A modern view of the same junction. Both the Sheffield Arms and the Lincoln Arms are long gone.

Another view of the same junction with the Lincoln Arms on the right. Postmarked: 1909.

Picture postcard of Cleethorpe Road looking east towards the junction with Riby Square. On the right you can see the Lincoln Arms public house that stood on the end of Freeman Street. Postmarked: 1905. On the left of the picture is the Sheffield Arms at 97 Cleethorpe Road. This drinking establishment had a rather dubious reputation and was known as the Rat’s Nest. Matters came to a head in 1940 when the licence-holder, Albert Smith, was summoned to answer numerous allegations of drunkenness and debauchery on the premises. A policeman who had entered the pub spoke of the “disgraceful things that were happening”. By 7 o’clock there were 70 people in the bar, many of whom were Royal Navy sailors, though the Sheffield Arms was officially out of bounds to naval personnel. By 9 o’clock the number of drinkers had increased to about 120 and the room was uncomfortably crowded, but the landlord’s only response was to admit more people as he shouted: “Plenty of room on top”. The magistrates also heard that “The management had only two motives – to sell beer and then sell more beer”, that gaming took place on the premises and that prostitutes also plied their trade in the Sheffield Arms. The solicitor defending the licence-holder pointed out that many of the sailors had been on minesweeping duties and that they had come ashore with very strained nerves. It was therefore understandable that they should have one idea on their minds – to have a good time. Unfortunately, the court was not swayed by the suggestion that a blind eye should be turned to sailors letting off steam and the licence-holder was fined £38. The following year the police successfully opposed the renewal of Albert Smith’s licence.

The Imperial Hotel, Cleethorpes, as it is today.

Plans for a new smoke room at the Imperial Hotel, Cleethorpes, 1912. The plans were rejected by Cleethorpes Urban District Council. The plans for the construction of the Imperial Hotel on the corner of Grimsby Road and Blundell Street, Cleethorpes, were approved on 10th October 1898. The establishment was built for the wine merchant John Henry Alcock, who later lived at “Wyndhurst” on Pelham Road in Grimsby. The hotel was designed by Croft & Bentley, architects, of Grimsby & Louth, and it was built on land belonging to Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge (Bates & Mountain acted as agents on behalf of the college). According to a report in the Hull Daily Mail of 28th June 1909, the Imperial hotel was burgled and the thieves stole £30. To add to their crimes, in an act of “pure mischief” the thieves opened the whiskey jar taps and left them running. In the 1930s the hotel was owned by Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton Limited, who carried out a number of alterations to the building. It would appear that the building ceased to be used as a hotel in the 1940s, but the “Imp” continued to trade as a public house.

Picture postcard of People's Park, Grimsby. View looking north-east with the houses on Welholme Road in the background. Postmarked: 1908.

Reward poster for a missing horse belonging to Mr A Lord of Grimsby, 15 May 1878. North East Lincolnshire Archives Reference: 363/2/108.

The inscription on the memorial cross to Walter Bertram Wood in Scartho Road Cemetery, Grimsby. His brother, Edwin, who was killed in Flanders while fighting with the Royal Scots Fusiliers, is also commemorated on the monument.

Memorial cross to Walter Bertram Wood in Scartho Road Cemetery, Grimsby. Walter Bertram Wood was born in Grimsby on 25th October 1898, the younger son of Walter James Wood, a marine engineer and local magistrate. Walter Bertram was educated at St James’ School in Grimsby and then attended Hull Technical School, where he studied engineering. By the time of the 1911 census the Wood family was living at a house named “Ernecroft” at 41 Abbey Road in Grimsby. At the age of 10 Walter Bertram became the first Boy Scout to be registered in Grimsby and when war broke out he organised a troop of scouts to act as a coastal patrol. He then went through the Officers’ Training Corps of the Artists’ Rifles, and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment on 4th June 1916. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on 3rd March 1917 and on 23rd April he was assigned to 29 Squadron, which had recently been re-equipped with the French-designed Nieuport 17 fighter. On 11th May 1917 Wood scored his first kill, an Albatros DIII. On 18th June, he shot down a German reconnaissance aircraft in flames and described the aerial duel in his diary: "I get him in my sights…About 20 rounds I fire at him.... A small light appears in his machine. Hurrah! He's on fire. I have hit his petrol tank. Now the whole machine is a mass of flames. Down it crashes and flaming pieces fall off during the descent. Poor beggar! I hope a bullet hit him first: but it can't be helped…" Wood scored four more victories in June, bringing his tally to seven, and on 1st July 1917 he was promoted from 2nd lieutenant to temporary lieutenant. His exploits in the air soon received official recognition and he was awarded the Military Cross; the citation for the decoration reads as follows: "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on many occasions, when engaged with hostile aircraft, during which he has shown a fine offensive spirit and the utmost fearlessness. He has had no less than twenty-three combats, in the course of which he has destroyed and driven down numerous enemy machines, frequently attacking several single-handed, and on one occasion fighting with his revolver when he had run short of gun ammunition." He added five more kills to his total in July and claimed his thirteenth, and last, victory on 9th August 1917. He was rotated home to 44 Squadron in England two days later and a bar was added to his Military Cross. On 11th November 1917, Wood took off from Hainault Farm Aerodrome, Essex, in a Sopwith Camel to take part in a training exercise. Within minutes of take-off the Camel suddenly nose-dived into the ground and Wood was killed instantly. The cause of the accident remains a mystery, but Wood had not fully recovered from a bout of influenza that he had contracted in France and it is thought that he may have fainted at the controls. While flying over the Western Front, Walter Wood always carried a lucky mascot: a badge of the Lincoln Imp, which he attached to one of the inner wing struts on his Nieuport. Unfortunately, when Wood was transferred to England he had left the charm behind on his trusty French biplane.

The Old Post Office on Yarra Road, Cleethorpes, which was built in 1907.

Photograph of the former air raid shelter behind Yarra Road in Cleethorpes. It was built in 1916 for Joseph Forrester, chemist and Borough Councillor.

Plan for a proposed bomb-proof shelter to be built in the garden of "Southlands" on Kingsway, Cleethorpes, for Thomas Robinson JP. The plan dates from October 1916, only a few months after a bomb dropped by a Zeppelin had killed 31 soldiers who were billeted in the Baptist Chapel Hall on Alexandra Road. North East Lincolnshire Archives Reference: 53/601/D101.