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Brigg is a small market town in North Lincolnshire unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, England. It had a population of 5,076 in 2,213 households in the 2001 UK census. The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east-west transport routes across northern Lincolnshire. As a formerly important local centre, the town's full name of Glanford Brigg is reflected in the surrounding area and former local government district of the same name. The town's urban area includes the neighbouring hamlet of Scawby Brook. Within Lincolnshire, the town was mostly in the wapentake of Yarborough in the North Riding of Lindsey. Local government in the town began with the establishment of a local government board in 1864, which was replaced with an urban district in 1894. On the creation of Humberside in 1974, the town's urban district was merged with the surrounding rural district to create Glanford Borough, named after the town which was at its centre. The dissolution of Humberside in 1996 saw the town transferred to the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire. Brigg is roughly 230 kilometres (140 mi) directly north of London. The nearest big towns are Lincoln 35 kilometres (22 mi) to the south, Scunthorpe 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) to the west, Grimsby 27 kilometres (17 mi) to the east, and Hull 23.5 kilometres (14.6 mi) to the north. The local area is broadly the south bank of the Humber estuary. [edit] History
The area of present-day Brigg has been used for thousands of years as both a crossing point of the Ancholme and for access to the river itself. Prehistoric boats of sewn–built and dugout construction have been found in the town, both dating to around 900 BC. A causeway or jetty also stood on the riverside during the late Bronze Age, although its exact use is uncertain. During the Anglo-Saxon period the area became known as Glanford. The second element of the name is not disputed, but the origin of the first element is unclear. It is possibly derived from the Old English gleam meaning joy or revelry, and thus the full word is interpreted as "ford where sports are held".[1] Another suggestion is that the first element refers to a 'glamping' track—a walkway formed by placing interlocking planks or logs over boggy ground—and thus describes a ford crossed in this manner. A third possibility is that it means "smooth ford" although its etymology is not specified. Local lore has it that the original name was "Glamis' Ford," i.e. a ford beside which a man named Glamis lived (and who possibly charged a toll for crossing the ford?). This became corrupted to Glamford and then to Glanford. When a bridge was finally built, the name of the town became Glanford Bridge. Bridge then became corrupted to Briggs and then Brigg, and the Glanford part was dropped. <Graham R Briggs, resident of Brigg from 1939 to 1962 and friend of Simon Henthorne, son of Dr Frank Henthorne, author of several histories of Brigg; also the town is shown as Glamford Briggs on the Ordnance Survey map of 1 March 1824, Sheet 23 HULL.> Glanford Brigg was founded at the crossing place of the Ancholme before 1183, its first mention being a Pipe roll entry for that year. The town's formal charter for a weekly market and yearly fair date from a royal grant to Hugh Nevil in 1205, in which the founder's name is given as his father–in–law Stephen de Camera. The fair began on 25 July—the feast of Saint James—and continued for three days afterward. The grant of a market and fair were subsequently reconfirmed to Hugh's son Ernisius in 1235. The second part of the town's full name dates to this time, coming from the new bridge built to replace the existing ford across the river. Its non-standard form of Brigg is due to influence from Old Norse bryggja, which although usually describes a jetty or quay here refers to a bridge. The name of a place spelt "Glawemfordbrigge" in Lincolnshire, appears in 1418. Brigg originally sat at the meeting point of four parishes (Broughton, Kettleby, Scawby and Wrawby), although it lay mainly in the last, and was officially regarded as part of that village. In the 1190s, the lord of the manor of Broughton, Adam Paynel, founded a hospital for the poor within the town. Several small chapels also existed during medieval times, with another hospital and chapel founded by William Tyrwhitt in 1441.[2] However, the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536–41 also affected hospitals and chapels, leaving the town without ecclesiastical coverage except the parish church in nearby Wrawby.[2]
The town was substantially improved and rebuilt in the late 1700s and early 1800s, partly through the demands of the Elwes family, the largest landowner in the town. The old town hall—now known as the Buttercross—was built in 1817.[3] Later, in 1842–43, the existing chapel of ease was replaced by a full–sized church dedicated to St John the Evangelist, and a cemetery was established on Wrawby Road in 1857, following significant controversy over the burial of non–conformists. Brigg's ecclesiastical parish was established in 1872,[3] finally separating the town from Wrawby, but also incorporating neighbouring parts of Scawby, Broughton, and Bigby parishes. A workhouse was built at the east end of the town in 1835, and was the responsibility of the Glanford Brigg Poor Law Union.[4] Its architect was William Adams Nicholson who also designed the similar building in Lincoln, and replaced an earlier alms house dating back to 1701. The workhouse at Brigg is one of the best known and best documented of its type, probably because of the national interest that arose after Percy Grainger collected traditional songs from the inmates. An infirmary was later built attached to the workhouse, and this portion remained open as a hospital until 1991.[5] [edit] Research TipsLincolnshire is very low-lying and land had to be drained for agriculture to be successful. The larger drainage channels, many of which are parallel to each other, became boundaries between parishes. Many parishes are long and thin for this reason. There is much fenland in Lincolnshire, particularly in the Boston and Horncastle areas. Fenlands tended to be extraparochial before the mid 1850s, and although many sections were identified with names and given the title "civil parish", little information has been found about them. Many appear to be abolished in 1906, but the parish which adopts them is not given in A Vision of Britain through Time. Note the WR category Lincolnshire Fenland Settlements which is an attempt to organize them into one list. From 1889 until 1974 Lincolnshire was divided into three administrative counties: Parts of Holland, Parts of Kesteven and Parts of Lindsey. These formal names do not fit with modern grammatical usage, but that is what they were, nonetheless. In 1974 the northern section of Lindsey, along with the East Riding of Yorkshire, became the short-lived county of Humberside. In 1996 Humberside was abolished and the area previously in Lincolnshire was made into the two "unitary authorities" of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The remainder of Lincolnshire was divided into "non-metropolitan districts" or "district municipalities" in 1974. Towns, villages and parishes are all listed under Lincolnshire, but the present-day districts are also given so that places in this large county can more easily be located and linked to their wider neighbourhoods. See the WR placepage Lincolnshire, England and the smaller divisions for further explanation.
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