratcliffe and David Bond, now living elsewhere, made a surprise return to Brigg. Apparently it is 50 years since Roger started as a cub reporter on the Lincs Times.  
We gather both long-serving journalists are still contributing to various publications.
While in Brigg they met up with some people they had known years ago, and no doubt took a look at the town to compare it with their era of local news reporting.
The former Times office today houses the recently established Brigg Hearing Centre.
Our picture, which will be familiar to Roger and David, shows 57 Wrawby Street when it was still a functioning newspaper office with black and white prints on display in the front window. Those featured often popped in to buy copies.
Reception was on the ground floor, together with a desk and darkroom for staff photographer Coun Bryan Robins, who then lived on Albert Street.
The first floor housed the editorial office (overlooking the A18, prior to it being re-routed) with advertising in another room towards the back of the building. The top floor was latterly used only for storage.
When we joined the Times staff in January 1980 there was only one outside toilet in the rear yard, although indoor facilities were added a year or two later. Coal fires had just given way to gas appliances.
A large car park was located beyond the brick archway adjoining this building on land later acquired by local businessman Joe Mullen to extend the accommodation available at his adjoining Exchange Coach House Inn on Bigby Street.
The branch manager had a van used to distribute papers, Bryan had a company car which took him far and wide in pursuit of pictures, and there was a 'pool' vehicle for the reporters - all housed under a sizeable carport.
We recall driving a T-reg Ford Fiesta with a hand-operated choke which didn't start well in wet or cold conditions and (later) a Mini Metro, not long after this model was launched. It didn't handle as well as the Mini 1000 we then owned.
Company cars were topped up with fuel at the W. A. Sass petrol station near the Monument (now long gone and the site of a car wash business).