WE TAKE a look at the stories making headlines in East Lothian 25, 50 and 100 years ago.

25 years ago

DISNEY World was the destination for a lucky schoolboy, reported the East Lothian Courier on September 24, 1999.

A four-year-old pupil of Law Primary School, North Berwick, met one of his heroes after his grandmother won a national holiday competition.

Taylor Adams, of Douglas Court, met Disney’s Tigger last Thursday at a presentation of £5,000 worth of holiday vouchers to Anne Craig.

Taylor will be going to Disney World, Florida, next year with Mrs Craig, a 48-year-old social worker of Craigleith Avenue.

Entrants had to submit ideas for their ‘dream holiday’ in less than 15 words and Mrs Craig said it was not hard to come up with an answer.

“I decided to be honest rather than clever and wrote ‘holding my grandson’s hand as we walk through the gates of Disney World’,” she explained.

50 years ago

A STRIKE by factory workers in Haddington made front page headlines in the East Lothian Courier on September 27, 1974.

A two-day strike by more than 600 workers at the Haddington factories of Ranco Motors Ltd ended yesterday following a mass meeting at a local hall, when the strikers followed the advice of union leaders and returned to work pending further negotiations of a wage claim with the management.

The strike began following a meeting of night-shift workers, at which the company’s wages offer to the union’s negotiators was discussed.

General dissatisfaction led to an unofficial walk-out and these workers were followed on Wednesday morning by the day shift after a similar meeting.

The unions – the A.E.W. and the General Municipal Workers – are seeking a basic pay of £30 per week for men and £27.50 for women.

The company’s offer had fallen short by £1.20 in the case of the men and £1.90 for the women.

100 years ago

THE opening of Preston Lodge High School was documented in The Haddingtonshire Courier on September 26, 1924.

Preston Lodge Secondary School was opened on Tuesday in temporary premises at Prestonpans by the chairman of East Lothian Education Authority, Dr Duncan R. Macdonald, Dunbar.

The authority had spent much time in considering the question of the most suitable site for the secondary school to meet the needs of the western district of the county, and had ultimately decided that the one selected was the most suitable for the area.

Doubtless, several of the pupils had a distance to travel, but the chairman would like to mention the fact that just as he was leaving Dunbar that morning in a strong gale, accompanied by heavy rain, he met several children who had for years cycled to Dunbar secondary school over much longer distances than any of the pupils would have to travel to Preston Lodge.