Lenzie girls on TV, sports centre in village and Save Stobhill – let’s take a trip Down Memory Lane

50 YEARS AGO - March 20, 1963

LENZIE Academy girls just lost out in a TV contest.

The girls led by one point at the end of the seventh (second last) round of the ‘Top of the Forum’ inter-school quiz with the boys of the County Grammer School at Woking.

However, Lenzie Academy crashed surprisingly in the last round, and were beaten by 41 points to 38.

The excitement of the final round appeared to be too much for the Lenzie girls and many viewers felt that the team did itself less than justice in the vital last round.

TWO new shops, Crest Wallpapers and the Army Stores, in Townhead, Kirkintilloch, attracted many bargain hunters when they opened.

At the Army Stores, free nylons were offered and there was a queue outside the shop until 5pm.

40 YEARS AGO - March 21, 1973

COUNCIL tenants in Kirkintilloch were waiting to find out if they could be given 100 per cent loans to buy their homes.

A surprise move by Councillor Abie Vaughn, who first moved that the loans be fixed at 90 per cent, led to the whole question being reconsidered by the housing committee.

At the council meeting the week before, Councillor Vaughn asked for the paragraph in the minutes referring to loans to be taken back.

In February, the council had fixed the rate at 90 per cent, but several councillors had been approached by tenants complaining that this was not enough.

A 16-year-old Lenzie Academy pupil was the youngest ever competitor for the Miss Scotland title - and she came second in the contest.

Marie Kirkwood, from Kirkintilloch, missed out on the title to Caroline Meade from Coatbridge.

30 YEARS AGO - March 23, 1983

A SPORTS centre for Milton of Campsie! That was the ambitious suggestion to be made to Strathkelvin District Council, who was to be asked to conduct a feasibility study into the idea.

The suggestion was made during a discussion by Milton of Campsie Community Council on suitable projects to be included in a package of environmental improvements to be submitted to the Manpower Services Commission for approval.

William Collins, the Strathkelvin-based publishing firm, announced that they were to take over Granada Publishing, at a cost of almost £8million.

20 YEARS AGO - March 24, 1993

FIREFIGHTERS battled through smoke and flames to rescue five children trapped in their homes by a tenement blaze.

The drama unfolded at Newdyke Road, Kirkintilloch. Fire chiefs revealed that a smoke alarm saved their lives.

Fire broke out in the first floor of the tenement and spread - trapping four families in their homes. Charles Burston told how he and his wife Margaret-Anne and their four children became trapped in their top floor flat.

As the fire raged through the building the family huddled anxiously in a back bedroom.

Charles said: “I was completely frantic. All I could think of was getting the kids out of the house.”

A 10-year-old boy sent a desperate plea to planning bosses: DON’T ALLOW HOUSES TO BE BUILT ON OUR PLAYING FIELD.

Concerned youngster, Andrew Steel, from Loch Road, Kirkintilloch, wrote to council planning chiefs in protest after they gave the go-ahead for houses to be built on a grass area near his home.

10 YEARS AGO - March 26, 2003

SCHOOLS in East Dunbartonshire were set for a massive cash injection, thanks to a £100million funding package unveiled by the Scottish Executive.

The money was to be used to rebuilt and upgrade school buildings and was hailed as an “investment in our future” by Strathkelvin and Bearsden MSP Brian Fitzpatrick.

He told the Herald: “This is a much-needed investment in local schools, which very rightly will be welcomed by parents, teachers and pupils across the area.

“It is an investment in our future and represents the biggest ever schools building programme.”

SAVE Stobhill campaigners were set to take to the streets to stage a public demonstration in Kirkintilloch.

Protestors fighting to save in-patient beds and acute services were to march through the streets of Hillhead and hold a rally in St Flannan’s Church hall.

Did you know?

THE old William Patrick Library building - Camphill House - was donated to Kirkintilloch in 1929 by the then town clerk, David Patrick, in memory of his brother William, who was minister of Free St David’s Church.

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