Gunfire causes severe wounding, church elder criticised and Wick Academy reveal plans to quit Harmsworth Park

Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear

‘Sensational affair at Brora’

From the Groat of May 22, 1925

An elderly man was being held in custody at Inverness jail following an ‘extraordinary incident’ at his home in Badnallen, Brora.

It was reported that 18-year-old John Sutherland had been working at metal-breaking near the house of 75-year-old John Sutherland. The young man had left his work and entered the house “where it is presumed a quarrel arose”.

“That it was of an unusually serious nature is disclosed by the fact that a gun was discharged, with the result that the lad was severely wounded in the leg.

“The youth, although badly injured, set out for his home about two miles distant. When approaching the house, he succeeded in attracting the attention of his mother, who, with the assistance of a neighbour, got her boy to bed.”

The lad was eventually taken to the Lawson Memorial Hospital in Golspie, where a bullet was removed from his leg. It was understood that although the two men had the same name, they were not related.

Elsewhere, a meeting of the Wick School Management Committee heard a request from a family that a youth “be given permission to be absent till 10am each morning as he had been offered employment to deliver morning rolls by a local baker”.

The youth “wished to earn enough to provide himself with clothes” and it was stated that the parents were in “somewhat needy circumstances”.

Work to start on harbour scheme

From the Groat of May 23, 1975

Work was set to get under way on a £164,000 pier and harbour project at John O’Groats.

The scheme to expand the pier by 100 feet, build a 270ft west quay to enclose the deepened harbour basin and provide a new access road was likely to take six months to complete but the main construction work was expected to be finished by September.

Because of the work, the ferry Pentalina would not be running to Orkney over the summer, but the service would continue with a smaller vessel, Pentland Spray.

Captain Bill Banks, managing director of Pentland Ferries, was delighted that the project was going ahead and said his company was considering purchasing a larger ferry for future use on the route.

Elsewhere, the Northern Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church was to continue and dispose of a case against a Wick elder in public after the matter had been discussed behind closed doors.

The elder had been publicly criticised “for attending a youth group where hymns are sung to the accompaniment of guitars”.

He supported the move to have the hearings held in the open and said that “as yet no-one in the church knows the facts. There is biased opinion and that is why I want it in public”.

Wick Academy park plans

From the Groat of May 26, 2000

Wick Academy had revealed an ambitious plan to quit Harmsworth Park and establish a new ground on a greenfield site locally.

Five sites belonging to farmers were under consideration, it was revealed at the club’s annual general meeting, and expert advice was being sought to enable a funding package to be put together.

The bold plan, which would have seen Academy sever a century-plus connection with Harmsworth Park, had been announced by chairman Jacky Gunn, who said it was time for the Highland League club to move on and argued that a new ground would “provide it with indisputable benefits”.

Mr Gunn had declined to divulge details of the plan, saying it was essential to get the funding in place first, but he outlined issues with the council-owned park.

He said Harmsworth Park had suffered at the hands of vandals – the premises had been broken into and stand seating had been damaged. Some had even been set alight.

He also said the pitch had been damaged by youngsters cycling on it and that its general condition, with “more waves at the bottom end… than in Wick Bay”, meant it was a “terrible surface” for young lads to play football on.

Mr Gunn added that it would be sad to break the connection with Harmsworth Park but a new ground was “the only way forward”.

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