THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

A fire involving the entire destruction of from 5,000 to 7,000 tons of army hay and loss estimated at many thousands of pounds, took place at Grangemouth on Saturday evening. The scene of the conflagration was a large open area situated on the Falkirk Grangemouth road, in the vicinity of Earl’s Gates, belonging to Messrs Salvesen & Co and meantime used as a storing ground for army fodder. Here piles of hay were piled into some 10 stacks. The cuase of the fire is unknown.

50 years ago

To the tune of “A Life On the Ocean Wave”, the m.s. Dunera sailed from Dundee shortly after 9.30pm with 800 school children from Dundee, Fife and Perth. As the cruise liner was slowly towed away from the King George Wharf, the loudspeakers on board drowned out the lone piper giving the children a more Scottish-sounding “bon voyage”. Hundreds of parents and friends waved and cheered from the quayside as the gangplank was pulled up, just after the Lord and Lady Provost had left the ship.

25 years ago

Baroness Thatcher yesterday sailed into a new phase of her political career. As she took her seat in the Upper Chamber, the peers who watched must wonder how long her serenity will survive. Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven in the County of Lincoln does not see the Lords as a twilight home for political has-beens. She intends to bring to the House the clamour she created in the Commons and it may be only 48 hours before the force of her rhetoric is heard when Europe is debated.

One year ago

Baxter the Bridie is loving life as a jet-setting Loon already mixing it with football royalty. The new Forfar Athletic signing was only officially unveiled a few days ago after a children’s competition to name the latest addition to the growing ranks of Scottish club mascots. Whilst a bridie was the obvious choice of mascot for the Station Park side, the name game gave youngsters something to get their teeth into and nine-year-old Ross Milne’s offering of Baxter fitted the bill in the eyes of judges.