Cleethorpes is often referred to as Meggies, and it is a word you’ll see written around town. Meggy (or sometimes Meggie) is also a locally-known demonym for a person from Cleethorpes. But why?

Nobody is quite sure. According to legend, a true Meggy must be born above Issac’s Hill (which is where we have placed this pin). Throughout the late nineteenth century and much of the twentieth – the town’s heyday as a resort – it was frequently referred to by those who visited it as Meg’s Island, and indeed it had once been a stretch of land surrounded by lower, often marshy ground and (of course) bordered by the sea.

But what does this have to do with folk tales? Well, it might have been the product of a lost one – or, at least, it has the makings of a folk tale. As reported by the Grimsby Telegraph in July 2024:

“A colourful story behind the name was put forward in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph in March 1906, a time when Cleethorpes was a popular resort for holidaymakers from around southern Yorkshire and the Midlands. A reporter wrote: ‘Where Cleethorpes stands was in days of old an island. A woman called Meg lived there alone, and ever since then the place has been known as Meg’s Island, whilst the name of Meggy has been attached to the trawlers which have sailed out of Cleethorpes.’”

As Meg is not infrequently a name given to a witch – see, for example, Byard’s Leap – readers will be able to draw their own perhaps spurious conclusions.

We would welcome further anecdotes or information about Meggies, so that we can add to this entry.

Words by RORY WATERMAN