The Grimsby Book of Days E-Book

Lucy Wood

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Book of Days
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 396

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Taking you through the year day by day, The Grimsby Book of Days contains quirky, eccentric, shocking, amusing and important events and facts from different periods in the history of the town. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Grimsby's archives and covering the social, political, religious, agricultural, criminal, industrial and sporting history of the region, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

Leseprobe

LUCY WOOD qualified as a journalist in 1999 and is now working in public relations following a long career in regional newspapers. She is a contributor to the British Comedy Guide (www.comedy.co.uk) and attends the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year. She lives in Lincolnshire and has a keen interest in local history.

CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

DEDICATION

JANUARY 1ST

JANUARY 2ND

JANUARY 3RD

JANUARY 4TH

JANUARY 5TH

JANUARY 6TH

JANUARY 7TH

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FEBRUARY 1ST

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MARCH 1ST

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APRIL 1ST

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MAY 1ST

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JULY 1ST

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AUGUST 1ST

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SEPTEMBER 1ST

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OCTOBER 1ST

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COPYRIGHT

JANUARY 1ST

1945: On this day, the Mayor of Grimsby, C.W. Hewson, issued his New Year message. It read:

We hope that the coming year may be a year of success and safe landings to our fishermen in their dangerous occupation; and may the time quickly come when we shall hear the crashing peal of the church bells telling us not of peace on earth and goodwill to men at Christmastime only, but peace on earth for all time and to all men.

(Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1945)

2006: On this day, the man behind one of Grimsby’s most prominent pieces of public art passed away peacefully, aged 84. Peter Todd created the five bronze figures, known as the Guardians of Knowledge, attached to the south elevation of Grimsby Central Library.

The artwork, measuring 11ft high, is among the last examples of its kind in public library buildings in the UK. Todd designed and built the figures in 1968 at his studio in Walesby. Generations of artists were taught by Todd, who was the head of Grimsby School of Art for thirty years. Among his many students was the actor John Hurt. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 2006)

JANUARY 2ND

1970: On this day, pop star Freddie Garrity, of Freddie and The Dreamers, underwent an emergency operation after a car crash in which a 19-year-old Grimsby girl was also injured. The girl was a passenger in his Lotus Elan sports car when it hit an unlit roundabout junction at South Mimms in Hertfordshire.

The 19 year old was described as ‘quite comfortable’ in hospital despite suffering a head injury and some abrasions. Her mother said the pair had been friends for some time.

Recently, Freddie and his group had performed at The Beachcomber and The Flamingo, in Cleethorpes, and the girl had renewed her friendship with the singer at this time. On the night of the crash she had been to see him performing in Cinderella at the Odeon, Golders Green, London. Freddie’s role of Buttons was taken over by Peter Birrwell, the group’s guitarist. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1970)

JANUARY 3RD

1949: On this day, the Service Food Company was counting the cost of the biggest blaze Grimsby had seen since the Second World War. Four nights before, the sky had been lit up by flames, when fire engulfed the firm’s imposing premises in Victoria Street. The building was gutted, despite a huge fire-fighting operation which saw sailors and soldiers voluntarily join in. It was reminiscent, said the local newspaper, of the great air raids of 1943. The building, which adjoined Spillers’ Mill, was completely destroyed and at one stage, sparks were blown across the Alexandra Dock, threatening to set fire to wood yards in the area. Timber in JG Cutting’s began to smolder as sparks ignited sawdust in the shaft of a lift. The company estimated the blaze had cost £14,000 – £4,000 for the building itself and the rest for the machinery and cattle food inside. (Grimsby Telegraph Bygones, 1996)

1976: On this day, flood warnings came too late to save towns along the Lincolnshire coast – from Cleethorpes to Skegness – from their worst night in years. Huge waves sent water and mud pouring through hundreds of properties. Within an hour, houses were engulfed in miniature tidal waves, the Grimsby–Cleethorpes railway line washed away and offices at Grimsby’s Royal Dock badly damaged. Cleethorpes Bathing Pool was also wrecked. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1976)

JANUARY 4TH

2002: On this day, the stricken 3,000-ton oil tanker MV Willy was stranded on rocks near Cawsand, East Cornwall. The Cypriot-registered vessel had been chartered by Conoco in Grimsby and left Immingham on December 28th 2001, heading for Plymouth. The tanker ran aground on New Year’s Day and remained stranded.

