NEW BRIGG TOWN CENTRE ADDITIONS: SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE

Great interest has been shown in projected after-dark displays on the front of the Buttercross in Brigg town centre over recent weeks. But how many townsfolk and visitors have noted another change made recently to this 200-year old building in the Market Place?
The initial Lincolnshire and Union flags installed several months ago by Brigg Town Council have now been replaced be larger ones.
Planning permission to site flags either side of the grade two listed landmark had to be sought from North Lincolnshire planners and was duly granted.
Ken Harrison, of Brigg Matters magazine, has supplied the recently taken picture seen above, showing the larger flags in place and looking impressive on a sunny day. He welcomes them as being "more compatible to the scale of the building."
Flags are always at the mercy of the weather and Ken notes that recent variable winds "compounded by the vortex tendencies experienced in the quadrangle of the Market Place" have unfortunately caused the new flags to wrap themselves about their flagpoles on occasions. (He has supplied an example - seen below).
"Let's hope that after the stormy weather has subsided, we will see the flags in all their splendour," he adds.
These flags will help to demonstrate Brigg's support for The Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, Lincolnshire Day on October 1 next year, and for other events and occasions.
Another Town Council initiative saw poppies projected onto the front of the Buttercross prior to Remembrance Sunday last month and (more recently) projected snowflakes accompanying the switching on of the town's Christmas illuminations. Colourful shades were also added to the clockface on top of the Buttercross.
This building, completed in 1819 with major support from the 'Lords of the Manor' Elwes family and the Nelthorpes at Scawby, is now owned and operated by North Lincolnshire Council.
Since the lifting of lockdown restrictions on gatherings, Brigg Town Council has being holding its monthly meetings in the function room on the top floor of the Buttercross.
This has seen the civic wheel turning full circle as, for decades, the Buttercross was the headquarters of Brigg Urban District Council.
It was founded in the mid-1890s, being eventually replaced, in 1974, by Glanford Borough Council and Brigg Town Council (both newly formed).
In the late 1960s, as the Buttercross was proving too small for its growing needs, Brigg UDC, whose functions included providing and managing scores of houses, decided to build a new 'town hall' on Cary Lane. It's still there - currently providing office accommodation for Humberside Police (next to the Wilko store).
On June 28, 1819 a ball was held to mark the opening of the Buttercross.
Exactly 200 years later - on Friday, June 28, 2019 - Brigg Heritage Centre hosted a social event to mark the major milestone.

After strong winds had hit the town centre.