Tuesday 7th of June 2005
A talk by Ken Jacobs. "The A.R.P. Wardens of the Second World War"
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Tuesday 3rd May 2005. A talk by Peter Batty. "The History of Local Fire Stations"
Another well attended meeting saw Pete Batty's talk on the history of the local fire
service. The audience included present and past members of the local service.
Pete brought along with him a number of items of interest such as old fire
helmets, truncheons, and photographs of fire brigade gatherings and social functions.
Many of the audience were featured on the old photographs, and much reminiscing
took place.
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Tuesday 5th April 2005, Talk by Patrick Otter, local aviation historian. "Bomber Airfields of Lincolnshire"
Patrick Otter, the well-known author from
Immingham gave an absorbing talk on the history of local bomber airfields
and their personnel, covering both world wars. This was probably our most
well attended talk at the venue was packed to capacity, with up to 200
people. We even had a fly past by an RAF jet half way through the talk! The
most moving story concerned a young pilot who gave his parachute away to one
of his crew after a mid air collision, but eventually managed to land the
plane safely. Then there was the story of the german bomber crew who
thought they had landed safely back in Germany, and were strolling over to
the airfield buildings when they realised that they were being met by people
in the wrong sort of uniform - they had landed in Yorkshire by mistake!
They high tailed it back to their plane and took off again rather quickly.
Then of course there was the story of the frozen knickers -----.
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Tuesday, 1st March 2005, a talk by Adrian Broome, "The Conservation Area of Brigg."
On Tuesday 1st March approx. 60 people attended the talk by Adrian Broome on
the Conservation Area of Brigg. The talk was extremely well prepared and
was accompanied by many photographs of the buildings mentioned. The first
thing we learned was to 'look up' at first floor level (whilst avoinding the
excess of street furniture). It is surprising how many interesting
architectural details there are on local buildings which we never notice.
Adrian's talk started with a short introduction to conservation areas and
listed buildings in general. We were then taken on a virtual walking tour
of the centre of Brigg. There are 69 listed buildings in Brigg at the
moment, and all but two are in the centre of the town (those two are the old
grammar school and the mill tower in Mill Lane). We now know our Yorkshire
sliding casements from our oriels!
Adrian concluded by suggesting some areas which could benefit from
improvement e.g. the riverside by Lidl's car park, the old Smith Parkinson
premises, and the area of ground next to the Church Hall.
This was an well presented and informative talk and should encourage people
to observe our buildings more closely and give consideration to what can be
done to improve the appearance of the town centre.
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Tuesday, 1st February 2005, a talk by David Brittain, "Brigg Grammar/Sir John Nelthorpe School - the last 40 years."
We were treated to an excellent talk by David
Brittain about the history of the Brigg Grammar School and Sir John
Nelthorpe school. He covered the whole period from the founding of the
school to the present day, mentioning some of the remarkable headmasters,
the highs and lows of the school's fortunes, the development of the site,
and how the management of the school has come full circle with the governors
and management being once again responsible for administering its own
budget. The evening was attended by 60-70 people and many of them mentioned
how interesting they found it. David also brought along an original copy
of the will of Sir John Nelthorpe, along with a range of other photographs
and documents (including an old Woodbine packet which was found under the
boarding house floorboards!), which were well perused after the talk.
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Sunday, 30th January 2005 - Ghost walk
This built on the success of the first Ghost Walk and is reviewd on the "Ghost walks" page.
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January 2005 - Quiz about Brigg, past and present
On 4th January approx., 70 people enjoyed a quiz on the subject of 'Brigg
Past and Present', with 40 questions set by Sandra Firth and a mystery photo
round organised by Pat Parkinson.
If you missed it, try it now by following this link.
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December 2004 - "Shops of Brigg"
Unfortunately Patrick Otter had to postpone his talk on World War II Bomber Airfields of
Lincolnshire. Sandra Firth kindly stepped in to continue her talk on the history of shops
and trades in Brigg, concentrating on the period from 1800.
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November 2004 - "Cubs and Scouts of Brigg"
Mavis Parratt talked about the history of the Brigg Scouts and Cubs. The talk was
extremely informative, and was accompanied by a display of memorabilia. Many old scouts
and cubs attended.
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31st October 2004 - Ghost Walk
The first Ghost Walk was a great success. For a review select go to the "Ghost walks" page.
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October 2004 - "Old Brigg and Villages"
John and Valerie Holland returned, by popular request, to show slides of old
photographs of Brigg and the surrounding villages. Another excellent turnout.
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September 2004 - Butchers, Bakers and Candlestick Makers
We moved our meetings from the White Horse to the Ancholme Inn, as numbers attending
were sometimes over 100. Sandra Firth gave a talk on the history of the shops and
businesses of Brigg from 1537 onwards.
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August 2004
Our display 'A Photographic History of Brigg Horse Fair', in the White Horse, attracted
a large number of visitors, including members of the travelling community, many of who
were featured on the photos.
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August 2004 - visits
Two visits were arranged - one was a return visit to Wrawby and on to Elsham Wold Air
Museum, and the other to the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph Archives. At the Telegraph,
Nigel Fisher showed us how the archive was kept in pre-computer days - using lots of
boxes and filing cabinets. We were then shown how much easier it is nowadays when
everything is saved on a computer. At Robin Lingard's private museum in Wrawby, we
saw his extensive collection of Second World War memorabilia. We were then made very
welcome by Dr Ajay Vora and his wife Angela, Roy Smith, Ernie Vessey, Alec Bayes-Chapman
and Robin Lingard at Elsham Airfield. They do a wonderful job in keeping the museum
going, and the memorial grounds are immaculate. The museum is full of photographs,
uniforms, books and pieces of crashed Lancaster bombers. Anyone interested in visiting
should contact Robin Lingard - telephone number available through BASH
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July 2004 - "Memories of Pingley Camp"
Our meeting was with Gerhard Moerbe, ex P.O.W. AT Pingley Camp, Brigg. The interview
was conducted by Nigel Fisher, who prefaced it with a short biography of Mr Moerbe.
Over 120 people packed the lounge and bar of the White Horse, and everyone was enthralled
by the talk. Local people who attended recalled their memories of the camp during the
40's, 50's and 60's and two families who lived there during the 60's, 70's and 80's came
and spoke of their memories of growing up there.
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June 2004 - "The history of the Brigg Operatic Society"
Peter Bell spoke about the history of the Brigg Amateur Operatic Society. (No photograph available at present).
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May 2004 - "Old Inns and Ale Houses of Brigg"
Sandra Firth gave a well-researched talk on the history of the Inns and Ale Houses of Brigg from the
16th century onwards.
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April 2004 - visit to Elsham Wold Airfields Museum
A visit was arranged to Robin Lingard's amazing private museum of R.A.F. memorabilia in Wrawby, and to the
little known Elsham Wold Airfield Museum.
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March 2004 - "The Brigg Star newspaper"
Cliff Padley, who worked for many years in the local newspaper industry, talked to us about the history
of the Brigg Star newspaper.
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February 2004 - "The Railways of North Lincolnshire"
Nigel Fisher came to talk about the history of the local railway network. This was another very popular meeting.
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December 2003 - "Photographs of Old Brigg"
John & Valerie Holland gave a packed house a fascinating slide show of some of their old photographs of Brigg.
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November 2003 - "The History of the Horse Fair"
Our inaugural talk was given by Tom Glossop
on the history of Brigg Fair; as of course, 2004 was the 800th anniversary of the Charter being
granted by King John. Tom also treated us to a wonderful rendition of the famous folk song
of that name.
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