Although the 21-year-old vessel had offloaded the petrol she was carrying for Conoco, because vapour was still in her tanks, officials were worried about the risk of explosion and 150 villagers from Kingsand and Cawsand were evacuated from their homes.

The vessel’s tanks still contained more than 80 tonnes of fuel, which could have been spilled if the vessel moved too violently on the rocks. Salvage workers removed as much of the fuel as they could, and absorbent booms were placed all around the vessel to ensure that any leakage was contained.

It wasn’t until January 11th that the operation to refloat her, employing specialist teams, began. (Grimsby Telegraph, 2002)

JANUARY 5TH

1980: On this day, thousands of Grimsby Town Football Club fans packed into cars, coaches, vans and trains for the mass exodus to Merseyside for the FA Cup clash with League leaders Liverpool.

Every street corner in Grimsby and Cleethorpes became a meeting place for eager supporters waiting for transport to ferry them on the three-and-a-half hour journey. As things began to move, the main roads out of Grimsby became a one-way system full of cars and coaches with black-and-white scarves streaming from their windows. It was estimated that between 7,000 and 8,000 Mariners fans made the trip.

Among them were Mr and Mrs John Baker, who had been going to watch Grimsby Town since 1947. ‘We go to all the home matches and, whenever we can, we go to the away games as well,’ said Mr Baker. ‘We certainly were not going to miss this one.’

He predicted that Grimsby could humble the mighty League champions if Town played in their usual style, predicting a score of 2–1.

Unfortunately for the black-and-white army, Liverpool won 5–0. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1980)

JANUARY 6TH

1949: On this day, a record low landing of fish paralysed Grimsby’s fish market and contributed to a fish famine throughout the country.

Bad weather at sea and a hold-up of trawlers over Christmas resulted in three North Sea trawlers landing only 393 kits. There were no deep-sea landings. Though an allocation of frozen fish alleviated the shortage to some extent, a large percentage of merchants were unable to fulfill their orders and Grimsby Fish Market was idle by 9 a.m.

Grimsby was not the only port where supplies were abnormally short. The eight major fishing ports in England totalled only 10,895 kits. Landings at Hull, for example, were 7,100 kits compared with over 19,000 the previous day.

Prospects for the following day were very bad; no deep-sea ships were expected to land. Landings had been lower in the past, but only when abnormal conditions, such as strikes, existed. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1949)

JANUARY 7TH

1850: On this day, the freemen divided land in Grimsby’s East Marsh pasture into paddocks. In 1849, the Pastures Act stated that the ‘borough hath of late years increased in trade and resort, and such pastures have become very valuable for building purposes’. That year, members of the freemen’s Pastures Committee were appointed, and they deliberated on the best scheme for making their pastures productive.

Although turning the East Marsh pasture into a building plot would generate large amounts of revenue, it was decided that laying out roads and installing drainage would be expensive and unprofitable – that is, until the demand for building was great enough to take up a large plot of the pasture. The land was cut off by railway lines and the East Marsh Drain, so building was unlikely there at that time. So, in the meantime, the freemen divided most of their pastures into paddocks and allotment gardens. This yielded higher rents than pasture, and it also meant individual plots could be reclaimed for building when required.

On this day, 151 acres in the East Marsh, Haycroft and Little Field of Grimsby were let as paddocks and gardens, producing an annual rental altogether of £408. This continued throughout the 1850s. (Alan Dowling, Grimsby: Making The Town 1800–1914, 2007)

JANUARY 8TH

1814: On this day, Susannah Knight was baptised in Grimsby. Her life was to end many miles away from home, the wife of a transported convict.

William Borrowdale was charged in 1835 with stealing a bay mare from a field in Halifax. He was convicted at the York Assizes on July 18th that year and promptly transported, aged in his early 20s, to Van Diemen’s Land in 1836 on the ship the Elphinstone.

His convict records describe him as 5ft 4in tall, with light brown hair, a long head and dark hazel eyes. His profession was given as a groom.

He arrived in Tasmania on May 24th 1936, and was sent to Port Arthur, a convict prison settlement. On June 26th 1845, he was recommended for pardon, which was granted on June 12th 1846. He moved to Stanley, in the North West, where he ran an inn called the Black Horse.

In 1843, his wife, Susannah, travelled for weeks across the sea with their son James, leaving her family and friends in Grimsby behind to be with her husband. Sadly, James died shortly after the trip, aged about 10, of illness.

William later ran the Commercial Hotel and a butchery, and he was devastated when, after about sixteen years in Tasmania, Susannah died.

