Sayings and doings of 25 years ago...

INDOOR toilets were finally being introduced at a village’s primary school, reported the East Lothian Courier on February 21, 1997.

After years of traipsing to the outside toilets, pupils of Athelstaneford Primary School can now look forward to the luxury of newly built toilets within the school.

Plans to demolish the school’s 40-year-old outside toilets and dining room-cum-nursery and re-build them in a new stone extension at the back of the school were given the green light by East Lothian Council last week.

Work is expected to begin in April and be completed in August.

At a recent meeting in the 120-year-old school, parents had an opportunity to cast their eyes over the final plans.

Head teacher Ronnie Grieve said that everyone had been delighted with the blueprint.

There are presently eight outside toilets for the school’s 94 pupils.

Seven new ones will be built.

...and 50 years ago

‘Supermarket long overdue, says Bailie’ was a headline in the East Lothian Courier on February 18, 1972.

A supermarket for Haddington is long-overdue, Bailie Alistair Chisholm told members of Haddington Town Council on Monday.

And he contended that if any adults were asked their opinion they would prefer a supermarket to swimming baths or a sports hall.

The Council decided to ask the County Planning Committee for planning permission in principle to use part of the burgh yard as a site for a supermarket.

The Burgh Surveyor, Mr T. C. Bathgate, declared the burgh yard was the Council’s best capital asset and he felt it would be a disaster if the whole site had to be used.

...and 100 years ago

A SWAN and his match made headlines in The Haddingtonshire Courier on February 17, 1922.

For many years the River Tyne, as it flows through Haddington, has been beautified by the presence of numerous stately white swans.

The town authorities have taken every care to preserve the birds, and in hard winters have provided them with food.

Much wanton destruction of the eggs, however, has resulted in the number of swans being reduced to one pair.

Some weeks ago the female bird was found lying dead on an islet in the Tyne.

The disconsolate cob evidently found solitude unendurable, and after mourning for some days, he disappeared.

In the course of a week or so he returned accompanied by another hen, a young bird, as shown by the darkness of her plumage.