The company were left with a small part of their original system, which they sold to Cleethorpes Urban District Council in 1936, along with their motorbuses.

Cleethorpes converted the system to a trolleybus route just one year later, and trams finally stopped running on 17 July 1937.

[1] The tramway opened in 1881 using horse-drawn trams[2] on standard gauge single track line with passing loops, stretching from Park Street, on the Grimsby/Cleethorpes boundary, to the Wheatsheaf Inn in Bargate, Grimsby.

[3] From the eastern terminus, it ran along Cleethorpes Road, passed the Alexandra Dock and reached the Wheatsheaf Inn by following Victoria Street and Deansgate.

In order to provide the service, seven small open top double deck trams were purchased, with another two added to the fleet in 1882.

Although details are not known, they built or bought more cars as traffic levels grew, for they owned 14 in 1892, 16 in 1893, and around 20 by the time the system was replaced by an electric tramway.

At the Grimsby end, the section from Old Market to the Wheatsheaf Inn remained single track, and so was closed for a while, but when it re-opened on 15 February 1902, it included a 500-yard (460 m) extension eastwards to the gates of the People's Park on Welholme Road.

Two more open top trams were obtained from the original manufacturer in 1903, who also supplied a 1904-built covered tramcar in 1906, and a 1900-built single deck car in 1915, which had formerly worked on the Oldham system.

c. 78), local authorities could buy tramways that operated within their boundaries after 21 years, and Grimsby Corporation decided to use these powers on 21 July 1922.

The company retained the depot and power station, the tram coach, and 13 of the tramcars, while Grimsby Corporation took the rest.

The company built a new tram in 1925 and two more in 1926, but the final additions to the fleet were twelve open top cars dating from 1905, which they bought from the Gosport and Fareham system in 1930.

[8] With the larger part of their system now operated by Grimsby Corporation, the company decided to sell the rest of it to Cleethorpes Urban District Council in 1935.

They had been operating motor buses since 1909, and their motorbus fleet, together with the tramway, the power station, and the depot were included in the price of £50,000.

[10] The front of the building was made of brick, but the storage area consisted of seaplane hangars, which had been moved from RNAS Killingholme after that facility closed in 1919.

[11] As the rolling stock was showing signs of age, the Corporation purchased sixteen Brush balcony tramcars from Sunderland District Electric Tramways.

Much of the track was also in need of replacement, and the Corporation decided to run trolleybuses on the Freeman Street branch, as the conversion of the overhead wiring was cheaper than relaying the trackwork.

[10] From 27 November 1927, the corporation also began running motorbus services, and these replaced the tramway between Old Market and the People's Park on 3 June 1928.

Operation was transferred to the Grimsby Cleethorpes Transport Joint Committee in 1957, and trolleybuses were replaced by motor buses in 1960.

No.40 was an open-top single-deck vehicle, known as the Tram Coach, which was built in 1922 and withdrawn in 1925, when it was sold for further use on the Portsdown and Horndean Light Railway, another system owned by Provincial.