After a few years, he met Jane Carr. They married, had at least three children, and farmed land on the Stanley peninsular. William died, aged 69, much loved and respected, and is buried with his wives in Stanley. (Grimsby Telegraph Bygones, 1999; www.ancestry.com)

JANUARY 9TH

1986: On this day, fishing magnate John Carl Ross died at his home in Humberston, aged 84.

He began his career modestly as a barrow boy on the docks, but went on to head a multi-million-pound frozen food empire. Today the Ross name is still synonymous with the fishing industry.

Mr Ross started working for his fish merchant father, packing and selling fish, at the tender age of 17. He planned on becoming a stockbroker or accountant and worked hard for the next ten years, studying accountancy in the evenings.

When Mr Ross Senior had a heart attack in 1929, John took full control of the business – at that time consisting of thirty-four workers – and set about expanding it. He began by building his own trawler with fish merchant Jack Vincent, who became a joint managing director of the empire after the two amalgamated their businesses.

In 1942, his good friend Sir Alec Black died, and Mr Ross purchased nine of Sir Alec’s vessels. He also bought two businesses, which led to the firm becoming a public company, and then more, including Young’s.

As the decades passed, the workforce grew to 15,000 and at its peak the firm was turning over £100 million a year. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1986)

JANUARY 10TH

1936: On this day, the Grimsby News carried the following report:

While the bells were being pealed before evening service on Sunday, the congregation gathered in the parish church were startled to hear the regular changes stopped by a terrific crash, followed by violent discord. The prolonged frost preceding Christmas had affected the rope of the largest bell, which weighs one ton, it parted and the bell careered violently in its cradle, then fell to the floor of the bell chamber with a crash which resounded through the church. The peal was brought to an abrupt finish and as the bell is the one on which the hours are struck, the clock was affected until the Tuesday, when the St James bell ringers managed to get the bell into position again. It was not damaged by the mishap.

1980: On this day, a Grimsby pub pool team managed to avoid defeat in a crunch game – thanks to a helping hand from one of their regulars! The Wheatsheaf Hotel team were losing 6–5 with one game to go against their rivals from the Royal Oak. Beverly Murgatroyd, of Grimsby, stepped up and got her hand firmly stuck as she attempted to release the balls for the last game, after the mechanism inside the table failed to release them. After the drama, landlord Tom Parkinson said, ‘Beverly plays on the table a lot, but that was the first time she was in it!’ Sadly we don’t know exactly how they managed to extract Beverley’s hand from the table but it obviously took some time! (George H. Black, Tales of Grimsby Long Ago, undated booklet)

JANUARY 11TH

1912: On this day, Strand Street School – which famously had a rooftop playground – officially opened for business. Construction had begun two years previously, by H.C. Scaping of Grimsby, for the Grimsby Education Authority, although it actually began life as St Andrew’s School in 1860. Commemorating its opening under the name of Strand by Lady Doughty, a plaque was fixed inside the west entrance.

The playground, towering high above neighbouring buildings and giving panoramic views of the town, was a talking point for many years. Even the Second World War did not prevent hundreds of children enjoying the fresh air and fun activities to be had there. A former pupil recalled:

I distinctly remember playing up there with some mates with our tennis ball. In fact, we were doing just that on the day a German plane bombed Burgon’s Store. That’s when the bullet marks appeared in the wall of the playground – and that’s when I broke the land speed record! I can recall playing up there right until I was evacuated to Gainsborough.

(Grimsby Central Library)

JANUARY 12TH

1898: On this day, Grimsby learned of the death of Albert Goodwin. He had died the day before in Ireland – horrifically murdered for £2 of savings. Many people knew him as the nephew of a one-time magistrate and councillor.

Against advice, he had taken the Queen’s Shilling and joined the 8th Royal Irish Hussars, but chose a grim friend in Wilfred Kenny. A few days before he was to return home to Grimsby on leave, Albert revealed he had saved £2 for the trip. It was for this sum that Kenny, using his carbine and sword, cut Albert’s throat.

Albert’s body was found near the officers’ mess at the camp at Cahir, his head terribly battered. At first it was thought a civilian had committed the crime and dragged the corpse back to camp but the blood-soaked carbine and a shovel was found in the cavalry stables.

Kenny – who had various aliases but was really Willie Kreutze from Germany – said nothing throughout his trial, never confessed and was hanged at Clonmel Prison.

