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Grimsby is a town of around 90,000 people on the south bank of the River Humber in Lincolnshire. Sadly, the town is probably best known for being ‘near Hull, in Yorkshire’. It isn’t near Hull, unless you count a swim across the Humber or a 30 mile round trip as ‘near’, and it most certainly isn’t in Yorkshire and has never been in Yorkshire! It’s Lincolnshire, right? (Oh, apart from the time it was called Humberside from 1974-mid 90’s, but we don’t talk about that).

As for it’s history, like any town across the UK, it has one, it’s significance depends on what kind of place it is being compared to. Compared to London or York or Lincoln the history is somewhat ‘poor relation’. If you consider towns of a similar size, say Barnsley or Swindon or Stoke, and then consider that they are generally known for their one industrial contribution to the UK, then yes Grimsby does have a history equally of note to them.

What History are you suggesting then?

Taking the point about industrial contribution, Grimsby lays claim to having been at one point during the 1920’s and 30’s, the worlds largest fishing port. Doesn’t sound too glamorous? As it is my hometown I consider it as glamorous as coal mining, train building or pottery as examples that spring to mind in the towns I mentioned above. Fishing played a vital role in employment and wealth of the area, and although like those other towns there is little of that industry left, the legacy is of a town that has developed into the size it has today.

Can we mention Football?

We certainly can mention football. Grimsby Town FC often suffer from an almost ‘music hall’ reputation when mentioned in relation to football. The aspect of the club that is picked on is that they have a low attendance and always play in the lower leagues, it’s a kind of ‘we’ll be playing the likes of Grimsby next season if we don’t start winning’ type of comment. I’ll deliver the facts now……………

Grimsby Town FC don’t always spend their time in the lower divisions. They have spent the least amount of their time in the bottom division and a significantly greater portion of their time in the old second division. Most of the 1930’s saw Grimsby Town in the first division as a regular fixture, appearing in the FA Cup Semi Final twice (1936 & 1939) and finishing as high as 5 th in the table (1934-35). More recent years have seen Grimsby Town gain successive promotions 1978-1980 and 1989-1991 from the bottom division to the old second division without the need to be involved in the play-offs. So as a club, we have more to be proud of than a great many other league clubs that see each season pass with nothing to shout about.

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