25 years ago

HOPES of a ferry terminal coming to East Lothian were receding, said the East Lothian Courier of March 8, 1996.

Hopes of building a giant roll-on-roll-off ferry terminal to link East Lothian with the European mainland are fading.

Cockenzie, Skateraw near Dunbar, Musselburgh/Prestongrange and Leith were all identified as sites with potential in a study commissioned last year by Lothian Region, Edinburgh and East Lothian District Councils and Edinburgh Enterprise.

Now in a report to the new Edinburgh and East Lothian Councils, the region’s planning department paint a bleak picture.

“Scottish Enterprise has been in contact with several ferry operators but they have so far shown little interest in operating a service as proposed,” the report stated.

“The generally held view is that the market for such a service is not sufficiently large to justify the investment.”

This, they said, confirmed the advice of an earlier consultancy by Halcrow Fox and MDS TRansmodell which evaluated the potential locations.

50 years ago

A CELLIST from Longniddry was studying music in Moscow, reported in The Haddingtonshire Courier on March 12, 1971.

It is a long way from Longniddry to Moscow, but that is where twenty-three-year-old Moray Welsh, from Longniddry, is studying music.

Mr Welsh, a cellist, is at present a student at the Moscow Conservatoire under Mstislav Rostropovich, who invited him to the Soviet Union after his performance at the 1968 Aldeburgh Festival.

He has just begun the final four month term which will complete his two years under Rostropovich, during which time he has become fluent in Russian.

In fact, this was almost a necessity as Rostropovich speaks hardly any English at all.

100 years ago

A COURT case over butter made headlines in The Haddingtonshire Courier on March 11, 1921.

In Haddington Sheriff Court, on Monday, an action was called at the instance of Messrs Clement & Son , wholesale produce merchants, Edinburgh, against Mr James Purvis, grocer, Westbarns, Dunbar, for £2, being the price of twelve pounds of butter.

Mr Murray, solicitor, for the defender, stated that it had been received on 4th December, and, on the 11th of the same month, eight pounds were found to be in a bad state. It was then returned to the pursuers.

The pursuers pleaded that the butter had not been timeously rejected, but defender contended that he could not be expected to reject it before he discovered that it was in a defective condition.

His position was that he returned it as soon as it was discovered to be defective.