Down Memory Lane

TEN YEARS AGO

* Carluke resident Jean Gould was named the town’s kindest person following a competition run by the Gazette, in conjunction with the Carluke Kind Hearts group. Kind Hearts chairwoman Eleanor McGregor was thrilled with the response of local people to the competition.

* Supermarket giant Safeway was set to submit a planning application to build a new £10 million store in Carluke. If the site was given the go-ahead by councillors, the store would be at least 18,000 square feet with approximately 75 jobs being created.

* LOCALS in the Douglas Valley were celebrating victory when Scottish Coal suddenly withdrew its controversial proposal to use human waste to fertilise land at the Dalquhandy opencast coal site. Scottish Coal had described it as a “waste-to-willow” project but the proposals had provoked a furious backlash from local people.

* A new day care centre was to be built in Carluke as part of a £3.45 million investment by South Lanarkshire’s social work resources department. McClymont House in Lanark was also set to undergo a refurbishment costing more than £250,000.

* Dozens of youngsters belted around St Nicholas Church to celebrate Whuppity Scoorie. After running round the church they scrambled for coins thrown by members of Lanark Community Council.

* Pupils at Forth Primary School were set to star in their new show. Joseph was to be staged in St Paul’s Church.

* Rugby dominated the awards at the 2004 Clydesdale Sports Awards. Boroughmuir star Alistair Warnock won the gents prize with Scotland rugby cap Donna Kennedy taking the ladies prize.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

* pupils AT Braidwood Primary School were awash with colour and music as they staged their annual show. Loosely based on the story of Cinderella, the show was attended by scores of friends and family with a collection being held every evening of the four night performance for local charities.

* MORE THAN 20 employees at Bardrec in Lanark were made redundant. The firm started life 13 years previously as a workers’ co-operative set up by employees of Gray’s Engineering Works, which went into liquidation.

* For the second year in a row, a design by a High Mill Primary pupil would grace the front of the Carluke Gala Day programme. The winner was 10-year-old Ross Easton who received a £5 postal order as his prize.

* Nurses in ward two of St Mary’s Hospital in Lanark hit on the idea of a sponsored camp as their contribution to the nationwide Heart Start Appeal. As the Gazette went to press the ladies were pitching their tent and hoping to raise £1000 to help the ambulance machine appeal.

* The ultimate penalty for failing to pay overdue rent bills was being brought into force by Clydesdale District Council. Following a year of “tolerance and leniency”, during which the district’s rent arrears total soared to more than £300,000, housing officials were taking steps to evict those tenants in its greatest debt.

* SNP Councillors in Clydesdale were challenged to declare publicly whether or not they would pay the Poll Tax. The challenge came from Bill Tynan, a member of the executive of the Labour Party’s Scottish Council , when he addressed members of the political education group of Clydesdale’s Constituency Labour Party.

* Lorna Carmichael was chosen to be the 1989 Carnwath Gala Queen. Lorna, together with the rest of the Gala Court, were looking forward to the annual celebration in June.

* Pupils at Lesmahagow High School raised £85 for Lady Home Hospital thanks to a number of fundraising events held in the school. S1 pupils Rhona Inglis and Lorraine Anderson, together with teacher Andrew Walsh, presented the cheque to Lady Home Nursing Officer Margaret Crutcher.

* Lesmahagow’s hopes of advancing into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Junior Cup were hampered by the loss of striker Sandy Ross for the game against Maryhill.