BRIGG

A market town in the traditional English style, historic Brigg remains in the 21st Century what it has been for the past 800 years – a thriving and important centre for the surrounding rural community.

It was in 1205 that the first Thursday market was established, as were two fairs a year by Royal charter.



And throughout the years Brigg’s primary functions have remained unchanged as a safe place to cross the River Ancholme and a trading centre.

In the 11th century the only crossing of the river was through a ford where the waters were only a few feet deep. Then, in the 14th century, the first stone bridge was built.


Brigg Market Place - Dave Murray

The river today plays an important part in local life, being a popular leisure venue for rowers, canoeists and boat-owners, while an enterprising company has set up pleasure cruises.



Brigg thrives as a shopping centre and many of its modern retail establishments and offices are in buildings going back 200 years or more, the local council and government encouraging their preservation and restoration with listed building grants.

For many years the town attracted visitors from a wide area who attended its regular cattle market.

This has now gone, but every Thursday a host of stalls go up in Wrawby Street and the Market Place, selling all manner of goods, while Stennett's auction swings into action in Station Road, offering everything from an old bike to a brace of pheasants.

Brigg Horse Fair, during early August, is a strong link with the town’s agricultural past, attracting visitors and traders from many parts of the country as it has for centuries.

What was the historic Angel Hotel has been transformed into council offices with an impressive function suite, while the restored Buttercross houses the Tourist Information Centre.

An interesting feature of town life are the number of historic pubs, mainly in the town centre. They include the Nelthorpe Arms, adjoining the County Bridge; the former Sutton Bean Brewery premises, The Britannia, in Wrawby Street; the early 18th century Brocklesby Ox in Bridge Street; and The Dying Gladiator, in Bigby Street, said to be the only pub bearing that name in Britain, and featuring a sculpture modelled on one in the Vatican as its sign.

Brigg has long been a popular sporting venue, with Brigg Town Football Club - founded in the 1860s - one of the oldest in the east of England, and the Ancholme Rowing Club and Brigg Town Cricket Club, also formed by health-conscious Victorians, still going strong today.

When Brigg Town won the FA Vase in 1996 at Wembley it was the town's most significant sporting achievement of the Millennium.

Playing on the world's most famous pitch was certainly a far cry from 1888 when Brigg Britannia beat Boston Reserves in the final of the Lincolnshire Minor Cup in 1888. Brigg were described as “a heavy, rough lot, who played the men first and then took the ball.”

It’s a fact:

• Brigg takes its name from the the old Norse word “briggja” meaning a jetty


• Brigg Grammar School, now Sir John Nelthorpe Comprehensive School, was founded in1669


• Past industries included Spring’s jam factory and the beet sugar factory to the west of the town. The sugar factory site now contains a power station. The jam factory, and the neighbouring livestock market, have been replaced by supermarkets

Elsham Hall - Dave Murray

Our recommended links...

http://www.thisisbrigg.co.uk

http://www.brigglife.co.uk

http://www.briggmarkettown.co.uk

http://www.briggtownfc.co.uk