HistoricaLeigh: Brubs Bridge

April 29, 2018 by Carole Mulroney

There are not many people of whom it can be said that never a bad word is spoken. Brubs Bridge is one such man. Brubs was the only surviving son of Frank and Lily Bridge. Frank operated trips out on the Peggy before the war and ran a shop selling fisherman’s gear in the Old Town, now the Rock Shop.

Brubs’ name was actually Henry, but his nickname came early when his elder brother Walter had difficulty saying ‘brother’ and it came out ‘brubber’ and the name stuck. He started working life as a trace horse boy for Leigh Building Supply, looking after the extra horse needed to carry bricks and other merchandise up the steep hill at Benfleet from unloading at the wharf. Later he was a lorry driver and eventually ran the whole business.

Like his father Brubs was a staunch Methodist and ran the boys class at New Road Church and was a lay preacher and the doer of many good deeds throughout the town.

Many people remember Brubs the entertainer and his involvement in concert parties entertaining the troups with Leigh girl, Peggy Mount.

The Old Town has two memorials to Brubs. A bench with the inscription ‘Brubs Bridge – a son of Leigh’ and a stained glass window in New Road Church showing fishermen at work with the inscription ‘His anchor held’. 

This article is by Carole Mulroney of Leigh Lives - www.leighlives.co.uk
To read all of Carole's previous article of the History of our little town, click here