50 YEARS AGO A place for pallets and a wasp invasion

If Crieff Town Council agree to supply hard standing at a site at the Muthill avenue, Mr George Kirkham will bring his pallet-making factory to Crieff.

Mr Kirkham, who employs over 100 people at his factory at Merseyside and wants to build another in Scotland, told the Strathearn Herald that nothing had been decided but everyone was being very helpful.

He said that the site at the station goods yard was out, unless the proposed hospital was going to be built elsewhere, for his was a noisy business with power saws and planing machines. An alternative site on the other side of Duchlage Road was also unsuitable. He requires two acres of hard standing with a further adjoining acre into which he can expand.

It’s wasps, wasps, wasps everywhere in Auchterarder these days.

The unusually hot summer, followed by a warm, wet spell has brought them staggering out from the fruit trees and hedgerows to the cold rains in their rebellious thousands.

Mr and Mrs William Crichton of Belvidere Lane thought they were having more than their fair share of the insects.

An inspection of their attic revealed a gigantic bike (nest) measuring five feet in circumference.

Town foreman, Mr Tom Chalmers, sealed off the attic and poured poison gas and consternation into the invaders’ ranks. “It’s easily the biggest bike I’ve ever seen,” he exclaimed.