The Angel - how it nearly was reborn
12 March 2006
Angel being restored
Nowadays, the Angel sits contentedly on the Brigg Marketplace - resplendent in its black and white timber waistcoat with a steady stream of office workers passing through its doorway.
However, it wasn't too long ago when the Angel was not a suite of council offices, but a fully functional Hotel. Many old-timers tell tales about the times they had on a market day in the past when they met their friends in the bar after a visit to the cattle market. The cattle market is now long gone too - to be replaced by the Tesco supermarket.
The story of the Angel's difficult transformation from a hotel to offices is told in press cuttings (from the Scnthorpe Telegraph) which are stored in the Brigg Archive at the Brigg Public Library:
29 June 1989
London based developers Whitefork Ltd publish an artist's impression of the proposed Angel development which is to include 13 small shops and around 500m2 of office accommodation on a new first floor complete with a new balcony. The ballroom is planned to become offices and shops while the Tudor bar is to become a restaurant and bar.
2 November 1989
The redevelopment looks less likely as they are now in a 'state of uncertainty' after one partner 'has backed out' while the other has died leaving the plans 'in a state of flux'.
10 March 1990
Glanford Council buy the Angel Hotel for an 'undisclosed six figure sum' to save the hotel from destruction. Cllr Dick Long 'promised it would be retained as a public house'. The contents of the hotel had been sold off at auction for £33,000. The previous owners Mick and Susan Shrosbree sold it to Whitefork Ltd for £450,000.
3 February 1990
Glanford Council approve Whitefork Ltd plans for the hotel.
23 May 1990
Regeneration officer Rob Lawton is worried that the Angel has been 'standing disused and untouched for at least a year' following its purchase by Glanford Council and suggested that the bar should be re-opened and let.
12 June 1990
The Council report problems in keeping bar staff and keeping stock because of 'sporadic use of the bar'.
6 September 1990
Plans to open the Angel Bar on a 'short term franchise' had been 'attracting the interest of several people'.
20 November 1990
Architectural consultants James Brotherhood and Associates are appointed to draw up the plans for the redevelopment of the 'Angel Triangle' - after Cllr Dick Long had seen positive development work by them in North Yorkshire.
8 July 1991
Councillors meet in secret to review development plans for the 'Angel Triangle'. The recession has meant that many building companies have pulled out of the bidding process. Borough administrator Tony Lyman: 'All the plans ... blend a mixture of shops, offices, restaurants, houses and licensed premises.' There had been a strong local feeling to re-open the bar which had been closed two years earlier after 400 years of history.
6 April 1992
(in 'Day by Day' by JG) 'As the elderly farmer put it "For me, Brigg died the day the Angel closed." There it stands at the heart of the Brigg Market Place, empty and sad, a symbol of what the town has lost'
9 November 1993
Glanford Council put the Angel on the market 'for refurbishment or conversion to retail use with housing or offices' after it had 'stood, slowly decaying'.
... and so it ends. The Angel was converted to offices in which the newly created North Lincolnshire Council could house its employees. Also a part of the rear of the premises were converted into The Angel Suite: a ballroom, a small function room and several small public offices.