Albert was buried with full military honours in Ireland. The entire regiment was on parade. (Grimsby Telegraph Bygones, 2001)

JANUARY 13TH

1968: On this day, Don McEvoy resigned as Grimsby Town Football Club’s manager – less than six months after taking over at Blundell Park. McEvoy took on the role, without a contract, after the club dispensed with the services of Jimmy McGuigan, who moved on to manage Chesterfield at the top of the fourth division.

McEvoy had been a centre half with Huddersfield Town, Lincoln City, Sheffield Wednesday and Barrow. After a period as coach with Halifax Town, he returned to Barrow as manager and after three seasons, took the club to promotion to the third division.

Before McEvoy took over, the Grimsby club – at the foot of the table – had gone ten league games without a win, apart from the shock dismissal from the FA Cup by Bradford, the bottom club in division four. The Mariners’ last win had been against Bury on October 28th the year before.

No reason was given for McEvoy’s departure. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1968)

JANUARY 14TH

1987: On this day, Grimsby was virtually isolated as driving snow cut off major routes, leaving a siege-like situation which lasted for several days.

Ambulance workers slept in their stations and had to be dug out to attend casualties. The cold weather brought on a spate of heart attacks, as well as a myriad of broken bones from people slipping. Tragically, one woman died and another man, aged in his early 40s, collapsed and died outside Scartho Road Swimming Baths. A 62-year-old died at the wheel of his car while attempting to start it.

Ploughs were sent out in a desperate bid to make headway but even they were defeated by the drifts, caused by strong winds. One motorist had to dig himself out three times in the space of 80 yards and eventually gave up; another, George Smith, was stranded for thirteen hours after setting off for work.

Milk supplies and morning paper deliveries were disrupted, bread was rationed at many shops and wholesale meat suppliers were selling three times their normal amount. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1987)

JANUARY 15TH

1937: On this day, Grimsby was shrouded in the worst fog it had seen for twenty years. Fifty ships were unable to leave dock, ambulance crews were hampered in getting to emergencies and a driver had a narrow escape in a crash between a lorry and a tram.

The Grimsby trawler Abronia had to be beached off Immingham after it was damaged in a collision with an unknown vessel in the fog. Thankfully, nobody on board was injured. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1937)

1959: On this day, a tragic discovery was made. A youth found the body of a newborn child on the level crossing at Suggitt’s Lane. The child was wrapped in old newspapers, and it was reported that police were studying the sheets to see if they could provide any clues to the infant’s identity. Chief Inspector J. Cottingham told the local newspaper: ‘The body was wrapped up in newspapers to make it look like a parcel, but the youth was able to see what was in it.’ (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1959)

JANUARY 16TH

1992: On this day, Grimsby welcomed a royal visitor, Princess Anne, to the town. She officially opened Ross Young’s pizza factory, hailed as a world beater in terms of production. It not only produced pizzas as near as possible to authentic Italian recipes, but it was also technically state-of-the-art.

The factory was built to produce pizzas for Marks & Spencer and for United Biscuits’ brand label, San Marco. The company’s food technologists had spent long periods in Italy to see how the home of pizza did things. Most of the ingredients were sourced in Italy, while Tuscany was used as a location for the TV adverts.

In 2000, Heinz bought the business for £190 million when United Biscuits pulled out of the chilled and frozen market. At the time the factory was one of Grimsby’s biggest employers, with a workforce of over 900. But Heinz didn’t reckon with the fierce competition and in March 2003, Heinz announced it was closing the factory, with a loss of 405 jobs. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1992 and 2003)

JANUARY 17TH

1909: On this day, Freddie Frinton was born, the son of a Grimsby fisherman. He was born Frederick Bittiner Coo and is still a cult hero to millions of Germans, even though he died in 1968, four months after suffering from a heart attack.

He grew up to become a comedian, beginning his career on Cleethorpes beach with Jimmy Slater’s Follies. He appears on television in Germany every New Year’s Eve in a classic comedy routine, Dinner For One. The film has been shown consecutively for years, and many Germans believe that New Year is incomplete without it.

Freddie plays the long-suffering butler to Miss Sophie, a deluded dowager celebrating her 90th birthday. Places are set for her friends – the only trouble being that they are all dead! To keep the charade alive, Freddie circles the table as he drinks a toast to Miss Sophie’s health at the end of each course.

