The fish docks were of course once a thriving community and although the buildings and most jetties are now run down or derelict it is still interesting from a historical point of view.
Row took a walk over to the Fish Heritage Centre while Tim stayed on board Talavera to record episode 20, the latest of the Tim Heale PodCasts. So far there have been 800 downloads, so thank you if you have already listened to his life story to date.
The walk over to the museum took 40 minutes and on arrival Row was told that visits had to be pre-booked – pity the website wasn’t up to date. She asked the nice ‘here to help’ lady if there was anything else to do in Grimsby other than shop and the answer was ‘no’.
Not to be defeated she took herself off on her own tour – well actually she got lost but in doing so had a great time wandering around and found that Grimsby had much more to offer.
So her own tour took her across the docks to the ice factory, which as the picture shows is now completely derelict but the chute once used to load the fishing boats with ice is still there.
Her walk took her past the Chamber of Commerce building with its clock tower and wonderful circular masonry work underneath the windows.
The Chamber of Commerce car park housed a very impressive statue of Prince Albert.
Next on Row’s tour she found a Flour Mill and the building next to it must have been particularly grand in its day with its appearance of a castle with curtain walls and towers, also coats of arms now worn and unreadable so we don’t know anything about that building yet.
The iron road bridge probably had as much water flooding across the footpath as there was in the River Freshney – shoes got wet here.
Row then squelched her way past not one, but two retail parks, the town centre with the usual High Street shops, the Grimsby Town Football Club, a sports centre, ice rink and three major supermarkets and then reached the Fishing Heritage Centre – again – directionally challenged but happy to plod on she found some fish distribution factories, including ‘Youngs’.
In a back street was a pub which advertised free pints for dogs. It also had a display of attire made into planters and a plaque reading ‘Fancy a dance around the handbags? Everyone welcome.’ Surely this isn’t where Kevin Clifton shot to fame!
This afternoon Row went off to the club’s launderette, a bargain at only £2 for two hours of machine use, while Tim started on his final episode of his PodCast. Artie the Ship’s Cat spent most of the day in his hammock chilling
The wind is still blowing a hoolie so it may be a dvd evening, probably a ‘Strictly’ homage for one of us anyway.
The Tim Heale Website 