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

25 years ago...

‘VANDALS strike yards from old folk’s flats’ was the headline on the front page of the East Lothian Courier on October 31, 1997.

Teenage vandals have turned a Victorian house in East Linton into a drinking and glue sniffing haunt – just yards from flats for elderly people.

Prestonkirk House has lain empty for 18 months, becoming a target for youngsters who smash windows and skylights, tear up the roof and leave a trail of destruction in their wake.

It is only about 50 feet from a sheltered housing development, to be completed within the next few weeks, offering 19 flats for pensioners.

Nigel Ross lives opposite Prestonkirk House and he told the ‘Courier’: “It is becoming a magnet for kids to come into the old gardens, sniff glue and make a nuisance of themselves. The place is littered with cider bottles and beer cans.”

MEANWHILE, beer was flowing down the drains after a raid.

Gallons of beer went down the drain when an intruder forced his way into Belhaven Brewery under cover of darkness.

Running a gauntlet of security cameras and alarms, the midnight raider knocked open a bolted door of the Brewery Lane plant on Sunday.

Once inside, he turned open valves on storage tanks and allowed the amber nectar to drain to the floor.

 

50 years ago...

HUNDREDS of pit workers were on strike, reported the East Lothian Courier on November 3, 1972.

The strike of pit tradesmen which has stopped the production at Monktonhall Colliery, near Musselburgh, continues.

About 400 tradesmen have been idle at the pit since Monday over the sacking of a union official.

Mr Martin Philbin, secretary of the Monktonhall branch of the Scottish Colliery Enginemen, Boilermen and Tradesmen’s Association, was dismissed after telling a pitman, who had been told to move to another job, to stay where he was.

The pitman was sacked at the same time. Because of the strike, which spread to the Lady Victoria pit at Newtongrange and Dalkeith Colliery on Wednesday, 300 underground and surface workers were sent home.

 

100 years ago...

A SHIP was in distress near Bass Rock, The Haddingtonshire Courier of November 4, 1922 told.

A three-masted sailing vessel was sighted, on Friday, setting up flares some miles east of the Bass Rock.

The sea was exceedingly heavy, and it was apparent that the ship’s motor had broken down.

Dunbar lifeboat crew were about to launch and proceed to the vessel’s assistance when information was received that the vessel had succeeded in getting to sea again.