FROM THE ARCHIVES

25 YEARS AGO Strathclyde’s education department could be heading for confrontation with parents over a proposal to create catchment areas for secondary schools. The move is intended to prevent popular schools being inundated by placing requests from other areas. In some cases, this has resulted in pupils being unable to gain entry to their local secondary school. Members of the education committee endorsed the plan despite opposition from Tory councillor Iain Drysdale, who said it was a denial of parental choice. 50 YEARS AGO Looking eastwards and westwards from the top of the tallest block of residential flats in Europe you can see, on a clear bank holiday, Arthur’s Seat and Arran. At 31 storeys and 300 feet above ground level the first completed building in Glasgow Corporation’s £6m development at Balornock, officially opened on Friday, attains a height exceptional even in local authority residential building in the US. 100 YEARS AGO Sittings of the Lanarkshire Military Appeal Tribunal were held in the County Buildings, Glasgow, yesterday. An appeal was made by a widow on behalf of her son, a young man who had been passed for general service, despite the fact he was less than 7½ stones in weight. She said: “I have sacrificed my life in bringing him up, and now he is to be taken away, leaving me penniless and breaking up my home.” The appeal was refused, but on the claim of appellant’s employers a month’s exemption was recommended. 150 YEARS AGO Yesterday, shortly after 10am fire broke out in the premises of Messrs Wm. Miller and Sons, Turkey red dyers and calico printers, situated at Springfield, Dalmarnock. The fire originated in the printing shop, a building two storeys in height. The flames progressed with such rapidity that nearly the whole of the structure was destroyed.