Grimsby Corn Exchange ~ Some History and pictures
The Corn Exchange in Grimsby was built in 1850s and is, sadly, no longer with us.
The infinite wisdom of town planners mean Grimsby’s heritage is now something primarily to be seen in old images and detailed research needs to be done simply to find the simplest of things.
So, let’s try and accumulate as much information about the Corn Exchange as possible
It’s certainly an impressive looking building, made from red brick and dressed stone as can be seen in this fine engraving dated 1862
The Corn Exchange in Grimsby Lincolnshire
The plans were set in place for the building project in 1855 and £6,000 was set aside for the building, land and expenses (seems like a huge sum back then )
Unlike today it seems the council then had some imagination and a desire to improve the town. To that end the Corporate Architect was in charge merely of rough preparation and planning with the actual design of the building going out to competitive tendering - not for the best price but the best design !
The ‘winners’ were the Lincoln based architects Bellamy & Hardy who were also paid a further £150 to oversee the building project to a successful conclusion.
The total cost of the building was £3,429 with the balance of the £6,000 going to the previous owner of the site - quite a result for him I would imagine.
6 March 1857 saw the official opening which was marked by a civic dinner for the great and good of Grymesby.
The primary purpose of a corn exchange was to bring together cereal farmers and traders who would then broker a deal for the farmer’s produce. Given the impressive nature of the building and its central location I wonder whether it was also used for other purposes as well - if you know of anything pleased leave a comment.
The idea of trading in this way eventually died out in the corn exchanges up and down the country. What would be interesting in this case would be to find out what uses this particular one was put to and also when it was knocked down to make way for the improvements to the town 
Of course most towns kept and treasured theirs and they still provide centres of activity for them today, not to mention a slice of history and a beautiful building.
I’m very keen to learn more about the Corn Exchange in Grimsby so if you can help or have any opinions please do leave a comment - many thanks
All the best
Rod
chris keyworth said,
March 20, 2010 @ 9:07 pm
looks very similar to brigg however theres still remains all be it slighly modernised but the town still has its original street plan you could stand in brigg martet place and almost invisage what grimsby would have been like back then.
regards
chris
Rod said,
March 21, 2010 @ 8:14 am
Chris,
I’ll be doing some more of these articles and hopefully we can build up a picture of what the town once looked like before it was ruined.
Best
Rod
Amiguru said,
May 4, 2010 @ 5:45 pm
Rod,
I well remember the Corn Exchange in the sixties when I was a student. I used to pass it most days at lunch times after walking into town from the college. There were public toilets incorporated into the building which were replaced by fancy new underground ones in the Bull Ring when the Exchange was demolished.
Here is an interesting postcard from 1935. Little had changed by the period referred to above but there are lots of interesting details that may or may not show up on the blog.
Working from left to right, the series of shops with the sunshades was, I seem to recall, Riggall’s. In front of them, in the road can be seen the tramlines and the cast iron pole in front of the shops has a ‘no left turn’ sign attached. To reinforce this, right in line with Bull Ring Lane, is a bollard which a chap is using as a resting post.
Just to the left of the lady in the white skirt and cloche hat is Johnson’s chemist advertising not only Kodak films but Port which was recommended for it’s health-giving properties back then.
To left of the lorry we have a saddlery, still in business then as horses were still a viable means of transport.
Immediately behind the rickety looking lorry we see The Swan Inn, known by all Grimbarians as ‘The Mucky Duck’.
To the right can be seen Albert Gait’s bookshop next to Chamber’s Grocery which always had the attraction of the aroma of roasting coffee.
Directly in front of Chamber’s is a traffic policeman, and I say that because he is wearing his white gauntlets used for that purpose.
Further over to the right, on another cast iron tramway cable support pole, is an advertisement for the Palace Theatre which was opposite the Central Market.
Further to the right is a telephone box nestling up against the Corn Exchange. I’m not certain whether it was for general use but it looks similar to the police call boxes that I remember.
The open space in the foreground, used for the market place at this time has had on it in preceding centuries variously, Grimsby Town Hall, the gaol and The Granby Inn, the landlord of which in the early 19th.century was the mayor of Great Grimsby, Bransby Harrison who’s grandfather was the famous John Harrison of Barrow-on-Humber. John invented a series of amazingly accurate chronometers which revolutionised marine navigation.
Regards,
Neville
Rod said,
May 4, 2010 @ 5:51 pm
Neville,
)
classic stuff - thanks for the memories (there’s a song in there somewhere
It’s fantastic stuff - a guided tour stepping back in time - love it.
Nice to read about the Harrison connection, I’m rather a fan of his and of course he has a clock at brocklesby
In Appreciation
Rod
Amiguru said,
June 26, 2010 @ 1:30 pm
Rod,
Walter White continues into Grimsby, 1865.
Following the report on his coastal walk to Cleethorpes with such glowing recommendations, Walter changes his tune somewhat to a totally disdainful opinion when he reaches Grimsby. Brace yourselves all Yellowbellies!:
“From Cleethorpes it is about an hour’s walk along the beach to Grimsby, where the tall tower of the docks rises conspicuously against the sky. The way is toilsome, and the neighbourhood of the town so unprepossessing that you will pity the troops of excursionist who are attracted thither by low fares, seductive advertisements and hopes of a view of the sea. The long dull walk from the railway station is enough to dishearten even the sanguine; but if that should fail, their first prospect of the beach will lower their tone. But there are loud noises near the docks, and other signs of trade, and if you are curious to know who is the principal customer you may infer it from the number of German sailors who saunter about, or congregate where the Hamburg Borsenhalle is ‘taken in’.