Freddie was famous for playing a drunk, and his catchphrase was ‘good evening ossifer’. He scratched a living on variety circuits for many years before finding fame in the TV sitcom Meet the Wife, with Thora Hird. The series came to an abrupt end in 1968, when he died. (Grimsby Telegraph Bygones)

JANUARY 18TH

1962: On this day, a doctor was rushed to sea by the Spurn Lifeboat after a member of the crew of the 8.047-ton British cargo ship Ben Cruachan was reported to have fallen down a hold aboard the vessel off the Humber.

Spurn Lifeboat met the ship and Dr Ralph Jones sadly confirmed that the man had died. The Ben Cruachan proceeded on her voyage to Grangemouth, where the body was landed.

Also on this day, magistrates heard evidence in a court case involving a stabbing incident on board the British collier Sir Alexander Kennedy ‘on the high seas off the coast of Lincolnshire’. One shipmate was accused of causing grievous bodily harm to another by stabbing him in the face. Although he was receiving treatment in hospital in Grimsby, the victim appeared before court and said, ‘I want to tell you about the trouble I have had with another fellow’. The defendant was remanded in custody. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1962)

JANUARY 19TH

1948: On this day, Grimsby suffered the biggest demand for electricity ever experienced up to this point in time. The power surge that morning coincided with the sharpest frost of the year so far and resulted in forty minutes’ load shedding.

This prompted a warning from the Borough Electricity Department that only drastic voluntary economy would avert power cuts if the forecasted cold spell materialised. If cuts were necessary, it said, they would be made on a district rotation basis.

Temperatures in the town had fallen during the night to 28 degrees Fahrenheit, with 2 degrees of ground frost. It was 2 degrees colder than on any night so far that year, and ended a spell of exceptionally mild weather for January.

On the same day, it was reported that Grimsby was to play its part in relieving the potato famine being experienced in London and the south. Enough Lincolnshire-grown potatoes to supply nearly 12,000,000 people with their 3lbs ration for a week were shipped from Grimsby throughout the following fortnight. On the instructions of the Ministry of Food’s Potato Division, 16,000 tons was to go to London, the South Coast and South Wales. The first two ships, small coasters which carried about 600 to 800 tons each, were expected to arrive at Grimsby within two days. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1948)

JANUARY 20TH

1854: On this day, the Grimsby Gazette published a report on the burial ground at St James. It was the only burial ground for people in Grimsby at the time (about 12,000 bodies had been interred in an area of about 1 acre), and concerns over space had been raised as early as 1846.

In the following year, a letter to the Bishop of Lincoln asking for help read:

It is with the greatest difficulty that the sexton can find a clear spot. In too many instances he is compelled to disturb the decomposing remains of the respective tenants to make room for new occupants. So full is the churchyard that he is obliged to dig and probe to find unoccupied space.

In 1848, a complaint was made to the General Board of Health:

On leaving clothes out on a line to dry, people living in a house nearby to the graveyard complained that the nausea which had been absorbed was so bad as to render it needful to rewash them. A coffin had been disturbed one day and a human head taken out with the hair fresh on it, and the decomposing matter shovelled out.

At this time coffins were being buried 2ft below the surface, and graves were being reopened after a few days to receive further occupants.

St James was officially closed in June 1854. (Grimsby Gazette, 1854)

JANUARY 21ST

1905: On this day, a letter appeared in the Liverpool Echo from a schoolteacher living in Binbrook, a village outside Grimsby, claiming terrifying paranormal activity was taking place at Binbrook Farm.

The Society for Psychical Research said the first instance of paranormal activity was reported by Mrs White in December 1904, when a milk pan was overturned by unseen hands. Throughout January 1905, objects were repeatedly thrown around and fires ignited.

A servant was sweeping the kitchen when the back of her dress caught fire. She was admitted to Louth Hospital in a critical condition with extensive burns.

During this time, something began killing the chickens on the farm. Farmer White claimed that out of 250 fowl he had in January 1905, only twenty-four survived. He explained:

They have been killed in the same weird way. The skin around the neck has been pulled off and the windpipe drawn from its place and snapped. The fowl house has been watched night and day and, whenever examined, four or five birds would be found dead.

In early February, the activity stopped. (Jason Day, Haunted Grimsby, 2011)

JANUARY 22ND

1970: On this day, there was a growing indignation in the towns and villages of the Lincolnshire countryside – and it was going to take more than well-intended words to waft it away. As the Grimsby Evening Telegraph reported:

Look no farther than the end of your nose for the cause – the evil smells that for too long have been accepted as a part of progress in industry and agriculture. When country folk, long used to farmyard odours, start complaining it is time for action.

