Ours: the story of Freeman Street

Ours is a town filled with history and culture. A place to be proud of. OURS is a series of eight banners celebrating some key points within that inheritance.

Ours is a gutsy, gritty and for the most part, friendly town and we need to shout out our heritage. As well as the efforts of all our fellow town folk, the everyday people who make up our community.

And Ours has been installed on lamp posts on Freeman Street in Grimsby this week.

The images on the banners in the scheme cover key points in Grimsby’s history:

• 1201: The Royal Charter: Grimsby was one of the first places in England to be granted a Royal Charter which gave freedoms, rights and privileges to the Burgesses and freemen of Grimsby.
• 1890: Heyday of Freeman Street: see the trams, and the great image of “Gladys”, cycling down the road
• 1950: The pontoon: A painting by local artist, Dale Mackie, of lumpers bringing fish up from trawlers’ fish rooms.
• 1960: Peter Cullum’s poem: Take a walk down Freemo, which gives you a snapshot of what the street was like in the middle of the last century.
• 1980: Resentment: A John Hopkinson painting, which encompasses the love-hate relationship that people have with Grimsby and its heritage.
• 1998: The Double. Where Grimsby won both the Football League Trophy Final and the Second Division play-off Final to reach the heady heights of the first division.
• 2021: Our green future. This banner features a drawing on the subject of renewable energy, a nod to the sustainable low-carbon future. The drawing was done by a child from St Mary’s Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy.
• 2022: Freeman Street Market – Best Small Indoor Market 2022

The banners were created by Paula Denton of Our Big Picture, in collaboration with local people.

“I’m so excited to see them go up,” said Paula. “This has been a project in the making for lots of years, but now, thanks to a variety of funding, we’ve managed to get them in place. I hope people will explore a little more about the street and its very colourful past.”

Cllr Tom Furneaux, Cabinet member for heritage, said: “This is a great project which has taken quite a while to complete, having started before the pandemic! I’d like to thank people for getting involved and bringing some of the history of the street to life.”

More information and background about the individual banners is available on the Discover North East Lincolnshire website, https://www.discovernortheastlincolnshire.co.uk/