100 Years Ago

From the files of the "Forres Gazette" of Wednesday, August 2, 1911

Harvest prospects in the district - The crops in the immediate neighbourhood and between Elgin and Forres are exceptionally good, having benefited by the late continuous rains and with the prevailing sunshine, fine quality may be expected. Generally harvest should commence within the next fortnight, although some of the very early farms in the district are expected to start this week or the beginning of next. Turnips, which were somewhat backward in the opening weeks of June, have recovered considerably of late and are now likely to be a very good crop. Potatoes also promise well. Barley all over is a promising crop and oats will be short of straw, but promise to yield a fair average return. The shortness of straw is due mainly to the drought in the middle of June.

50 Years Ago

From the files of the "Forres Gazette" of Wednesday, August 2, 1961

Fire in Forres but no brigade - There was a fire in Forres on Friday - but no local fire brigade.

The Elgin unit covered the 12 miles in as many minutes to deal with the outbreak which occurred in the basement of the Park Hotel and was, fortunately, a minor one.

The explanation given for the non-appearance of the Fire Brigade was: "By a coincidence that might occur only once in a long time it happened that day most of the firemen were working out of town. Two are on holiday and only two were available in the burgh. It requires four men to take out the pump. The situation was reported to headquarters in Aberdeen who thereupon alerted Elgin."

At about 1.30pm, the hotel gardener, Mr David Duncan, Dyke, saw smoke coming from the basement and raised the alarm.

He fought the outbreak with an extinguisher and Mrs P. Crawford, who owns the hotel with her husband, brought other extinguishers from upstairs.

By the time the Elgin Fire Brigade arrived, the outbreak had been extinguished. Damage was confined to plaster work and curtains in the room.

25 Years Ago

From the files of the "Forres Gazette" of Wednesday, July 30, 1986

Minister hit by stone - A mindless act of vandalism ruined the Church of Scotland's Summer Mission barbecue at Forres last week when St Laurence minister, the Rev Bill Reid, was struck on the head by a stone and required hospital treatment.

Four stitches were required to close the scalp wound after the missile was thrown indiscriminately into a crowd of nearly 200 from the cover of Cluny Hill woods.

Mr Reid was standing with a large group of happy youngsters when he was struck. The incident horrified adults and frightened many of the young children, aged between four and five, who had been attending the mission barbecue and sing-song.

The minister was to have taken part in a stage show on Thursday but had to call off a sketch he planned to perform.

He told the "Gazette": "I had been standing singing with the mission group when I felt a tremendous whack on the head.

"There was quite a lot of blood but the staff at Leanchoil were able to stitch it up."

Mr Reid said the stone could easily have struck a toddler in the crowd, with more serious consequences.

The incident was not reported to the police but it is understood that some older teenagers attending the barbecue ran into the woods in pursuit of the culprit.