Sayings and doings of 25 years ago...

A CAMPAIGN to save a local woodland was on the front page of the East Lothian Courier on April 12, 1996.

Friends of the Earth joined about 60 local people at a public meeting in Stenton Village Hall to discuss tactics to save up to 550 ancient sessile oak trees in Pressmennan Wood from being felled to make fence posts in Germany.

The campaigners, who enlisted the sympathy of TV naturalist David Bellamy, feel let down by the authorities they thought existed to protect their woodlands and the legal processes which allow such felling to take place.

A petition against the felling now has 3,000 signatures and a few of the campaigners have been given an emergency number to ring – in case they hear the chainsaws being moved in.

Jess Christman from the East Lothian Community Woodland Trust said he counted 1,500 trees in Pressmennan but because the figure includes many other species, campaigners are now worried that the felling figure represents around 40 per cent of the ancient oaks.

...and 50 years ago

A DEBATE was held on whether Dunbar should be part of the Borders or East Lothian, reported The Haddingtonshire Courier on April 16, 1971.

At their last meeting, Dunbar Town Council agreed to ask the District Council for their views on a possible merging with the Borders District instead of with the East Lothian District as proposed under the White Paper proposals on local government reform.

On Tuesday evening when the District Council met, the possibility was flung out quite unceremoniously, the district council being almost unanimously agreed that such a move would be to the detriment of Dunbar and adjacent areas of East Lothian.

On Wednesday, when the Town Council heard their suggestion had been rejected, they decided to take no further action.

...and 100 years ago

A MAN and woman were rescued near Port Seton Harbour after they were spotted in difficulty, reported The Haddingtonshire Courier on April 15, 1921.

On Saturday afternoon a boat hired from a rowing boat stance at Port Seton was observed to be in difficulties.

The occupants – a man and a woman – were apparently unaccustomed to rowing and had allowed the boat to run into the rocks near the east harbour.

Fortunately the boat ran between the spits of rock, but the endeavours of the man to get out of the boat seemed likely to end in a calamity as every time he endeavoured to land the boat canted and threatened to capsize.