No. 10 bus WFU 466V outside the former Wabys shop in Cleethorpe Road c1982.

From the original colour negative.

WFU 466V (66) was a new Leyland FE30AGR (Roe body) bus acquired by Grimsby Cleethorpes Joint Transport Committee in 1980. The bus was transferred to Grimsby Cleethorpes Transport Company Limited on 26th October 1986.

In 1981 Grimsby-Cleethorpes changed its livery from blue and cream to caramel and cream. A simple ‘GCT’ fleetname was introduced (as seen here). The twin town crests were retained. The livery was restyled in 1985. This dates the photo to between 1981 and 1985. (In 1987 the fleet colours were changed again, to orange and white.)

‘Wabys’ clothiers/outfitters were in Grimsby for around 100 years. In the first half of C20, had a very large store at Riby Square with a golden dome. A very large ‘ghost sign’ advertising the trademark ‘Wabys’ can still be seen painted high on a wall next to Wetherspoons (formerly The Coliseum Picture Theatre), Cleethorpes. Was the menswear shop in the photo at 121 Cleethorpe Road, Grimsby the last remnant of the company?

In 1871, a young Thomas Waby, born Potterhanworth in 1850, was a draper’s assistant for Ann Lawson, draper and outfitter, of 101 Cleethorpe Road. Ann Lawson was to become his mother-in-law in 1874. Ten years later, he was a drapier and clothier living at 27 Hainton Street (later Avenue). Thomas died in 1895, aged 46. His wife, Annie Mary, had died in 1891, aged 38. In the 1920s, their sons William Lawson Waby and Ernest Waby were outfitters at 101 Cleethorpe Road with storerooms at 8 & 9 Waby’s Cambers, Cleethorpe Road. Ernest also was a fisherman’s outfitter on Fish Dock Road. (101 Cleethorpe Road is where their father was a draper’s assistant 50 years earlier.)

Note: Ann Lawson was born in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire in 1832. Ann was the mother of Elizabeth Jacoby (née Lawson) (1860-) and Mary Blaney Spawforth (née Lawson) (1863-). They were all in Kent in 1881. Ann Lawson was, therefore, the wife of William Lawson (or George Lawson).

Note: Winifred Jennings Waby (1885-1981) was the daughter of Thomas and Annie Mary Waby, draper, of 27 Hainton Street, Grimsby. She was living with her uncle and aunt, Rev. George William Julius Jacoby and Elizabeth Jacoby in North Killingholme in 1901.

Note: Is there any link with a Lawson family who originated from Hessle, East Yorkshire and then Aylesby, Lincolnshire? Charles Lawson became a tailor and outfitter in Grimsby and eventually started the locally famous, independent retailer, Lawson & Stockdale in the early 1900s. Both families were originally joiners.