THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

The East Perthshire Committee on Food Production met in Blairgowrie. A discussion took place anent grass parks and the letting of these. There was a general agreement amongst the members that the first port of call on these parks should be by those farmers who rear their own cattle, in contradistinction to those who speculated in cattle for summer grazing. The breaking up of more land on various farms caused much discussion and the replies were mostly satisfactory.

50 years ago

An airliner returned to Heathrow Airport, London, when the Music Hall of Israel group of musicians and singers claimed that the wrong food was aboard. The airline thought that they wanted kosher meals, but Mr A. Leavy, who is connected with the group, asked that the meals be changed. The giant Boeing jet of Pan Air turned and taxied back to the tarmac where the 57 passengers and kosher food were off-loaded. Then 57 roast chickens were put aboard and the plane took off.

25 years ago

A village was shrouded in gloom as miners finished their last production shift at a pit which made a £223,000 profit last week. A small group of women sang defiant songs as they greeted their husbands at Grimethorpe Colliery in South Yorkshire. Grimethorpe was one of 10 pits which British Coal wanted to close immediately and which was given just 90 days’ reprieve by Board of Trade president Michael Heseltine’s consultative review. Its 787 miners were ordered to cease production.

One year ago

An energy giant told Montrose staff they risk being laid off – on the day it announced a $30 billion merger deal. GE Oil and Gas said the decision to reduce the workforce at its Brent Avenue and Charleton Road sites was due to the “long-term decline in the oil price, delays and cancellations of major projects” despite the company investing £13.5 million in its Montrose facilities just last year. It is understood fewer than 50 of the 400 staff at in Montrose are involved in the consultation.