From the archives of the Ayrshire Post

25 YEARS AGO

Ayr’s Swan Lady has been immortalised in song. For Jack Alexander, of the Alexander Brothers, and his wife Lillian Welsh have co- written a song dedicated to Sylvia MacAlpine’s now legendary care of Ayr’s swan population. Their song “The Swan Lady” is planned to be released as part of a new Alexander Brothers CD and video for the Christmas market. Jack said: “We got to know Sylvia through her theatre visits and thought it marvellous she knows each swan as if they were her own children.”

To this day Sylvia is still carrying on her work

50 YEARS AGO

Allied Hotels of Aberdeen have announced they will erect a £ 1m luxury hotel in Ayr.

The site is vacant ground on the corner of Barns Street and Dalblair Road. Loss of parking space will be compensated by a new multistorey car park, a first in Ayr.

The hotel will be one of 140 bedrooms, seven storeys high, evenly divided between single and double rooms, each with its own bathroom. There will be three bars, a ballroom, conference facilities for up to 1000 and two large restaurants, including one offering meals from 10s.

100 YEARS AGO

Dear Oculeus, in your column last week you voiced a desire, which I think is a general one in Ayr, that Provost Mitchell, should be re- elected for the run of the war. Most of us remember that never to be forgotten recruiting meeting at Ayr Town Hall at which Provost Mitchell took such a leading part.

In war aims schemes, thrift campaigns and soldiers’ and prisoners’ of war committees, he has done a vast amount of work.

The Town Council should persuade him to hang on till the close of war and welcome home our boys.