It is possibly derived from the Old English gleam meaning joy or revelry, and thus the full word is interpreted as "ford where sports are held".

[7] Another suggestion is that the first element refers to a 'glamping' track—a walkway formed by placing interlocking planks or logs over boggy ground—and thus describes a ford crossed in this manner.

Glanford Brigg was founded at the crossing place of the Ancholme before 1183, its first mention being a Pipe roll entry for that year.

[10] The town's formal charter for a weekly market and yearly fair date from a royal grant to Hugh Nevil in 1205, in which the founder's name is given as his father–in–law Stephen de Camera.

The second part of the town's full name dates to this time, coming from the new bridge built to replace the existing ford across the river.

Its non-standard form of Brigg is due to influence from Old Norse bryggja, which although usually describes a jetty or quay here refers to a bridge.

[12] Brigg originally sat at the meeting point of four parishes (Broughton, Kettleby, Scawby and Wrawby), although it lay mainly in the last, and was officially regarded as part of that village.

[13] However, the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536–41 also affected hospitals and chapels, leaving the town without ecclesiastical coverage except the parish church in nearby Wrawby.

[14] Sir John Nelthorpe, a local landowner who had been a member of Parliament during the Protectorate, bequeathed some of his estate in 1669 for the foundation and maintenance of a free school in the town.

Four other local gentlemen established a chapel of ease in Bigby Street in 1699, restoring church presence in the town after 150 years of absence.

[15] Later, in 1842–43, the existing chapel of ease was replaced by a full–sized church dedicated to St John the Evangelist,[16] and a cemetery was established on Wrawby Road in 1857, following significant controversy over the burial of non–conformists.

A workhouse was built at the east end of the town in 1835, and was the responsibility of the Glanford Brigg Poor Law Union.

[3][17] Its architect was William Adams Nicholson who also designed the similar building in Lincoln, and replaced an earlier alms house dating back to 1701.

The workhouse at Brigg is one of the best known and best documented of its type, probably because of the national interest that arose after Percy Grainger collected traditional songs from the inmates.

The town itself sits on a gravel spur of the Lincolnshire Wolds that juts out into the valley of the Ancholme—a tributary of the Humber—which historically provided a narrow crossing point of the river and its flood plain.

[21] The Wolds proper rise to the east, reaching a maximum of roughly 330 feet (100 m) about 3.1 miles (5 km) from the town, although with a lower pass at the Kirmington Gap.

Between these low ranges of hills the Ancholme river runs south to north through its flat, low–lying flood plain, with a north–south height difference of only a few metres.

A portion of the west bank is cut off from the rest by the new river, forming an island–like piece of land known as Island Carr.

Its style is of the Gothic Revival architecture popular at the time, but Pevsner notes the curious construction where the stone has first been carved into the shape of bricks before being laid in courses.

[24] Much of the town's poorer housing formerly lay in a series of narrow yards that ran northward from the marketplace and Wrawby Street.

To the west beyond the New River Ancholme, the town's urban area continues into the neighbouring hamlet of Scawby Brook.

The settlement is substantially bounded by the M180 motorway to the north and the Grimsby branch of the Sheffield to Lincoln railway line to the south.

Many of the businesses are independent, retaining the character of the traditional high street, although some chain retailers, namely Tesco, Lidl, Poundland and Boyes have large stores in the town.

The town was home to the Falcon Cycles factory for much of its independent existence, the company having moved to Brigg from nearby Barton-upon-Humber in the early 1900s.

It holds an Annual Head Race every October, attracting crews from across the eastern Midlands and Northern England.

For several decades local volunteers organized the official fair and promoted it as a tourist event, but in recent years it has been left unorganized and unofficial.

At competitions arranged by Gervase Elwes in 1905–06, several folk singers from the surrounding area—including Joseph Taylor and George Gouldthorpe—sang for the composer Percy Grainger songs such as Brigg Fair and Lisbon.

[34] These songs inspired Grainger's work Lincolnshire Posy and subsequently Frederick Delius's own Brigg Fair.