Brigg Characters and Heroes

Brigg Town has always had its fair share of eccentric and memorable characters. Who remembers 'Chatty' Binns, so called because he used to walk up and down the street, jaunty scarf at neck, talking to himself? Or the lady whose name I never knew but could always be found in Woolworths (closed long ago!) who just loved to walk in there and start rearranging all the merchandise laid out on the counters - totally oblivious to the amusement of the shop assistants!

One character I was terrified of was 'Tansy'. He used to push a pram around the town shaking his stick at all the kids who teased him. He really shouldn't have been teased, as in the 70's a farm worker ploughed up one of his medals in a village nearby. It was a medal awarded to him in the First World War for bravery - of course it was awarded to him in his real name which at the moment escapes me.

Talking of the First World War, I recently read a book called One Arm Sutton. He was a member of a local landed family, he was born just outside Brigg and gained his name by catching a grenade while sitting complete with two arms in No Mans Land. Unfortunately for him he failed to throw it back in time. He ended up as Chief weapons manufacturer to a Chinese War Lord.

Then there was the young lady who used to lean over the County Bridge with no underwear on. How come there were no traffic accidents I don't know. More recently another local young lady had a top 20 hit with her band.

Every summer there used to be an influx of foreign students. They used to stay at Pingley Camp and work in the jam factory and on local farms. How exotic they seemed, goodness knows what they thought of Brigg. Then in the Autumn there would be the arrival of Irish potato pickers, each group returning loyally to the same farm. Working long hard days and saving the money was their means of surviving the Winter back in Ireland. The group that worked on our farm was 3 generations of one family from County Mayo.

In the Second World War, the aforementioned Pingley Camp used to house Italian Prisoners of War, several of which worked on my Grandmother's farm. Some of the prisoners had been cooks, tailors, silversmiths etc in civvy street. One of Grandma's bunch really fancied himself and had his Prisoner of War uniform unpicked and resewn 'made to measure' by one of the tailors in the camp. Only an Italian and perhaps only an Italian in Brigg!

This is just a glimpse of a few of the characters I have either heard about or seen, I am sure that people in Brigg and its villages could add to this little list. But never fear for the future, we have excellent schools in our area, populated by the youngsters who are going to be our characters and heroes in times to come.

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