Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
Allotments taken by force
From the Groat of March 25, 1921
A crisis had been reached in the "allotment agitation" in Wick when, in view of the attitude of the Town Council and the delay in getting ground through the Board of Agriculture, about 20 men took possession of one of the fields on Westerseat Farm and pegged off about two dozen allotments.
The field was situated just to the west of Langhills House, the residence of Sir Alexander and Lady Rae.
The site was visited by a reporter from the Groat who found the land dotted with the white wool of the marker pegs but no allotment workers on the ground. However, it was understood that cultivation "was to be proceeded with by the raiders immediately".
The incident had created considerable excitement in the town and the matter had been reported to the police but "no official action was contemplated in the meantime".
Meanwhile, also causing some talk around the town was the arrival of several French trawlers which put in to Wick Harbour for coal on their way to the Iceland fishing grounds.
It was reported that the "Entente Cordiale has been still further cemented locally in occasional visits to the shipping centres by the French crews, who attracted attention in their walks".
Plea for two-tier TV licensing
From the Groat of March 26, 1971
Lord Thurso called for differential television licence fees to be introduced for viewers whose areas did not receive BBC2.
He said there was a strong feeling in Scotland because licence holders had to pay the full fee but received only half the service.
In the north of Scotland, he explained, radio programmes had never been received on ordinary sets and it was cold comfort that those listeners could receive foreign programmes very clearly.
Replying in the House of Lords for the government, Lord Denham said there were "grave administrative difficulties" in introducing a two-tier system and the cost of running such a scheme could well absorb all the licence revenue.
He explained that providing the transmitting stations required to provide these viewers with BBC2 would take at least the remainder of the decade.
Elsewhere, Lord Thurso decried the threat to local democracy as a result of local government reorganisation, which proposed community councils be set up without statutory functions.
"Many of these councils would contain in their boundaries, he said, the 'bleeding corpses of ancient historical burghs with Royal Charters and traditional ceremonies, with long, proud histories of democratic service to local government just beheaded on the block of progress'."
End of an era as shop closes
From the Groat of Friday, March 29, 1996
A Wick draper's shop was to close its doors for the last time, bringing to an end a family business which had existed for over a century.
John Mowat & Son in Bridge Street had been set up 122 years previously in Lybster by the present owner's grandfather – the John of the shop name – and run by three generations of the family.
Latterly the business had been run by former town provost Mr W G Mowat, who said it was with "no small amount of sadness" that he was to close the doors on the shop which had been his living for the past 47 years.
Three long-time staff members were also to lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, the new Highland Council had targeted Lieurary Primary School for closure.
The school was one of several in the Highlands with occupancy rates below 60 per cent and so earmarked for closure or amalgamation.
Thrumster had been considered for the list but had won a reprieve.
It was expected that there would be considerable community backlash against the plans, which were to be announced at the first meeting of the new council's education committee in Inverness.
One of the area's community councillors predicted "fury" from parents and said the proposals would be resisted.
