Down Memory Lane

Feb 11 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

A BOTHWELL burglar who feasted sumptuously on pheasant, roast pork and whisky then fell asleep was given four years’ jail, time enough to digest his “gargantuan repast”.

ROSS Colliery, in the Hamilton district, was laid idle in midweek on Lanarkshire Miners’ Union orders. For some time a dispute regarding low wages, and involving 30 men, had been in progress in one of the seams and the stoppage on Wednesday was a show of sympathy for the men. A meeting was held in the Victoria Hall, Hamilton, and permission was granted to extend the strike.

LANARKSHIRE entertainer Harry Lauder’s American tour hit a snag in Seattle where he was heckled for not being loud enough. Most of the 4000 crowd left before the end of the show.

THE High Court of Justiciary’s recent decision in a Strathaven case that the “remunerative ‘fruit and bell’ machine is an illegal contrivance even when played for amusement only” was to be challenged with an appeal to the House of Lords.

A “useful innovation” in the form of two spotlights mounted at the rear was the feature of a new wagon acquired by Hamilton Burgh Police. The device on the ‘Maria’ was to aid the “tricky process” of reversing in the dark, and it was reported that most motorists would like to see this as standard.

A STRATHAVEN stockbroker who was one of the pioneers of the Baird Television Company was coining it in after the Government praised inventor John Logie Baird. That set the stock market flaring and sparked a “phenomenal” rise in Baird shares.

A HAMILTON schoolteacher was surprised to find an essay containing the sentence: “Down the ladder climbed the pregnant fireman”. When challenged over the use of ‘pregnant fireman’, the pupil replied: “I looked it up in the dictionary. He was carrying a child”!

MOTORISTS in Hamilton were grateful to a young constable who directed two streams of traffic to keep vehicles off a large ‘skating rink’ in the middle of the main road. A pipe had burst outside the town hall and a large pool of water had frozen.

A BOTHWELL couple driving to visit their daughter in Rutherglen got hopelessly lost in freezing fog and asked a pedestrian for directions. Getting into the car, she quickly became lost too and sought help from a nearby house. Red-faced, she came back out to say that she knew where they were – her own house!

A BAN on waiting in Quarry Street, and High Patrick Street being re-opened to two-way traffic, were major changes Hamilton Town Council wanted to make when their experimental one-way traffic system was to become permanent in July.

Other changes included letting traffic turn right from Abercorn Drive into High Patrick Street, making Cadzow Lane one-way in an easterly direction instead of westerly, and revisiting limited waiting on Avon Street on the south side.

HAMILTON Accies were given time to pay off rates arrears despite moves by some councillors that action should be taken against them. Hamilton Town Council voted that Accies be given a chance to pay off rates arrears of almost £1000 at the rate of £50 per month.

STRIKING Lanarkshire steelmen were shocked when white collar workers at a private sector plant in Hamilton defied union advice and returned to work. On Tuesday, 35 workers at Lanarkshire Bolt Ltd in Burnbank went back to work, with shop stewards immediately calling for the return of 300 manual grade workers to restart the production of industrial bolts.

At strike HQ in Motherwell next day, area officials remained tight-lipped over the loss of local private sector support, as they left for a meeting with the manual workers at Burnbank Community Centre.

Pickets at Parklea in Hamilton, meanwhile, denied using ‘dirty tactics’ such as blocking gates with nails and red-hot pokers, and smearing the gate chains with dog filth.

PLANS were unveiled for Hamilton Accies’ new stadium, to be modelled on Dutch side Utrecht’s. A planning application for a £40m redevelopment of land at Douglas Park was lodged with Hamilton District Council, which included a new stadium, high-tech business, office space and restaurant facilities.

Although the new ground was to be based on the Utrecht Stadium, the capacity was to be much smaller, at 10,000.

Developers LAW Estates’ proposals involved the comprehensive redevelopment of more than 30 acres of run-down industrial and derelict land. As well as the new stadium, there would be a swimming pool for the town, a superstore, four retail warehouse units and parking facilities for more than 200 cars.

WORK was to start on a new £3.3m state-of-the-art housing development for the elderly near Hamilton town centre. The result of a partnership between South Lanarkshire Council, Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association and Scottish Homes, the development was on the site of the old Hamilton Grammar School annexe at the junction of Union Street and Hope Street.

The “five-star” centre would cater for 54 very dependent elderly people, and was to include a 16-place dementia unit.

All 42 residents at Maypark Home were to be offered a place in the new development.