Window on the Past

Our weekly look back at the Herald’s archives
Window on the pastWindow on the past
Window on the past

This week’s photo dates back to the early 1900s and shows members of staff outside Kirkintilloch Equitable Co-op Society shop.

1995

Furious residents were up in arms this week over claims that Low Moss Prison could be made Scotland’s first private jail.

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Prison chiefs denied the claims. But they confirmed that the Bishopbriggs site was being looked at along with three other locations as a possible site for development.

Closed circuit television could help regenerate Kirkintilloch town centres, it was claimed.

Regional Councillor Joe Shaw said surveillance cameras would help in the fight against crime and have a positive effect for traders and shoppers. Following the success of similar projects in Airdrie and Glasgow he said he wanted to bring the scheme to Kirkintilloch.

1985

Efforts to entice a Dutch firm to buy over the former Lion Foundry in Kirkintilloch fell through.

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At the latest meeting of the full district council members heard the firm Njmegen Foundries was no longer interested.

The information was given in a comprehensive written report by the chief executive officer of Strathkelvin District Council, Con Mallon.

Striking miners in Strathkelvin went back to work on Monday amid a new controversy over transport to and from their pits in Fife.

The miners were outraged over the National Coal Board’s decision to terminate a contract with the Scottish Bus Group (Alexander’s) whose drivers refused to cross the picket lines during the year-long strike.

1975

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Like many people Lorna and Robert Stables used to scorn people who claimed to have spotted UFOs. That was until Sunday night when Lorna took dishes into the kitchen of her home and was “dazzled” by a bright, inexplicable light flashing through the window.

Mrs Stables, of Birkhill Avenue, Bishopbriggs, said on closer inspection it was an object swinging in the sky like a pendulum.

‘‘Wonderful’’, ‘‘atrocious’’, ‘‘the best’’ and ‘‘absolute mess’’ were some of the comments about the district council’s new fleet of vans, in white and lime green, or, as Councillor Gordon Wallace described them ‘‘boak green.’’

He also said the council vehicles looked like ice-cream vans.

1965

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A street in Bishopbriggs was described as the town’s ‘filthiest corner’.

Councillor George A Younger said so at a meeting of the town council.

‘‘This is the most congested part of the burgh, outwith the main Kirkintilloch Road,’’ he stated. ‘‘Morning and evening, vans unload at this spot. The people leave litter bins at the corner and as a result the street is a constant state of untidiness.’’

Police were called to Townhead Secondary School, Kirkintilloch, last week after it was discovered that overnight raiders had run riot throughout the building, breaking into the headmaster’s rooms and staff room in an episode of ‘‘sheer malicious mischief’’.