THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

Reports were submitted at Cupar Parish Council regarding the remark made at last meeting that sympathy had not been extended to a girl patient in the phthisis ward at Thornton Poorhouse. Ex-Bailie Lamond said, along with the clerk, he had visited the poorhouse and interviewed the girl. When he asked if they had been unkind to her she replied: “Oh no, I can’t say that.” She said she was not satisfied with the nightdresses and that eggs supplied were not as fresh as those she had got at home.

50 years ago

A further phase in the large modernisation programme by Jute Industries Ltd was announced yesterday. The firm is to spend £450,000 on re-equipping its Douglasfield Mill, built only 11 years ago. Work will start in two months’ time. The announcement coincided with a press visit to the group’s Manhattan Works to view the result of a 15-month £700,000 modernisation scheme just completed there. Manhattan now claims the title of the world’s most modern jute mill.

25 years ago

A Dundee shopkeeper was attacked and robbed of his takings – understood to be several thousand pounds – by two masked men. Police said that their initial investigations suggested the two assailants had been lying in wait for the shopkeeper in the evening’s carefully planned “mugging” at Fairmuir. Extensive door-to-door inquiries by teams of CID and uniformed officers continued all day in the Fairmuir Park area. The victim was not injured in the incident.

One year ago

The level of cuts required by Angus Council is certain to lead to “significant” job losses, a new report has revealed. It claims a dramatic overhaul and reduction of the services the council provides is required urgently as the council faces having to find more than £30 million in additional savings in the next three years. The report states that the financial challenges being faced by the council are “unprecedented in their scale” and that unpopular and difficult decisions are now unavoidable.