Grimsby
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Great Grimsby (typically known simply as Grimsby) is a seaport on the river Humber in the north of England, which has a population of 91,000. It is physically linked to the adjoining town of Cleethorpes, and 11,000 of its inhabitants live in the village of Scartho (which was absorbed into Grimsby in 1927 before laws on the Green Belt were put in place).
Historically in Lincolnshire, Grimsby was given county borough status in 1891, which it retained until it was moved into Humberside in 1974 (where it formed the borough of Great Grimsby) and since 1996 has been part of the unitary authority of North East Lincolnshire.
It is called "Great Grimsby" to distinguish it from Little Grimsby, a village about 20 km to the south, near Louth.
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History
Grimsby was founded by the Danes in the 9th Century AD, although there is some evidence of a small town of Roman workers sited in the area some seven centuries earlier. Located on the River Haven, which flowed into the Humber, Grimsby would have provided an ideal location for ships to shelter from approaching storms. It was also well situated for the rich fishing grounds in the North Sea.
The name Grimsby probably originated from Grim's by, or "Grim's Village".
Grimsby is listed in the Domesday Book, having a population of around 200, a priest, a mill and a ferry. It also appears in the Orkneyinga Saga in the phrase í grims bæ mithivm ‘in the middle of Grimsby’. During the 12th Century it developed into a fishing and trading port, at one point ranking twelfth in importance to the Crown in terms of tax revenue. The town was granted its charter by King John in 1201. The first mayor was installed in 1218.
Grimsby does not have town walls. It was too small and was protected by the marshy land around it. However, the town did have a ditch.
In the 15th Century the River Haven began to silt up, preventing ships in the Humber from docking. As a result, Grimsby entered a long period of decline which lasted until the late 18th Century. In 1801, the population of Grimsby numbered 1,524, around the same size that it had been in the Middle Ages.
In the early 19th Century the town grew rapidly. The Great Grimsby Haven Company was formed by Act of Parliament in May 1796 (the Grimsby Haven Act) for the purpose of "widening, deepening, enlarging, altering and improving the Haven of the Town and Port of Great Grimsby". Grimsby's port boomed, importing iron, timber, wheat, hemp and flax. New docks were necessary to cope with the expansion. The Grimsby Docks Act of 1845 allowed the necessary building works. The Royal Dock was completed in 1852, at the same time as the Dock Tower. No.1 Fish Dock was completed in 1856, followed by No.2 Fish Dock in 1877. Alexandra Dock and Union Dock followed in 1879. During this period the fishing fleet was greatly expanded.
The arrival of the railway in 1848 made it far easier to transport goods to and from the port. Coal mined in the South Yorkshire coal fields was brought by rail and exported through Grimsby.
The population of Grimsby grew from 75,000 in 1901 to 92,000 by 1931 but then remained fairly static for the rest of the 20th Century.
During World War II, Grimsby's status as a major port made it a focus of the German Luftwaffe. Grimsby suffered many air raids and 197 people were killed.
Economy
Grimsby is traditionally strongly associated with the sea fishing industry and has the largest fish docks in the United Kingdom. However, primarily as a result of the Cod Wars and reduced fishing quotas, this industry has been in decline for many years.
In recent years the frozen food industry has become a large part of Grimsby's economy and new industries such as light engineering, chemicals and plastics have grown.
The port partnership of Grimsby & Immingham is the largest port in the UK in terms of tonnage, with a total traffic of 55.9 million tonnes, 10% of the total, in 2003.
Places of interest and landmarks
- Grimsby Docks
- Grimsby Dock Tower
- National Fishing Heritage Museum
- Grimsby Town Hall
- Freshney Place Shopping Centre
- The Corporation Bridge
- Weelsby Woods
- Humber Forts
- Waltham Windmill
See also
- Great Coates
- Grimsby Town Football Club
- Grimsby Chums
- Grimsby Rural District
- Humberston
- Little Coates
- New Clee
- Nunsthorpe
- Old Clee
- Pyewipe
- Scartho
- Weelsby
- West Marsh
Other Information
Grimsby has associations with the following towns and cities:
- Tromsø, Norway (since 1961)
- Bremerhaven, Germany (since 1963)
- Banjul, The Gambia
Austin Mitchell is the Member of Parliament for Grimsby. The Grimsby Evening Telegraph, with an audited circulation of 40,533 copies (January-June 2004), has the highest circulation of a local newspaper in Grimsby and the surrounding area.
Bernie Taupin, who grew up in Lincolnshire, wrote a song called Grimsby that was featured on Elton John's 1974 album "Caribou" and Corporation Bridge was featured in the video for Erasures song "The Circus". Famous celebrities who come from Grimsby include the actresses Patricia Hodge and Julie Peasgood. Norman Lamont, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer was brought up in the town. Actor John Hurt was also raised in the area.
External links
- Information on Grimsby
- Grimsby Town Football Club
- Visit Grimsby
- Waltham Windmill
- Grimsby & Immingham Ports Partnership
