Wednesday, November 01, 2017

REVEALED: THE INITIAL PLAN TO CREATE BRIGG REC GROUND AND IT'S SOMETHING OF A SURPRISE


Brigg sportsmen and women can feel real pride in today's Recreation Ground, extensively revamped by North Lincolnshire Council in a scheme completed this year.
Hockey on an all-weather floodlit pitch, tennis on new courts, cricket on a relaid square and football on traditional grass are all enjoyed by people of all ages.
Plus top-of-the range changing rooms and even meeting room/communal area with kitchen facilities.
But Brigg Blog thinks we may have unearthed when the idea of providing such a facility for the town was first mooted. And it was a lot longer ago than any of us imagined.
A report in the Hull (Lincolnshire) Times weekly newspaper during July 1939 revealed a plan to provide playing fields within the town.
This was during the reign of Brigg Urban District Council.
Sadly, just a couple of months later, the Second World War broke out and there were many more pressing priorities.
However, the plan was not forgotten and was brought back to the debating table in the post-war period.
Eventually, land that had belonged to Woodbine Farm, off Wrawby Road, was purchased by the UDC and the Rec opened during the early 1950s.
It covered a very large area for a small market town.
Having served the town well since its formation in the 1890s, Brigg UDC was abolished under local government re-organisation in 1974.
Ownership of the Rec passed to Glanford Borough Council in 1974, rather than the newly-created Brigg Town Council.
Removal of the borough authority in 1996 saw North Lincolnshire Council take charge of the Rec.
But for a certain Mr Hitler, we might well have had the Rec up and running by the early 1940s.

In the 1960s there was a  major campaign to provide a swimming pool in Brigg.
Older Blog followers may recall the totaliser board on the front of the Urban District Council offices (now Brigg Tourist Information). It showed the cash raised for the cause.
But when one did eventually arrive in the 1970s it was just over the border, in Scawby Brook, in what was then called Glanford Leisure Centre.
The first mention we can find of a swimming pool plan for Brigg appeared in print during 1935.
Everything comes to he who waits!

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