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

25 years ago...

THE green light was given for a new store and filling station in Musselburgh, reported the East Lothian Courier on January 16, 1998.

Permission to build a Tesco supermarket, petrol station and car wash on a controversial site at the junction of Inveresk Road and Mall Avenue, Musselburgh, has been granted despite five objections... and the threat of a legal challenge.

Community council members have complained that opening up the Mall by the construction of a car park would be a retrograde step.

“The whole essence of the river banks in Eskside is that the former gardens have a backdrop defined by buildings,” they stated in a letter.

They also complained that the silver finish, proposed for the walls and roof of the supermarket, were quite out of character with the colour of materials in the surrounding area and should be reconsidered with a view to blending more with the local scene.

 

50 years ago...

A MUSSELBURGH-bound ‘wrestling witch doctor’ made the headlines in the East Lothian Courier on January 19, 1973.

Four top bouts are billed to mark the return of wrestling to the Brunton Hall next Thursday.

Topping the bill is a match between former British heavyweight champion ‘Farmer’ John Allan from Halifax and ‘The Outlaw’, described as the famous unbeaten masked star who is a sensation in the British rings.

There will also be fights from Jim Gordon and Con Kelly from Ireland, and Durham wrestler Dave Webb and Norman Ryder of Leeds.

The promoters are laying on a special heavyweight ‘spectacular’ featuring Paul Carpentier, the handsome Anglo-French wrestler with a wonderful record, and ‘Zulu Kidd’ from West Africa, who is known to his friends – and enemies – as the ‘Wrestling Witch Doctor’.

 

100 years ago...

A TEENAGER was convicted of theft for stealing £1 and sent to prison, reported The Haddingtonshire Courier on January 19, 1923.

In Haddington Sheriff Court, on Friday, Andrew Douglas Fraser (17) appeared on a continued charge of having stolen £1 from the till of a chemist’s shop in Tranent, and also a key from the door of a Macmerry post office.

After stealing the key at a Macmerry post office, Fraser was found concealed in an adjoining shed behind some wood, his legs, which protruded, leading to his discovery.

Fraser had already been seven days in prison.

Hon. Sheriff-Substitute Wilson thereupon placed sentence of fourteen days’ imprisonment.