Charles Bannerman

I have since been told that Jennifer Kerr-Smith died last year and the house is still occupied by her husband, retired Dr Tony Smith. George Kerr was indeed her father and Dr. England-Kerr's son.

IBM will keep me right, but the cars sort of look a bit mid-80s? I only have a passing memory of these premises being called The Gateway but if this photo is mid 80s, then the Hayloft must have lasted for a shorter time than I thought.

I've got it now. Passed it many times but on that side of the street and never looked up so didn't realise the name had changed. It's probably one of the plusher premises on Baron Taylor's Street.

Many an under age one for me. It was quite dear though. 3 shillings for a pint of lager or 3/3d with lime in about 1970.

Funny how quoting current prices in old money makes things seem much more expensive because you instantly adopt pre-decimal price norms. For instance 16 shillings for a Tuesday Courier or 11 bob for a second class stamp. For half a crown, you can get a single banana.

Much more fun to sit in front of the TV, watching a bunch of politicians having a nonsensical and destructive shouting match.... and imagine how you could most gratifyingly deploy the f*****g shovel. DD... we've now had six more or less unbroken years of disingenuous, self-seeking chancers of all parties and persuasions in our faces and boring the backsides off us making transparently nonsensical statements. It really is becoming quite difficult to take politics and politicians seriously any more - especially since this Euroref is simply becoming a clone of the dreadful Indyref, right down to the respective sets of seceders becoming visibly more and more embarrassed at having Alex Salmond/Nigel Farage in their ranks. It just gets to the stage where you have to take the rip for light entertainment but at the same time stand up and protest in the hope of damage limitation. It possibly also helps fondly to remember the last time we had a significant politician to whom pro bono publico was more important than self advancement. That in my view was Labour's John Smith who died in 1994.

So I can easily guess which of the following you would use to call a spade: A - a spade. B - a f*****g shovel. C - soil transportation technology.

Sounds like you're not long back from one of your "Nats for Political Correctness" rallies. Tell me... what was the highlight? Sticking needles into voodoo dolls of Jeremy Clarkson dressed in Euro 2016 Crusader suits?

Nothing inconsistent there at all. Two of the "exercises in democracy", the referenda comprising Alex Salmond's ego trip and a civil war in the Tory Party, have been a complete waste of time and have overloaded the system and hence devalued it. The result is that the last six years have represented a constant stream of publicity opportunities for that generally execrable bunch of self interested opportunists who are our politicians - of various parties. Indeed it's the notion of political parties which is the root of the problem since they exist far more for the benefit of politicians than the electorate. One other problem is that all of this recent politicking has taken place in the current bizarre and febrile world political climate of irrational anger which has led to prominence, which would otherwise be a pipe dream, for all manner of cranks and fringe groups who have been thrust into the limelight. I rest my case on that one with two words.... Donald Trump.... but other manifestations range from the Greeks' complete inability to grasp economic reality to the recent expansion of the SNP and vagrant camps outside Holyrood. And therein lies the Scottish problem. The SNP. By taking advantage of a Scottish political vacuum and conning the electorate with vacuous assertions they have a majority in Holyrood, have had their referendum and won an embarrassing (LITERALLY!) presence on the Westminster Y-front conveyor belt. Now they hope to hijack the Brexerendum for their own political purposes if that goes the way they really want - UK/leave, Scotland/remain. They are hence in our faces the whole time so need to be stood up to despite current politics overload. Indeed if there's one thing the SNP really needs it is to be stood up to, despite that current political surfeit. Appeasement doesn't work so, however unpleasant the consequences, the need remains - on here and anywhere else - to maintain our guard.

