Charles Bannerman

Away with you mun!! A posh place like that in Alness?

I think it's the Ho Ho hostel with Hipps on the left now a pawnbrokers (???) while Mayors on the right is one of these places which sells these women's (or maybe not specifically these days!) perfumey things. When you are to leeward of the place and there's a wind blowing, the pong right up or down High Street is absolutely nauseating I would suffer the toilets in the pre-George MacLean Phoenix ahead of that any day.

Got you - I think! Several officers round and about him. I think he became a Professor of something or other. There were two Bryan MacGregors and this is the older one who was in my year. The other one - also known as Corky - was about 3 years younger. Now that I've got that far reading the Courier's "Inverness Remembered X" I have realised that this is where IHE got that photo. Once again there's a lot of good old Inverness photos in the book although there is the drawback that every blooming year the thing moans away on every other page about the architectural shortcomings of the Bridge St area.... which we know is cr@p anyway. If there's a place for opinion in a publication like that then say it and leave it. But several times in every volume just about does your head in!

Plunky plunky plunky PLUNG Plunky plunky plunky PLUNG Plunky plunky plun - ky plunky plunky PLUNG. Plun - ky plun - ky PLUNG.....

The Buckfast of the 60s and 70s!!! Then there was also Four Crown.

I believe you may be right! Certainly Pagliari's little pale blue "bubble van" which played the "Harry Lime" theme around the houses in the 60s was a quantum leap up in technology.

That's the Forbes Fountain in its present location near Bellfield Park, without the "hat" on. I'm struggling a bit with #103 since it possibly bears a passing resemblance to the North side of High St and that lane down to "the back of Woolies", but Hipps and Mayors are two businesses I've never heard of. On the other hand the photo could well date long before (even) my time and Mayors could well have become John Collier while Hipps... I'm trying to think who used to be next along after Woolies? However they say that people are very bad for not looking upwards in cities so I couldn't swear to the upper part of that facade being part of High St.

Strangely enough I just can't make out any of the boys in that photo even though I was in the BB (1st Coy) at that time myself. Among the officers I can see Herb MacDonald on the left, towards the font, Jackie Sutherland second left three rows behind him and I think that may be Alfie MacKintosh with the beard, second right, half way up.

I do believe you're right!

Again, dating that photo is interesting. The presence of both the High School and the suspension bridge places it 1936-59. If I could make out the temporary bridge, which is probably there but obscured by the castle, that would make it 1939-59 but in any case the clincher may be at the top of the photo. We can see Dochfour Drive, Columba Road and I think a fair bit of development on Laurel Ave, but not a lot more. That might tend to suggest the early post war years which may also be consistent with a detail within the High School. Former pupils will know better than I do, but do I see the very first HORSA huts, light in colour on the far edge? HORSA stands for Huts On the Raising of the School leaving Age - to 15 after the war, so I'm wondering if all of that may be consistent with perhaps 1948-50? It's probably also a summer photo since you can make out the running track at the school. Excellent photo!

I think it may be WW1. Invergordon opened as a naval base just as WW1 began and survived right through to the 1950s. But the general style of the ships, especially with the cross yards on the masts, is more reminiscent of WW1. It's difficult to get an idea of scale, but I'm wondering if the ship in the floating dock may be one of the earlier Dreadnoughts with 8 x 12 inch guns. Mind you I'd be happier with my WW1 suggestion if I could make out more detail of funnels on the big ship.

The Forbes Fountain is now at the Riverside on Island Bank Road opposite the south west corner of Bellfield Park. Pranksters quite often fill it with detergent and the foam goes everywhere! I think the photo is 1880s approx.

John Brooman was a leading light in Caley and may well have been on the committee. He was great mates with Diggar MacGillivray to the entent that Diggar could be cutting your hair in his shop one second and the next was out on the pavement shouting good natured abuse at John Brooman as the latter made his way down Greig St. As the van says, Brooman's was a wholesale business and its premises were down in the Abban St area. My dad built a shed in our garden in Dalneigh from wooden package cases which were surplus to requirement at Brooman's. John Brooman's grandson was a leading Caley Rebel during the merger. Regarding the earlier post about the Inverness Motor Company salesman who sold me that Simca, this former Jaggie is now a good friend of mine and is one of the ICT "meet and greets" at the Stadium on match days Chapman's Garage... was that down at tyhe bottom end of Academy St by any chance? Or was it Millburn Rd?

At last! Someone with a sensible and realistic take on the pitch. It's January, Inverness had been dumped on extensively by rain sleet and snow for days, there had had to be an inspection before the game could go ahead, the groundsman had to work wonders to get the game on at all. And people in earlier posts are moaning and using all manner of extreme adjectives about the pitch! Give me strength! What do they expect? There were two options. Play on the kind of ptich you normally get at the end of January or put the game off on the Saturday morning. Which would folk prefer? Anyone unhappy about the pitch should look at some old videos from the 70s and 80s.

Yes, he did. I don't think he was that old because if he had been alive he would just have been mid 60s.

Wow! You can see the old tin shed at the BBC! I didn't start working there until 3 years after "BBC Radio Highland" was set up in 1976 so I'm not sure how long before that they used the place as an Inverness base, but if at all, it wasn't very long. Back in the old days the tin shed, which you can see on the right hand side of the building, was the engineering department. That was demolished in about 1990 to accommodate a new studio block and about 7 years ago further accommodation was inserted between the old house and the studio block. I remember with envy the amount of space you can see around the house in that photo because room for car parking is now a major problem. The old house is said to be haunted but I must say I've never seen anything.... not even whilst burning the midnight oil there during the darkest days of the merger. That, by the way, is an especially good aerial photo of Inverness which must be pre-war since the Temporary Bridge isn't in place yet. A lot of these aerial photos seem to date from the 1930s.

Was the Inverness Motor Company part of MacRae and Dick and if so, did they have the Rolls franchise? (I also bought the somewhat unreliable Simca, my first car which I mentioned elsewhere, at the Inverness Motor Company in 1976. I also have memories of cheap petrol in days of youth. My pal had access to the family Hillman Imp and since he had a March birthday he passed his test with some of Sixth Year still remaining. Four of us would chip in half a crown each and the 10 bob's worth of 91 octane would take us all over the place.

I don't know what they may have done in 63 but in 1955 in remote parts of the North they launched what was called "Operation Snowdrop" when food and other essentials were delivered by helicopter. I have the vaguest of memories of standing on our window sill in Wick watching the helicopter landing at its base in the nearby primary school playground. Fewer houses had phones in these days so what they did was to use the old ashes out of the coal fire to make a letter in the snow to indicate what they needed urgently. It was F for food and I think D for doctor. At IHE's house they also used to put out a large "P"....for Pomagne

I think I've seen that photo before and if I have, it's the far North line so my grandad may have been driving the train. Or as my father used to say - "In loco parentis" ..... "My dad's an engine driver"

I meant the cafe (or possibly pub) in #89!

For somewhere as posh as that, it actually looks pretty manky.

Former Jaggies might dispute that! But do you think this Billy may also come back to Inverness?

Winter 1962-63 was also horrendous. I used to walk to school through paths dug in waist high snow. I also vaguely remember 1955 which was a bad one and I'm sure Scarlet, Jock etc will remember 1947.

Lord Burton's swimming pool?

Big team. I'm counting eight Leading Boys there.