MARKET DAY THURSDAYS IN BRIGG PUBS - THEN & NOW

Brigg Blog popped out for a few market day Thursday drinks in the town centre yesterday afternoon (June 23) and it soon turned into a trip down memory lane.
Hot and sunny weather saw us located on the seating area in front of Wetherspoon's White Horse.
This popular open air facility was developed by the national hospitality chain which acquired and revamped the historic hostelry seven years ago (opening in January 2015).
Sitting there having some pints yesterday reminded us of Thursday afternoons enjoyed in the 1980s at the old Queens Arms pub - just a stone's throw away on Wrawby Street.
The three rooms at the Queens would be packed on Thursdays with people from Brigg and others who travelled in by bus from Waddingham, Redbourne, Hibaldstow, North and South Kelsey, Barnetby, Elsham and other Wolds villages.
After visiting Brigg shops, the town centre market and perhaps Stennett's auction on Manley Gardens, many made their way to local hostelries for liquid refreshment before boarding the bus back home.
UK Licensing laws were more restrictive decades ago and required premises to close for a period in the afternoon.
However, Brigg (and some other market towns) had special dispensation to keep serving through to 4pm when the stalls officially packed up for the day.
We used to favour the small lounge at the back of the Queens on Thursday afternoons - a 'half day in lieu' for us in return for a Saturday morning shift on the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph sports desk.
Jean Cunningham and staff, and later Bob and Sue Nicholson, were kept busy at the serving hatch used by customers in the lounge.
A picture taken inside this room can be seen here, taken in 1984.
Others who favoured the lounge for Thursday afternoon refreshments over many years were staff from the Turner's pork butchery business on nearby Queen Street, including proprietor Keith.
Founded during Queen Victoria's reign, Turner's closed in the year 2000 and the premises, on the corner of Garden Street, were later transformed into The Beauty Clinique (pictured here yesterday).
Many Thursday afternoon customers who visited the Queens (and other Brigg hostelries) would have Turner's products in their shopping bags - pork pies, sausage rolls, haslet and their speciality sausages included.
Earlier this week we enjoyed a coffee in the Cafe Courtyard, off the Market Place, bringing back memories of Thursdays in the early 1980s when what is now the cafe formed part of the extensive Angel Hotel.
After a morning spent reporting a Glanford Borough Council committee meeting at what later became the Hewson House offices off Station Road, we liked to accompany councillors to the Angel courtyard for a ploughman's lunch or a roast beef sandwich before returning to the press bench for the afternoon council meeting.
During a trip inside to the White Horse bar yesterday afternoon we had a pleasant chat with Bob Taylor - Brigg Town Football Club historian and former long-serving secretary. He was seated inside Wetherspoon's with others who had grown up in the Central Square area of the town decades ago.
The times they are a-changing, though. And an increasing number of Wetherspoon customers today are using the company's mobile phone 'app' to order meals and drinks to be delivered by staff to their tables - inside and outside the White Horse.
This cuts out visits to the bar, and one aim is to reduce or even eliminate queues.
On offer inside the pub are free copies of the Summer 2022 issue of Wetherspoon News - a very impressive glossy magazine, written and edited by the company's national press spokesman and public relations adviser, Eddie Gershon.
This magazine is full colour throughout and comprises 108 pages, with many features of interest about the hospitality chain and its many premises.
Yesterday's trip to the White Horse didn't break the bank; a pint of Ruddles real ale cost less than £1.50p!
Visits to the White Horse these days also bring back memories of how things were pre-Wetherspoon.
Brigg Town Cricket Club used it as a social HQ in the 1970s, followed by the very successful White Horse Football Club for which many cricketers played between September and April.
Tom and Kath Merriman became long-serving mine hosts.
Later landlord, Andy Cooke, was interested to hear historic Brigg being discussed by some of his customers, including Josie Webb, and suggested he would provide free refreshments if some talks relating to the town's past could be arranged at the White Horse to boost midweek visitor numbers.
This prompted the formation of the Brigg Amateur Social Historians (BASH) group in 2003.
One year, in addition to talks, BASH displayed a selection of past Brigg Horse Fair pictures at the White Horse, which generated great interest.
Among those who took a look were members of the traveller community who had arrived in town for that year's horse fair on August 5.
They spotted relatives and friends on some of the pictures.

PICTURED AT THE TOP: Customers enjoying the sun outside the White Horse yesterday afternoon, and Brigg Horse Fair visitors doing likewise in the 1950s; the Queens Arms in the early 1980s and the building yesterday. After being the Queens, it housed The licensed Fish Inn for a time and later became The Vines restaurant. 

 

 People from Brigg and elsewhere enjoying a visit to the Queens Arms Lounge in 1984.  Many people today will remember this room.

The Beauty Clinique pictured yesterday, and an early 1970s advert for Turner's which occupied these premises back then.

A wall-mounted plaque installed by Wetherspoon's to explain the rich history of the White Horse pub in Brigg town centre and the conservation area.