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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 around 90,000 (140,000 including Cleethorpes). 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 before laws on the Green Belt were put in place). Historically in Lincolnshire , Grimsby borough expanded to absorb the adjacent hamlet of Wellow ( 1889 ), also the neighbouring parishes of Clee-with-Weelsby (1889), Little Coates ( 1928 ), Scartho (1928), Weelsby (1928) and Great Coates ( 1968 ). 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 . 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 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". This is based on Grim the Danish Viking, supposedly the founder of the Town, with ''by'' being the Viking word for 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 medieval times Grimsby had two parish churches, St. Mary's and St. James'. Only St. James' now remains. In the 15th Century The 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 Dock Tower was completed in 1851 , followed by the The Royal Dock in 1852 . 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 . They used the Dock Tower as a landmark and refused to bomb it. Grimsby suffered many air raids during the war 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. Grimsby held the record at one time for the largest 'Cold Store' in the UK and it was in Grimsby that the UK's first 'fish finger' food was produced in 1955 . Birds Eye closed this large Fish Finger factory in 2005 . 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 Tonne s, 10% of the total, in 2003 . PLACES OF INTEREST AND LANDMARKS
OTHER INFORMATION Austin Mitchell is the Member Of Parliament for Grimsby. The Grimsby 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. The local radio stations are Radio Humberside Lincs FM and Compass FM . The parish church is called St James' Church . There is a Morrisons on the road to Laceby (this is officially classed as being in Cleethorpes as it stands one inch out of the Laceby boundary), an Asda on Holles Street, a Sainsburys on Corporation Road and a Tesco Extra on Victoria Street. TRANSPORT Grimsby has a vast bus service provided by Stagecoach Group which took over the original Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport in 1993 . Stagecoach had all the buses resprayed to their Blue and White colours to replace the buses original colours of Orange. Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport had been formed in 1957 , with the merger of the previously separate Grimsby and Cleethorpes transport undertakings. Grimsby also has rail links and is home to Grimsby Town Station . Grimsby was home to two tramway networks: the Grimsby District Light Railway and the '''Grimsby and Immingham Electric Railway'''. The Grimsby Electric was a normal gauge tramway opened in 1912 between Corporation Bridge at Grimsby and Immingham . There was no physical connection with the railway system. The tramway served the town with a passenger service between Grimsby and Immingham until closure in 1961 . The Grimsby Light Railway opened in 1881 using horse drawn trams. In 1901 , these were replaced with electric tramways. In 1925 the Grimsby Transport Company bought the tramway company and in 1927 moved the depot to Victoria Street Depot, an old sea plane hangar. This system closed in 1937 and the depot was then used as a bus depot. In the early years of the new millennium it was suggested that a Tramway system much like the Sheffield Supertram should be built in Grimsby. Various news reports and details of which areas the trams would go through were published however the project was abandoned due to a lack of funding. Currently there are no plans to bring back this propsed tram system however it could be a possibility with the upcoming redevelopment projects. REDEVELOPMENT AND REGENERATION Grimsby is soon to be vastly redeveloped as over £13 million is being used to improve the town. It is currently being planned out by a small team of officials however no details have been released as to which areas of the town will specifically change. Grimsby in the Media Bernie Taupin , who lived in Humberston , wrote a song called ''Grimsby'' that was featured on Elton John 's 1974 album "Caribou". Corporation Bridge was featured in the video for the Erasure song "The Circus". It also featured clips showing Cleethorpes' Big Wheel. The town's ''Scartho Hospital'' - now Diana, Princess Of Wales Hospital as well as the Scartho Cemetary entrance featured in the 1985 film Clockwise , starring John Cleese . In August 2001 Neil and Christine Hamilton were arrested by police investigating an alleged rape. Their accuser was Grimsby resident Nadine Milroy-Sloane however the allegations were false and Milroy-Sloane was imprisoned for perverting the course of justice. The town went Pop Idol mad in 2003 when Grimsby girl Kim Gee made it into the final 12 of the live TV talent show and in 2006 youngster Georgia Taylor emerged from the smoke and dazzled the nation as the winner of Stars In Their Eyes Kids but later lost out in the Live Final. Grimsby's daily newspaper ( Grimsby Telegraph ) also encouraged the town to support Big Brother 6 contestant Derek Laud as he was once a researcher for then-Cleethorpes MP Michael Brown in the early 1980's. Grimsby is associated with the Soham Murders , through murderer Ian Huntley and his then-partner Maxine Carr being originally from the area. Carr initially gave Huntley an Alibi (she claimed to be with him) though subsequent investigations showed her to be in Grimsby visiting relatives over the weekend of the murders. Sons and daughters of the town Famous celebrities who come from Grimsby include actresses Patricia Hodge and Julie Peasgood , also the actors John Hurt , Johnny Leeze and the late comedian Freddie Frinton were raised in the area. Norman Lamont , the former Chancellor Of The Exchequer was brought up in the town, as was the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse David Ross . Swimmer Brenda Fisher , was the daughter of a Grimsby trawler skipper. Trivia Grimsby is colloquially known as ''UK Food Town'' UK Food Town , previously known as ''Europe's Food Town''. It is said that more pizzas are produced in Grimsby than anywhere else. The food production and seafood heritage links are perpetuated in a UK 2006 Young's Seafood television advertising campaign emphasising Grimsby as the source of its seafood products. In the campaign, Grimsby Docks are briefly shown, at dusk, lit and shot somewhat romantically. Grimsby was featured in the Open University documentary Coast. Grimsby as seen by others Generally speaking, the town is regarded by English people as deeply unfashionable and a byword for provincial dullness. This reputation is arguably ill deserved, but may be explained by the dramatic economic decline that Grimsby suffered after World War Two . The local Football team, Grimsby Town , is often disparaged by football fans nationwide through the well known phrase "You wouldn't want to go to Grimsby on a wet Tuesday night," implying that the team and by extension the town itself is a particularly uninspiring place to travel to for the purposes of playing or watching a match. The town is often used as a comparison against other towns and football clubs in the media with the phrase "...the likes of Grimsby". Many people who travel to Grimsby refer to it as the "Road to Nowhere" as Grimsby is at the end of the M180 and is the end of the line. Twin cities Grimsby's Twin Cities include: SEE ALSO
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