Visitors offer a word to the wise
Don't change downtown, say guests from Grimsby's British namesake city
Joanne McDonald, the News
Published on
Jul 23, 2008
Grimsby, United Kingdom residents Pam and Ken Clark stopped by their town's namesake in Niagara and they've got a word to the wise for their Canadian cousins.
"Don't change your downtown," the couple said last week nearing the end of a holiday that has taken them from Montreal to Toronto.
The Clarks said the heart of their own downtown lost a few beats, the corner pubs and little shops, when redevelopment through the 1960s and 70s brought the big boxes to the core.
"It's a nice space, but has no character," Pam said. "Once you've got a shopping centre, it's just a shopping centre."
Travelling in an RV with their daughter and son-in-law Nicola and Mark Martin, Pam and Ken were charmed by Grimsby's character, from the hanging flower baskets to the downtown business owners.
"Canadians are absolutely lovely," said Nicola. "They're the friendliest people we've met and the young people are polite."
Our roads, however, don't score quite as high. They're in bad condition said Ken.
The foursome said their time in Niagara was "an amazing two days" including the view of Niagara Falls from both a helicopter and the Maid of the Mist.
It was only when Pam presented a souvenir spoon from home that she confessed that her town's name is actually Great Grimsby, a constituency consisting of the town of Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire on the River Humber.
Turns out that when Richard II was off to the Crusades around 1108, his brother John ruled England and he granted the town its charter as Great Grimsby.
And now we have the spoon to prove it, hanging on the assignment board in the newsroom at the Grimsby Lincoln News.