The Association of Public Health Inspectors in London was told that smells from intensive farming and vast quantities of highly septic manure were causing an outcry. Battles are being fought between big businesses and health officials, who are right to urge stronger laws to cope with the problem.

Nearer home, there is a whiff of reassurance. Brigg’s medical officer says that the nuisances which cause most public concern are often least harmful to health. This does not make them any easier to stomach. But research and preventative measures have not, at the moment, the stimulus of absolute compulsion. It is time the law lent more weight to those efforts being made to clear the air. It might start by recognising such offensive odours for what they are - an assault on the person.

(Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1970)

JANUARY 23RD

1980: On this day, the Grimsby seiner Fiona Jane – which had been out of radio contact for two days – was reported safe in the North Sea, minutes after an aircraft had taken off to search for her.

Concern for the 58ft vessel began to mount after she failed to report in. Her last reported position had been 140 miles east/north-east of the Humber, and strong gales had been lashing that area. As dawn broke on this day, an RAF Nimrod took off from Kinross to comb the area were the vessel had last been reported.

Only minutes afterwards, shortly before 8.30, Skipper Enjar Sorensen put out a ‘safe and well’ call, reporting that he and his two-man crew were safe. The Nimrod was returned to base. Sorensen – who had been fishing for forty-five years – told the Post Office station that he only knew there were worries about his vessel’s safety when he heard a news broadcast at 6 a.m. that morning. A spokesperson for Humber Radio said, ‘He [the skipper] seems to have lost a day. He thought he had reported in.’ (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1980)

JANUARY 24TH

1987: On this day, faulty phone lines were causing chaos at a frustrated Grimsby fish merchant’s … and a John Cleese farce had nothing to do with it!

Pandemonium broke out at T. Chapman and Sons, in Kemp Street, when the telephone system packed up – smack in the middle of the nationwide BT strike. Three out of six lines went completely dead. On the others, the only person to answer was the speaking clock and, to make matters worse, every time an incoming call was made, the Telex machine went berserk.

‘It’s absolute chaos,’ said company secretary Loretta Skade. ‘We have about 30 miles of meaningless Telex messages.’

When they eventually succeeded in getting past the speaking clock, there were further surprises in store – more often than not, it was a wrong number. Seeing the funny side though, employees of the firm posed for amusing photographs for the local newspaper.

Disruption caused by the strike lasted about a fortnight, until BT agreed to a two-year pay rise worth 12.66 per cent. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1987)

JANUARY 25TH

1969: On this day, a 12-year-old missing Grimsby boy was safe – after being found at Heathrow Airport, in London, late the night before.

The Havelock School pupil had been reported missing to the police by his mother the day before. Officers in Grimsby began a search but it was called off when they received a message that the youngster had seen by an airline official looking at the planes. He was handed over to the police, who looked after him for the evening.

On this day, his father took a day off work to return him from the airport to his home in Grimsby. His mother told the Grimsby Evening Telegraph how she and her son had had a ‘tiff’ and she had sent him to bed earlier than usual. The following morning, he was quite cheerful when he left home for school at the usual time, saying he would see her in the evening.

The youngster wanted to pursue a career in the navy, said his mother, and she would have understood his actions if he had gone to a seaport, not an airport. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1969)

JANUARY 26TH

1953: On this day, a homeless fisherman bravely dived into the cold and murky waters of Grimsby Dock to rescue a screaming woman. Charles Frederick Lodge – better known as Tabby Lodge – was congratulated by magistrates and the police for his gallantry.

The woman had thrown herself into the water at the Corporation Road lifting bridge following a row with her boyfriend. When Mr Lodge arrived at the scene, the woman was screaming in the water, in the deepest part of the dock.

Three men had already climbed down underneath the bridge and were trying to reach her.

After taking off his overcoat and shoes, Mr Lodge dived in and swam to shore with the woman, where the other men pulled them both out.

The woman, who could not swim, was seen by medics at hospital.

Accommodation was found for Mr Lodge that night at the Salvation Army Hostel, and the particulars of his actions were sent to the Royal Humane Society. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1953)

JANUARY 27TH

1947: On this day, severe snowfall brought Grimsby to a halt. In fact, mention 1947 to anyone who was there at the time and their thoughts turn immediately to snow drifts, frozen pipes, biting winds and huddling round a flickering fire, trying to keep warm.

