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

25 years ago...

THOUSANDS of pounds worth of damage were caused to a classroom in Tranent, reported the East Lothian Courier on March 27, 1998.

A classroom was gutted and £15,000 worth of damage caused at Ross High School on Friday night after vandals broke in and set papers alight.

The blaze was discovered when smoke alarms were triggered and police and a school janitor arrived on the scene shortly before 1am on Saturday.

Smoke and flames could be seen leaping from a ground-floor window in the school’s extension building and the fire brigade were immediately alerted.

Tenders from Dalkeith, Newcraighall and Musselburgh were called at 12.50am.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and carrying a hosereel fought for over 20 minutes to extinguish the flames.

No-one was hurt in the incident.

Assistant head-teacher William Carroll said that many staff members were upset as a lot of paperwork had been destroyed.

And 50 years ago...

THE hunt for TV licence evaders was making the headlines in the East Lothian Courier on March 30, 1973.

If you are one of the estimated 17,000 TV licence evaders in the Edinburgh area then you had better watch out.

A Television Detector Car will be operating throughout Midlothian and East Lothian for two weeks from the beginning of April.

Television Detector Cars, of which there are 29 throughout the UK, incorporate the latest equipment for tracking down licence evaders and can detect television receivers tuned to any of the black and white or colour television programmes transmitted by the BBC or ITA.

Last year, following concentrated work by detector cars, about 800 people in the Edinburgh area were prosecuted for operating television sets without a current licence and were fined.

The maximum fine for the first offence is £50.

And 100 years ago...

THE Haddingtonshire Courier was celebrating its international readers on March 30, 1923.

Sometimes when overseas readers write to us to renew their subscriptions to the Courier, we are given an interesting glimpse of life in the colonies. Often the writers touch a reminiscent chord, or refer to an incident they had seen reported in the columns.

The Courier goes to practically every corner of the globe.

Despatched from the office early on Friday mornings, it catches the first mail steamer.

This relieves friends at home of all worry in the way of getting the paper posted in time and ensures that it is regularly received by those abroad