100 Years Ago

Banff band performance - A varied performance was given during the Saturday evening band performance in Banff last week by the joint appearance of the Portsoy Brass Band and the local Pipe and Drum band. The arrangement was in all respects very happy, and it met with such evident success that doubtless at a future date something of the kind will again be provided for in the way of public entertainment.

The visiting musicians were under the leadership of bandmaster Alexander McDonald, who has held that position for the past 14 years. As they marched to the Plainstones, preceded by the pipers and drummers under pipe-major Hector Fraser, they looked smart in their gold-braided uniform. An exceptionally large crowd, including many who were visitors, lined up along Low Street, and, during the hour and a half performance, listened with marked appreciation to the alternate selections of the two bands.

Those from Portsoy must have been gratified by the audible appreciation which was expressed of their various items, especially by the applause which greeted the playing of 'Ora Pro Nobis' as a cornet solo with band accompaniment. As always the stirring strains of the pipe music in marches, strathspeys and reels aroused enthusiasm, and the townsfolk felt proud of their band and its capable leader.

50 Years Ago

Macduff family lose home in fierce blaze - A Macduff family had their home destroyed by fire on Saturday afternoon. The fire started in an upstairs kitchen at their home at 40 High Shore and soon all the upstairs rooms were ablaze. Crowds of people watched firemen from Banff and Macduff fight the blaze which was one of the worst in the town for years. Flames at times could be seen leaping from the upstairs window and the top part of the house was completely gutted. Three people were in the house when the fire broke out but all escaped unharmed. They were Mr John Wiseman (43), fisherman, his son John (17), a slater, and his 76-year-old mother-in-law, Mrs Margaret Lauder. His wife and his other son, Alexander (18), were both working in Macduff Picture House when the fire broke out. Mrs Wiseman left her work as soon as she heard about the fire.

Mr Wiseman said afterwards: "I was upstairs in the kitchen and I put a frying pan on the cooker to make the tea for my wife coming home. I then went downstairs and out to the back for some fish. When I returned about three minutes later the room was ablaze. I could not get in for the flames and I shouted to my son to go for the fire brigade. We managed to get about half of the furniture out. The house is a complete wreck and the furniture inside will be useless. It is just as well I am covered by fire insurance."

Mrs Lauder, who was in a downstairs room when the fire broke out told a Banffshire Journal reporter: "It has been a terrible shock to me."

A special announcement was made at the Deveronvale FC trial game asking any firemen who were present to go to the fire. The family were rehoused in a prefab house by Macduff Town Council on Saturday night.

25 Years Ago

Dicing with death on faulty tyres - Motorists in the Banff, Macduff, Portsoy and Turriff areas have been given a warning this week - check the tyres on your vehicle as you may be driving around with illegal tyres. The warning comes from the National Tyre Distributors Association who found, in a recent nationwide survey, that no fewer than 63 per cent of tyres removed from cars were worn beyond the legal limit.

During one week the association members at 1314 of their depots removed 114,234 tyres from cars and of these 72,321, or 63 per cent, were worn well beyond the legal limit. The percentage in 1980, the first year of the survey, was 47.5. According to statistics issued by the Department of Transport, more than one million cars failed their MOT test in 1985 because of one or more unsatisfactory tyres. Of the total failures, no less than 22.64 per cent were due to illegal tyres.

Findlay Picken, president of the NTDA, told the Banffshire Journal: "The incredibly high number of cars failing their MOT test each year because of faulty tyres when taken together with the result of the association's survey clearly indicate that far too may motorists are dicing with death by driving on tyres that are not only unsafe but, particularly on wet roads are positively dangerous. It is quite alarming that so many motorists are not aware of the importance of sound tyres - one of the most vital factors in vehicle/road safety. It is probable, also, that many motorists are confused by the vagueness of the present tread depth regulations which require 1mm around the whole of the circumference but across only three quarters of the width of the tyre with the remaining one quarter having a visible tread pattern."

It is the view of many road safety and consumer-orientated organisations that the tread depth regulation should be a minimum of 1mm across the whole width of the tyre. This view is also supported by the House of Commons Transport Committee in its report on road safety but the Department of Transport has refused to recognise the need for this change to the regulations.