Trains were stranded on blocked lines, people were marooned for days on end, there was a coal shortage and rationing was still in force. Bread ended up being delivered on the rope railway, used in normal times to move ironstone to isolated communities.

On this day, 2ins of snow fell; three days later, there were reports of drifts 5ft high. One man walking on the Wolds stubbed his toe on something, dug down and discovered an abandoned bus. Even Grimsby Town’s players were stranded in a train on their way back from a match.

When it looked like the cold spell was ending, it came back with a vengeance. In early February, the first of the great blizzards struck – people awoke to a buried world and Grimsby was completely cut off. But even when it thawed in March, flooding forced 7,000 people to evacuate. Melting snow left 3ins of water in some Grimsby streets. (Grimsby Telegraph Bygones, 1940s special edition, 1985)

JANUARY 28TH

1938: On this day, the Grimsby vessel Leicestershire was lost, with fifteen men on board, in one of the town’s worst fishing disasters. The vessel had arrived in the port two years previously, when she was one of the big new additions to the Shire Trawlers fleet, built by Smith’s Dock, in Middlesbrough.

The Leicestershire was homeward bound from Iceland on this day when it’s believed she was overwhelmed by a violent storm off the Orkneys. Her last message was picked up by another Grimsby trawler, the Northern Chief, when she was some 30 miles from the Skerries.

The following day, islanders on Hoy found bodies and wreckage washed ashore on the rocky coastline. Part of a trawler’s boat was found bearing the name ‘Grimsby’ and later parts of a radio set identified as coming from the Leicestershire were discovered.

Grimsby’s Port Missioner had the grim task of visiting fifteen homes, informing twelve women they were widows and twenty-three children that they were fatherless.

The tragedy could have claimed a sixteenth life, were it not for good fortune. While the vessel was fishing off Iceland, her galley boy complained of feeling unwell. The skipper was so concerned he put the boy ashore at Isafjord, where he was found to have appendicitis. (Grimsby Telegraph Bygones, Great Trawlers edition, 1996)

JANUARY 29TH

1982: On this day, furious residents slammed the builders of the new Grimsby Town football stand after sheets of corrugated iron fell ‘like giant daggers’ from its roof during high winds.

Three sheets of the roof, measuring 12ft by 3ft, fell 50ft from the top of the stand being constructed at Blundell Park, in Cleethorpes.

Famously, the ground is one of only a handful in the UK that is situated in a different town to which the club belongs. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1982)

1987: On this day, Blundell Park was once again in the news, as neo-Nazi thugs had begun infiltrating the terraces of Grimsby Town Football Club. They had produced crude ‘calling cards’ designed to be stuck on their victims, prominently featuring the Grimsby Town club motif. The managing director of the club at the time, Tom Lindley, pledged to take action. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1987)

JANUARY 30TH

1959: On this day, it was announced that about £8,000 was to be spent on re-modelling Grimsby’s Old Market Place, making it open to one-way traffic only. The scheme was due to be submitted by Grimsby Town Council to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in April, as soon as possible after the beginning of the new financial year.

From Eason’s corner towards Victoria Street, the road was to be widened to 21ft, and traffic would flow towards Victoria Street. At the junction of Bull Ring Lane, there was to be a small, semi-circular projection from the footpath for a small garden. The remainder of the historic Corn Exchange and the recently closed conveniences were to be demolished. The object of the plan was to lead traffic from Eason’s corner and the church into a single line of traffic before it met that entering from Bull Ring Lane.

The Old Market Place and Corn Exchange were much loved areas of Grimsby in days gone by. Modernisation plans – which sprung up in many places after the hardships of the Second World War – were later, and still are, criticised by Grimbarians. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1959)

JANUARY 31ST

1953: On this day, the Lincolnshire coast flooded; the biggest peacetime tragedy the country had even seen. Some 307 lives were lost and 24,000 homes damaged or destroyed, and days later, more than 1,000 people remained untraced along the battered, flooded coastline.

Lashed by winds of hurricane force, the North Sea ripped gaps in the sea defences. From Grimsby and Cleethorpes in the north to Canvey Island in the south, roads turned into rivers and the sea smashed through people’s homes and businesses along the entire east coast.

Peter Blanchard was a projectionist at the Ritz Cinema, in Grimsby Road, and was working when the waves hit. He recalled going up on the roof with a friend, the wind so strong that they had to cling on to each other:

We could see water coming along Grimsby Road towards the cinema. The chief projectionist, Sid Melhuish, had gone home because his house backed onto the railway. When the sea broke the embankment, it smashed through the walls of his house. We could see straight through to what was left of the embankment with the railway tracks hanging across the gap and nothing inside the house.

