The Victoria Street North drill hall is a former military installation in

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The building was designed by

Ernest William Farebrother Ernest William Farebrother (died 1891) was an architect who worked in Louth and Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Career Farebrother was articled to James Fower of Louth for four years from September 1870 and after serving his articles remained as a clerk ...

as the headquarters of the

1st Lincolnshire Artillery Volunteers The 1st Lincolnshire Artillery Volunteers were formed in 1860 as a response to a French invasion threat. They fought on the Western Front during World War I. In World War II, the unit took part in the Battle of France and Dunkirk evacuation, t ...

and completed in 1891. With the formation of the

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...

in 1908, the drill hall became the home of the 1st North Midland Brigade

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

as well as two of its three batteries (the third was at Main Ridge in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

). The brigade was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 and, after being deployed to France and being re-designated 230th Brigade Royal Field Artillery in May 1916, it saw action during the Operations on the Ancre in early 1917, the

Battle of Hill 70 The Battle of Hill 70 took place in the First World War between the Canadian Corps and five divisions of the German 6th Army. The battle took place along the Western Front on the outskirts of Lens in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France b ...

in August 1917 and subsequent engagements. The unit was placed in suspended animation in 1919. The drill hall was converted for industrial use by Albert Gait Limited, a printing business, in the 1930s. The printing business was acquired by Wyndeham Group in 1993 and subsequently re-named Wyndeham Gait. The business closed in April 2015 and, following a change of ownership of the property in January 2016, plans were submitted for conversion of the premises into retail space in August 2017.

References

{{reflist Drill halls in England Buildings and structures in Grimsby