From the Northern Times 25, 50 and 100 Years ago
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25 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of April 9, 1999
Production workers at the new Hunters of Brora woollen mill were, as feared, reduced to a three-day working week on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the factory’s official opening by the Prince of Wales. Hunters’ chairman Mr Robert Gibbons said it was a sad but essential move to safeguard the company’s future in the face of a worldwide recession in the textile industry, the worst since the 1920s or 30s.
A Sutherland community recently tried its hand at the ancient skill of charcoal making, in the hope it might provide them with a modest income from native hardwoods harvested from their own community woodland. The venture was undertaken by the Culag Community Woodland Trust in Lochinver, with the help of Jon Priddy of the North-West Sutherland Native Woodland Project.
Back to stay in Lairg after an absence of over 30 years, Virginia (Babity) Innes and her husband Derek have recently taken over the village post office, and they have been delighted with the welcome they have received from local people. Virginia was born in Lairg and her link with the village has never been broken, as she regularly came back to Lairg to visit.
50 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of April 12, 1974
An attractive layout for the proposed new old folks home at the east end of Golspie village, on the sea side of the trunk road, was on display at a meeting of Sutherland Social Work Committee at Dornoch last Tuesday. Single-storeyed, the building would be equipped to accommodate 30 senior citizens and a feature would be an inner courtyard with glazed roof and indoor garden where the residents could walk about in warmth and comfort.
A start is expected soon on the first phase of a luxury housing development on a 30-acre site at Bishopfield, in the burgh of Dornoch. It consists of 20 detached three or four-bedroomed bungalows costing between £18,000 and £23,000 in half-acre plots and looking over the Royal Dornoch golf course.
Golspie Golf Club are deeply concerned about the threat of coastal erosion to their course. Sutherland County Council have suggested a scheme to deal with the worst pocket of erosion opposite the clubhouse, but the cost would be £6000. Meantime, the club are trying to get a full assessment of the work involved in preventing further erosion.
100 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of April 10, 1924
There passed away, at the early age of 17, a young girl well known and highly respected in the person of Christina M Henderson, daughter of Mr and Mrs Henderson, The Old School, Brora. Lena, as she was familiarily called, was removed from her home on Friday to the Lawson Memorial Hospital, Golspie, and immediately underwent an operation for appendicitis. It being an acute case, she unfortunately did not recover and passed peacefully away on Wednesday morning. Deceased was employed by the firm of T. M. Hunter, Ltd., in their clerical department, where she was a most efficient clerkess.
The influenza epidemic still holds a number of patients in the Ardgay area, and some of the cases have been very severe.
