Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A unique thoroughfare
From the Groat of March 3, 1923
A lecture about Caithness, with a display of lantern slides, was held at Wick Old Parish Church Hall.
Among the views shown was one of Bridge Street with a flock of sheep passing through it. This view, according to the report, prompted the speaker to explain how the street could be described as "unique among the business thoroughfares of any county town of Scotland".
The speaker stated that the street, which was only 200 yards long but boasted 400 yards of "frontage", "forms a miniature world of itself – the hub of Wick, indeed of the county – containing practically all the convenience and accessories of modern civilisation".
In the street there were hotels, social clubs and public houses, drapers and grocers, bootmakers and saddlers, ironmongers and painters, booksellers and stationers, all but one of the town's banks, an auction mart and "lawyers' offices galore".
The location, under the town clock, also boasted the buildings where the affairs of the town and county were administered, including the police headquarters and courthouse, and, of course, a church.
The speaker added that although the staple industry in the town was fishing, the flock of sheep "reminds us... that Wick owes a great deal to the agricultural interests of the county and would be a place of much less importance than it is but for the support it receives from country districts which lie round about".
Oil project approved
From the Groat of March 2, 1973
A proposal to site an oil rig fabrication yard at Dunnet Bay was approved at a special meeting of Caithness County Council.
The bid had been supported by Lord Thurso, who told the meeting that "if we do not get an economic growth in Caithness we will gradually sink back below a viable level".
The decision was "practically unanimous" despite a proposed amendment that the application be refused on the grounds that the council did not have sufficient information to reach a decision that day.
There were more than 130 objections to the scheme by the London-based American firm Chigaco Bridge Ltd, including from the Nature Conservancy and Countryside Commission.
The project was slated to take up a fifth of Dunnet beach.
The council's decision was set to go before the Secretary of State for Scotland and it was likely he would hold a public inquiry.
In a leader article the Groat opinion was that the scheme would provide work for up to 700 people, which was only "a tenth required for long-term sustainability", but it was "not a great one".
"It may be of short duration but it is an opening in the North Sea oil industry. Others may follow. How are we to continue as a viable population if we turn down the first chance of the new development?
"Caithness will never regret the establishment of Dounreay. A new generation has grown up who did not know the pre-Dounreay Caithness. Another generation may see the oil industry firmly founded."
Listing for historic fish mart
From the Groat of March 6, 1998
Historic Scotland had granted the old fish mart in Wick "C" listed status.
The move delighted members of the Wick Society, who had campaigned to preserve the harbour building as part of the town's fishing heritage.
Chairman Iain Sutherland said the news was "particularly gratifying as the society had successfully repelled a move to demolish the mart" four years previously.
He added: "Historic Scotland's recognition confirms what we have always believed – that the mart is unique and of major importance to the fishing history of Wick."
Elsewhere, people in Caithness were to see their council tax levels rise significantly.
Bills were set to go up by 10.7 per cent in the next financial year – the highest increase in the north.
However, local councillors were told that more funding could be given to Caithness to offset the level of the increase.
Area provost John Young said the convener and chief executive of the Highland Council "had agreed to the principle of additional money after a plea was made by local representatives".
The decision meant that householders in all eight local government areas of Highland Council would pay the same level of council tax.
Caithness people faced a steeper increase because prior to reorganisation in 1996 the former district council had one of the lowest tax levels in the Highlands.
