TEN YEARS AGO Friday June 10 2011
David finally gets to walk to work
History was made last week when a Campbeltonian sailed the biggest Caledonian MacBrayne ship to visit the town into the port.
David Allen brought MV Isle of Arran to dock at the ferry terminal in Campbeltown and said it was the first time he has been able to walk to work since he started with CalMac 20 years ago.
What made this journey more significant is that normally ships over 80 metres need to have a pilot on board to berth.
But Harbour Master Stephen Scally was confident David could do the job himself. The ship normally covers the Kennacraig to Islay route and is in Campbeltown on standby.
She is due to stay in the harbour until June 12 unless called away before then. She will then go back onto the Islay route to cover for MV Hebridean Isles, while she is in dry dock.
David previously sailed into Campbeltown as second mate on the MV Claymore.
He said that the time spent in Campbeltown would give him and his crew time to tidy up MV Isle of Arran and carry out maintenance.
‘It is a proud moment taking this ship in to your own town,’ said David.
Harbour Master Scally said he couldn’t remember anyone bringing a ship of this size into Campbeltown before. her all the best in the future. We particularly appreciate her staying on while we tried to find a replacement for her.’
Earlier this week the Post Office was still looking for someone to take over from Mrs Miller.
Anyone interested can contact Post Office Counters Recruitment, 8 Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow.
RAF housing talks
Argyll and Bute District Council is due to hold talks with the Ministry of Defence and the Scottish Office later this month over the future of around 100 houses at the RAF’s former base at Machrihanish. The council has expressed an interest in taking over the houses. Recently, the RAF agreed to lease 400 houses it owns near Elgin to Moray Council.
The band, of course, was always a popular attraction on the show day. Band secretary Mr William McCallum, a local butcher, said yesterday that the society felt the wage bill was too high.
It is understood the society would have to pay the band in the region of £40 to cover the pipers’ and drummers’ expenses.
Added Mr McCallum: ‘The band never made any profit from the show, only enough to pay the members’ wages.’
Society president Robert Millar, of Auchaleek Farm, said the band’s performance last year was not satisfactory at the show because they only played a few tunes.
Mr Millar said that last year the band played quite a selection on the way to the show ground from the steamer, but this was not the responsibility of the society.
He said that at a meeting of the society directors recently, a unanimous decision not to invite the band to the show was made.
He added that the band always received free lunches and free drink on the day of the show. to the directors, who were prepared, looking to the unprecedented conditions prevailing in connection with transport facilities to and from the town, for a decided drop in the gate drawings.
To the happy result which crowned the proceedings of the day there were two main contributing factors, viz., a particularly fine entry in all sections of the show and lively competition in several classes which attracted uncommon interest amongst the general public; and, secondly, weather conditions of a kind that could not have been bettered for an open air event.
The day was one of glorious sunshine and the attraction of the showfield was one that must have been almost irresistible to anyone having even the slightest interest in the great annual agricultural event of the Kintyre peninsula.
Many people travelled far to attend the show. There was a great influx of motorcars to the town and, by good fortune, the Campbeltown and Glasgow Steamboat Company arranged sailings which proved of great convenience to many, especially judges and dealers, who were able to travel by sea on the inward journey on Thursday and return on Saturday morning.
The judging rings were surrounded by eager and interested crowds from the early forenoon, and the keenness displayed in all the events never showed any sign of waning although the time table fell considerably behind towards the afternoon owing to the very big entries in the Clydesdale classes and the uniformly good quality of the stock.