TEN YEARS AGO
Friday, February 14, 2014
After months of planning, pupils and four staff from Campbeltown Grammar School set off for Gambia early on Tuesday morning.
The trip is a culmination of a year’s worth of fundraising for CGS4Gambia, holding bake sales, quiz nights and putting flamingos in Kintyre gardens.
The group will spend its time in Gambia volunteering at schools, undertaking aid and construction work.
Parents, family, friends, staff and the school chaplain gathered in the school foyer to wish the group members well on their opportunity of a life-time.
On Wednesday, the group arrived in Gambia, and visited Zainab Nursery School and Sir Dembo’s School Kunkujang, delivering first aid training to staff and running sports events for pupils.
On Sunday, the group leave for Kalagi where members are camping for a week while helping out with building and aid work.
Pupils and staff are grateful to the people of Kintyre for the generosity and support which made this excursion possible.
Catriona Hood, rector of Campbeltown Grammar, said: “This is the opportunity of a life-time. I am proud of them all now and even more proud of the people they will become through all they will experience, share and learn.
“I appreciate the generosity of Campbeltown and its surrounding villages as well as the outstanding support of the parents and families of the pupils involved. Group leaders will be in touch daily and the school will be open on the afternoon of February 23 to welcome everyone home.”
The pupils taking part are Kester Broatch, Kate Cameron, Bruce Cowie, David Farren, Rhona Grogan, Charles Henderson, Calum Johnston, Ewan McArthur, William MacKinnon, Gina McMurchy, Rachael O’May, Cameron Ronald, Darren Souden and Grant Westerman.
PHEW, who would have guessed there was such a demand for old church pews?
No fewer than 36 pitch pine seats were sold by Campbeltown Free Church in a handful of hours following a Courier story last week they were up for sale.
Twenty-six six-foot pews went for £35 each and a dozen 12ft ones went for £60 each.
“The interest in them was remarkable,” said church elder Calum Ferguson. “By 1pm, they were all gone to buyers interested in turning them into household furniture.
“We continued to get calls about them all week. We could have sold twice the number.”
The church has planned a viewing day tomorrow (Saturday) but that is no longer necessary.
TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO
Friday, February 19, 1999
Nursery children at Dalintober Primary School said sorry to the firemen of Campbeltown Fire Brigade who responded to a fire alarm at the school.
The tiny tots were getting ready to make pancakes to celebrate Shrove Tuesday with nursery staff Margaret Raeside and Nicci Angus.
The electric frying pan was heating up nicely when the fire alarm went off. Minutes later, two fire engines arrived at the school, firefighters at the ready to put out a fire.
Station officer John Armour said: “Thank goodness it was a false alarm. It just shows how sensitive the smoke alarm is.”
Kintyre folk are being urged to look in cupboards, under the bed, down the back of the sofa and in car glove compartments for any overdue library books.
As part of the Campbeltown Library’s centenary celebrations, Argyll and Bute Council’s Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islay Area Committee has approved an amnesty during March for overdue books.
Any books, cassettes or compact discs returned in March – regardless of how long they are overdue – will not be subject to any fines.
It is hoped that the amnesty will see the return of valuable books and material which cannot be replaced easily.
Although the council could theoretically miss out on hundreds of pounds in fines, they believe that it is more important to get the books back than to collect fines.
Other library amnesties have seen books returned after many years – decades in some cases.
“We don’t expect anything returned which was borrowed in 1899, but you never know what may still be out there,” said area librarian Sue Fortune.
“It would be nice to see the return of books we’d given up hope of ever seeing again.”
FIFTY YEARS AGO
Thursday, February 14, 1974
Police cleared Campbeltown’s Victoria Hall on Saturday night after sporadic fighting broke out between American Marines and local men.
The hall lights were flung on during a discotheque performance as scores of people rushed to the safety of the stage while some Marines and local men began fighting at the back of the hall.
Police made four arrests, taking into custody three Marines and one local man.
The Marines were charged with breach of the peace and the local man with resisting arrest, police assault and breach of the peace.
A report will be sent to the procurator fiscal and all four will appear in court in due course.
At the 158th Annual General Meeting of the Female Benevolent Society, the Rev. W. H. L. Wright was in the chair.
He reminded the Committee that the Society had been in existence since the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Corn Laws, which had both brought great hardship, not only to the sick and maimed, but to large families.
These were the days when there was no welfare assistance in any form. And although times had changed and there were no people dying in the hedgerows as in that era, there was still the widow and the pensioner, many in failing health through old age, who found it difficult to ask for help out of dignity and self-respect.
These were the people the Ladies of the Society were seeking out to comfort and assist in alleviating hard-ship.
Presenting her report, Hon. Secretary Mrs A. I. B. Stewart said the Society had paid out £906 last year and six hundred and seventy-one visits were made to the aged and infirm by members of Committee.
Donations of £20 each were made to ‘Meals on Wheels’ and the Old People’s Welfare Association.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
Saturday, February 16, 1924
Neil M’Bain, the Campbeltown footballer, now playing over the Border, bas been selected as one of the eleven Scots to meet Wales on Saturday. Neil is accumulating international caps.
***
Friday, 29th February, is leap year day. Campbeltown Liberal Club are in the field with a dance in the Town Hall, while Ballochantee [1924 spelling] bachelors are having a dance in the school. Occasions of great ‘possibeelities,’ nae doot!
***
Mr Roderick Campbell, Clachan, himself a Lewisman, is organising a series of entertainments in Kintyre in aid of the Distress Fund. Next week his party will be at Skipness on Monday night, Carradale on Wednesday, and Whitehouse on Friday.
An Comunn Gaidhealach Ceannloch is holding a concert in the Victoria Hall on Saturday, 23rd inst., in aid of the Western Highlands and Islands Distress Fund and local charities.
Miss Flora M’Neill, Mod medallist, will assist in the programme supported by local amateurs. Miss M’Neil is a big attraction in herself, and the cause is one that should make a wide appeal and elicit a generous response.
Editor’s note: A very bad summer in the Western Isles meant that potato, grain and forage crops, along with peat, were unusable; the fishing season had also been very poor. These all combined to create serious hardship. Parishes were petitioning government for relief schemes such a road building and many people across Scotland were sending donations to hardship funds.
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