Grass grows in some of the old streets, …. [He then relates the whole story of ‘Grime’ and Havelok]…….The market place was thronged with country-folk who amid their buying and selling found time to listen to the noisy babble of rival Cheap Jacks and to Professor Gammon, Q.D. quack doctor, from Hull, who stood on a chair to hold forth and exhibited wonderful physiological diagrams in proof of his arguments. How the rustics stared and opened their mouths! …….Of course no one could refuse to buy pills and draughts of so very kind-hearted a doctor and an immediate demand arose for little packets, ‘threepence each or fivepence for two’, and for phials filled with a crimson fluid.
While all this was going on I made an attempt to classify the faces, and found three marked differences of form and feature. There was the angular yellow face with hollow cheeks, and high cheek-bones, of which you see many in the villages of Lindsey; and the round flat face as red as beef, which makes up in colour what it lacks in intelligence; and the long pyramidal face, somewhat sharp above and broad below, with a big mouth and full chin, sallow in complexion, yet wearing on the whole a jolly expression.”
I’ll pause here to let you all take stock and look at yourselves in the mirror and decide which face fits; unless that is, you have decided to not tolerate any more insults.
The date of this report is almost exactly contemporary with your OP picture Rod which will make the next episode even more imaginable as it describes the Grimsby lasses – don’t miss it!
Ducking brickbats,
Neville
Rod said,
June 26, 2010 @ 7:34 pm
Neville,
fascinating
Hamburg Borsenhalle ? - been looking etc and still unsure
I love the description - it’s still pretty accurate in principal. Grimsby’s full of people walking around with their mouths slighly open and dressed in sports clothing
so just a little updating rather than fundamental change.
Can’t wait to hear what he has to say about the Fish Wives of Grimsby
Cheers
Rod
Amiguru said,
June 27, 2010 @ 9:17 am
Rod,
Yes, I did a bit of research on that one and I knew that ‘halle’ was German for ‘hall’ but it seems the ‘Hamburg Borsenhalle’ was the name of a German newspaper so it would be quite logical that they would congregate, (probably somewhere near to the docks), where the newspaper was distributed.
Regards,
Neville
Rod said,
June 27, 2010 @ 9:24 am
Neville,
a newspaper - ah . . . you bring light where once was darkness
Best
Rod
Amiguru said,
June 27, 2010 @ 10:05 am
Rod,
Walter has a go at the ladies and their fathers this time round but they are the ‘country lasses’ rather than the ‘fishwives’ – goodness knows what he would have said about them if he’d seen, (or smelt), them!
Walter White in the Corn Exchange 1865
“The rows of full-cheeked damsels who sat watching the baskets of eggs, butter and poultry in the market hall seemed at first to constitute a fourth class; but it was possible by a little observation to distinguish the three varieties into which they would fall when time should have lessened their plumpness. Listen to the talk of these damsels and you will hear them say ‘yis’ and ‘not yit,’ ‘you knaw’ ’soor’ for sure, and ‘perfectness;’ while in the adjoining division of the hall their fathers are bargaining for ‘o-äts’ and ‘whe-ät;’ or arguing about the ‘gainest way’ to a neighbouring village.
Among the names in lists on the church door I noticed Babb, Dabb, Poxon, Urry, Broddel and Gooseman, and I tried to identify the owners when I went back into the market-place. There was another name – Frederick Tennyson – which reminded me that more than one poet was born at Somersby.
On one of the tombstones in the churchyard you may read an epitaph on a watchmaker:
Here lies one who strove to equal time
A task too hard, each power too sublime
Time stopt his motion, o’erthrew his balance wheel,
Wore off his pivots, tho made of harden’d steel;
Broke all his springs, the verge of life decay’d
And now he is as tho he’d ne’er been made,
Not for want of oiling - that he’d tried;
If that had done – why then he ne’er had died.”
I think there are echoes of Walter in you Rod, – he ’says it how it is’ or at least how he sees it; open, frank, out-spoken and honest
That’s it for now as far as Walter is concerned but remember that name, I shall be using him from time-to-time in other posts on other threads to come.
Amiguru said,
July 28, 2010 @ 5:49 pm
Rod,
Nowhere to put it so here it is:
Bodleian manuscript circa 1270 - “Adam, son of John le Carter of Grimsby, grants to Gilbert, son of William Rayn, two selions of arable land in the field of the village of Grimsby, paying annually one halfpenny for all demands”
At that land rate, you could afford to buy Grimsby I guess?
Regards,
Neville
Rod said,
July 28, 2010 @ 7:32 pm
Neville,
that puts things into perspective, oh to travel back in time with a purse of gold - I’d own half of Lincolnshire
Here’s another but nearer our time. My grandfather bought a motorcycle, he lived in Grimsby in a rented house.
He could have bought the house outright for £100
He paid £600 for the motorbike !
Imagine that transposed to today - a vehicle costing 6x the price of a house !
Best
Rod