THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

BURGLARS VISITED Pittenweem Station early yesterday morning and made off with a big haul. An entrance to the station was gained by the 18x16 inch wooden ticket window, which was forced open by means of a crowbar and then the bosshead of the door wrenched off and the chubb drawn back to allow the gang to enter. The burglars had evidently come well-prepared, they having left behind them two large hammers, two sharppointed crowbars and an adze. A leather padlocked railway cash bag containing £25 was extracted from the safe.

50 years ago

DAVE SHAW, the tractorman at Howmuir, Aberlemno, had a couple of days’ holiday. He is an enthusiastic angler and had a ticket for Justinhaugh Hotel water, near Forfar. That combination of circumstances may have saved the lives of the occupants of the hotel which was extensively damaged by fire early yesterday morning. Dave said: “I was up the river at 4am. About six o’clock I came down the water for ‘a piece’ and noticed smoke coming from the roof of the hotel.” Dave raised the alarm and all the occupants of the hotel were taken out to safety.

25 years ago

A 14-YEAR- OLD Motherwell schoolboy had an amazing escape when he fell 90 feet down a Perthshire waterfall. Joseph Smyth was out with a party of pupils from Our Lady’s School, Motherwell, on a nature walk at Black Spout, a waterfall and beauty spot near the Atholl Palace Hotel on the outskirts of Pitlochry, when he slipped and fell. Before the horrified gaze of his fellow pupils and school teachers he fell around 90 feet, landing in a deep pool at the base of the waterfall. And when he surfaced he managed to swim ashore! He was flown to Dundee Royal Infirmary by helicopter.

1 year ago

A CHEMICAl spillage sparked an alert in a Kirkcaldy street. Four fire appliances and a chemical team from Methil were called to Dunnikier Road after what is understood to be polyester resin was discovered leaking from a wheelie bin. It is understood that gallons of the substance came from Production Glassfibre in Glenrothes earlier this week. Two people were detained by police. A section of the road was cordoned off while crews worked to contain the liquid, which was oozing towards a drain. Firefighters used a drain mat to prevent the liquid flowing into the gutter.