Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
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Union formed at Watten
From the Groat of January 12, 1923
A meeting of the West Watten smallholders was held in West Watten School to consider the "unfair conditions being laid down by the Board of Agriculture in the smallholding scheme for ex-servicemen".
It was reported that the high rent and interest on loans was about twice that paid on similar holdings under the Land Court valuations.
A large number of affected smallholders attended and an Ex-Servicemen's Smallholders Union was formed "to put forward their demands for fair treatment according to promises made during and after the war".
It was agreed unanimously that no further payments be made until revaluations had taken place, given that at the time of entry to their smallholdings prices for land and housing were at their maximum and that "hedges, ditches and fences were not in tenantable order".
A copy of the resolution was to be sent to the Secretary for Scotland, the Minister of Agriculture, the Board of Agriculture for Scotland and local MP Sir Archibald Sinclair.
Elsewhere, the Wick Soup Kitchen had reopened and to mark the occasion more than 200 necessitous schoolchildren had been "entertained to a free meal in the Lower Rifle Hall".
Also, a concert was being held under the auspices of the School Management Committee for the Boot Fund, which provided footwear for the area's poor schoolchildren.
End of rural grocery service
From the Groat of January 12, 1973
The termination of the van service to Murkle operated by Donald Thomson, the well-known Castletown grocers, brought to an end "a unique service which has served the district every Friday with unfailing regularity for the long period of 67 years".
The service was started by the late William Begg in 1906 and visited customers "in nearly every home in the various districts surrounding the village of Castletown", with Murkle being a "most popular run". Until 1948 the van had been horse-drawn.
Van man John McAuley, an employee of the grocery firm, had been making the rounds for 25 years until the last Saturday of 1972 when the service was withdrawn.
It was reported that the area had for many years enjoyed a daily van service with an ice-cream van visiting on a Sunday. Mr Thomson's service had been the sole survivor.
"The many complicated restrictions and regulations now in force, together with the high licence fees, have forced them all from the roads and the public are left with only a recollection of a service of the past."
Mr McAuley had secured a job with Highland Omnibuses as a bus driver and carried with him "the good wishes of his many friends, not only in Murkle, but in all the districts he has so faithfully served".
River piers collapse fears
From the Groat of January 16, 1998
Wick Harbour Trust had appealed to the Highland Council to take action over the state of the crumbling north and south river piers.
Members were told that a video showing the extent of the damage, accelerated by winter gales, had been presented to Highland Council in a "renewed effort to convince the authority of the seriousness of the situation and take action".
The trustees had exhausted all other avenues of funding and feared that unless urgent steps were taken the piers could collapse and flood the lower reaches of Wick River.
Trustees were told that stopgap work undertaken by the late Hugh Simpson had all been undermined by the elements.
Also at the meeting of the trust, chairman Donald Shearer "again expressed his appreciation at the money the harbour staff had saved the trust in recent years which had made other improvements possible".
He said the trust did not have "limitless supplies of cash" but what it did have was being put to the "best possible use".
Meanwhile, Highland Council had established a charitable company to take over the running of municipal leisure facilities such as swimming pools. Councillors believed the formation of Caledonia Community Leisure Ltd would protect the facilities from perennial cuts to council spending by enabling the service to reclaim money from the Inland Revenue.
