'EDDIE SHOESTRING' & BRIGG REPORTERS WITH AN EYE FOR NEWS

Clued-up newspaper reporters based in Brigg decades ago picked up the habit of keeping their eyes and ears open for items of interest within the town centre - known in our profession as 'off-diary stories'.
We've been reminded of this many times during this hot summer which has resulted in many al fresco refreshment stops being made at Wetherspoon's White Horse, on Wrawby Street.
We've favoured the seating provided on the frontage and in the rear beer garden, taking advantage of the budget coffee offer in the morning or sinking a few pints of real ale in the afternoon or early evening.
Many people have shared newsworthy snippets and comments, and we have observed various things from these vantage points which have merited inclusion on Brigg Blog.
The frontage is an ideal location to watch everyday Brigg life at close quarters, and the seating area proved particularly useful prior to (and during) Brigg Horse Fair 2022.
Late in the morning on August 5 we visited Wetherspoon's, then headed through the town centre. Outside the Buttercross, we met and photographed a couple who had just got married... on Fair day.
A stay in the beer garden at the back of Wetherspoon's, adjoining Grammar School Road South, resulted in a reunion with a former Brigg sportsman we hadn't seen for 40 years.
While working for the Lincolnshire & South Humberside Times weekly newspaper at 57 Wrawby Street in the early 1980s, we initially had a desk on the first floor which offered a fine panoramic view of the town's main shopping area while the A18 was still running through (prior to pedestrianisation).
Observations from this spot prompted a number of articles for the paper.
A major talking point back then was short stay parking.
Some customers used to draw up in their vehicles and nip into businesses to make speedy purchases, including bread and cakes from Bowen's bakery.
However, traffic wardens were out on patrol.
How long should a car-driving customer have been allowed to make purchases? Or did all parking of this nature fall foul of the rules?
One local man, we observed, spent hours each week standing outside the old Congregational Chapel opposite 57 Wrawby Street; he just enjoyed watching everyday scenes unfolding before his eyes within the town centre.
He was subsequently given the nickname Eddie Shoestring - a character whose on-the-street observations featured in the plots of a popular prime time TV series.
'Private eye' and local radio reporter Shoestring helped to solve many crimes through on-street information picked up in the place where he lived and worked.
In Brigg some 40 years ago, regular police patrols were also watched with interest from the top floor of the Times office as constables on foot (no PCSOs back then) made their way along Wrawby Street.
Any police cars observed heading down the A18 would result in reporters ringing Brigg 'cop shop' to ask the chief inspector, an inspector or desk sergeant if these call-outs were likely to prove newsworthy.
Veteran Brigg journalist Edward 'Ted' Dodd had an extensive list of local contacts which was the envy of every young Times reporter 40 years ago.
Even though Ted was semi-retired by then and in his 70s, he made a point of visiting the White Horse (then still owned by Wards of Sheffield) on a regular basis for a pint or two so he could talk with people he knew. These chats often resulted in stories for the paper.
One of his notable White Horse-related 'scoops' for the front page came in the 1970s when an evening visit alerted him to outcry among council house tenants whose properties were being modernised by the Urban District Council.
Their homes were being gutted between 9am and 5pm to install bathrooms, central heating and new windows over several weeks.
But after the tradesmen had knocked off work in the evenings, many tenants were faced with dust and grime, holes in floors, disrupted water supplies and other problems.
Young family members who were trying hard to revise for important secondary school exams at this time found it difficult to concentrate.
Back then there was no question of disruption-related allowances being made by the examination boards for marks and grades.
Fortunately, things have progressed since those far-off days and disruptions to schooling resulting from the Covid emergency saw welcome changes made to normal procedures nationwide - allowances being made for difficult circumstances.

PICTURED: Wrawby Street as it looked more than 40 years ago, showing the former Congregational Chapel and Bowen's; a summer 2022 view of the popular seating area at the front of Wetherspoon's White Horse; Brigg Police Station getting ready to open in the late 1970s; the Lincolnshire Times office in the early 1980s, and veteran reporter Ted Dodd. Below - Paul Jenkinson and Nigel Fisher, former Brigg cricketers, in Wetherspoon's beer garden recently - having been reunited after 40 years (image courtesy of Paul's family).