(Grimsby Telegraph; Met Office)

FEBRUARY 1ST

1950: On this day, with all their flares gone and their tiny vessel in danger of being wrecked on the rock-strewn Durham coast in a gale, the crew of the Grimsby motor fishing boat Sunray stripped off some of their clothes and burnt them on the deck as distress signals.

For nearly four hours the Sunray, pounded by heavy seas, drifted helplessly in the darkness after her engines had broken down.

Coastguards saw her SOS, and Hartlepool’s lifeboat, after searching for her for three hours, took the Sunray in tow and brought her and her crew safely to port. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1950)

1976: On this day, women won their campaign to become dockers at the twin Humber ports of Grimsby and Immingham. A meeting of the Grimsby and Immingham Dock Labour Board decided that women’s applications for dockers’ jobs would be treated the same as men. (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1976)

FEBRUARY 2ND

1934: On this day, a monster rising from the depths of the Humber sparked a mystery in Grimsby. Cleethorpes’ inshore boatmen, who earned a precarious living line fishing in the river, realised their lines were being stripped of fish. At first poachers were blamed, so early on February 2nd, two fishermen – Kirman and Reeder – decided to keep a vigil.

Kirman, who had been standing up in the boat watching and waiting, gave a yell and fell back on to Reeder. Speechless, he could only point at the water. The men saw a terrific swirl, rapidly moving away from the boat, travelling in the direction of Tetney Haven. At a distance of 100 yards, a huge black shape broke the surface of the waves and, in a few seconds, disappeared as though diving.

Two days later, William Croft, who had spent fifty-one of his sixty years fishing, also saw the Humber Monster – though this was not for the first time. He’d seen it ten years before.

‘You can take it from me, it’s no porpoise,’ he said. ‘It had a big head, like a Great Dane, ears and a mane on its neck. There was about two feet of head and neck out of the water.’

It was decided to kill the creature. The first attempt was initially thought successful when a ‘huge dark shape’ was seen on a sandbank – but it was a tree trunk and was instead sawn up for logs. Two days later, another armed squad set out but nothing was found … and mention of it was never publicly made again. (Grimsby Telegraph Bygones, 1996)

FEBRUARY 3RD

1905: On this day, the Scarborough Post published a report about Grimsby’s very own ‘musical’ trawler, the Syrian. It read:

A novel courtesy of the sea was paid Filey by the Grimsby trawler Syrian, which put into the bay for shelter from the strong westerly gale. She had no sooner anchored under the lee of the Brigg and swung round with her head to the wind than, by means of an organ pipe arrangement on her siren, she gave full blast to Auld Lang Syne. The tune was most admirably played and brought scores of people running to the foreshore and cliff tops to investigate the strange occurrence. After a pause, the siren broke into Life on an Ocean Wave. The Bay of Biscay was next rendered, the melody later giving place to The Death of Nelson. Later in the afternoon, the steamer obliged with Rule Britannia and God Save the King.

The Syrian had a short seagoing life. She was launched in 1904 for Sir Thomas Robinson, but was sunk by a U-boat on July 11th 1915, off Hornsea. (Scarborough Post, 1905)

FEBRUARY 4TH

1967: On this day, two people who attended a jumble sale at a local school must have been convinced they had bagged a bargain. In the half-hour rush between 2.30 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the sale at Bursar Street School, two coats belonging to helpers were inadvertently sold for a song!

One of the helpers was Mrs Hettie Heaton, who lived in Bentley Street, and when she went to collect her coat at the end of the sale, she found it had been sold, together with another coat belonging to her daughter.

She was told that her daughter’s had fetched the handsome price of 3s. Her own – a three-quarter-length brown foam-backed coat with metal figured buttons – had gone for a similar sum. It had been a Christmas present from her husband, and had cost £8.

A plea was made for the bargain-hunters who unwittingly claimed the articles to return them to their owners … but it was never reported if they came forward! (Grimsby Evening Telegraph, 1967)

FEBRUARY 5TH

1940: On this day, authorities in London were reporting that attacks by German planes on shipping in the North Sea had been a failure. Nine ships – among them the Grimsby trawler Rose of England – had been attacked by German bombers the previous weekend and authorities said four, possibly five, German planes were lost, with seven of their airmen dead and six taken prisoner. The Grimsby trawler Harlech Castle