Oh God I am fed up with Politics! Straight after the 2010 General Election we had the 2011 Scottish Election which in turn begat three years of mind numbing 2014 Neverendum followed by the 2015 General Election followed by the 2016 Scottish Election followed by the Brexit Referendum. That's six unbroken years of politicians of all hues getting up on their soapboxes and spouting the kind of disingenuous self -interested bollox that we have become accustomed to get from them. This Brexit referendum campaign has been utterly tedious and a virtual clone of the Neverendum with the side wanting a change making unsubstantiated assertions that the grass will be so much greener on the other side of the fence and vilifying Brussels (for which read Westminster). Meanwhile the side wanting the status quo express reasonable caution about the unknown of change, get accused of "scaremongering" and respond with exaggerated extra claims amid howls of "talking Britain/Scotland down." Then, for Alex Salmond, read Boris Johnson since both sets of seceeders seem to need their in-house buffoon. I think the problem may also partly be that the Neverendum showed the whole of the UK the kind of complete mince that politicians can get away with stating and as a the rubbish that has been talked about this time has plumbed new depths. Some of the stuff makes Salmond's $113 a barrel look positively pessimistic! Roll on June 24th!

If she does not still do so, that house was occupied at least until relatively recently by a Jennifer Kerr-Smith who is a relation - Dr Kerr's grand daughter, I suspect. It is still there in all its grandeur. I also had a recent query from a friend of this woman whose father (I think) was a George Kerr, who would therefore possibly have been Dr Kerr's son. The query was about a sports cap she had found and which was inscribed "IRASC 1926-27". It didn't take too long in the school archive to unearth details and a photo of George Kerr as Royal Academy shinty captain for that session. I think there was a (youngest?) brother as well called Eric (England) Kerr whom I remember as a kid in the 60s. I think he was in the motor trade (a garage in Anderson St? IBM?) and for a short and unsuccessful period sold air cooled Dutch cars called DAFs. I think DAF were rather better at making trucks. I do indeed also remember JS1 as belonging to Robert Wotherspoon. He must have had some obsession or ego trip about being number one!

It's just that the background looks a bit like the Glen Mhor Distillery (that I the one on the opposite ide to the Caley Park isn't it?) That would therefore place the building across the Muirtown Basin at Blackpark/Clachnaharry. Unless what seems to be a waterway is the river and not the canal in which case might it be the Thornbush Inn?

I don't know who originally registered ST1 but by the 60s it had got into the acquisitive hands of ex-Provost Robert Wotherspoon whose legal firm MacAndrew and Jenkins also had the phone number Inverness 1 - and I believe may still have it successor 01463 233001 somewhere in their repertoire. It may be that Mr Wotherspoon considered himself Inverness's No 1 citizen. It was said that the company that produced The Saint tried to buy ST1 off him for use in the programme but he wasn't selling although he gave permission for the number to be used.

I believe these are some of the very earliest cars in Inverness, at least one of which belonged to Dr Kerr (otherwise known as Dr England-Kerr) who was a local GP and was the first to use motorised transport to do his rounds. I've seen the photo before and think Dr Kerr's car may be the one on the right.

Clachnaharry?

I think this may be the mud flats at the Carse with the North railway line running across the photo.

Is that Inverness? Judging by the prices, the photo is fairly recent but I just can't remember a place of that name in the town. There is perhaps a hint of Academy St or Union St about the ambience and that does look a wee bit like our Streetscape pavements but I just can't place it at all.

What confidence can we have in councillors who defy the clear will of the population and persist with nonsense like this, telling us that we're getting it whether we like it or not? By the way does the guy in the orange jumper (the "architect" I think) not look a wee bit like a cross between Roddy Davidson and Mark McAllister?

That would be June 1970. Buckie retired when I finished 5th Year. Great guy who always came down to watch and vocally support school rugby teams "Come on PaterSON.... play up BannerMAN...." He was certainly still on the go in 1998 because I exchanged letters with him then when he was living near Oxford, but I think he died shortly after - at a great age. If he was the second longest serving member of staff in 1970, the longest would have been Jess Thomson who arrived in 1930 and retired in 1972.

Has it actually been officially saved from Council Jobsworthism? I really despair if our Council, at a time of unprecedented crisis, has got nothing better to do than persist with tilting piers and put a stop to good crack like this. It was last week's HN front page story and it grew like a rash throughout the national media. It made Highland Council look very silly indeed. Ironically the business used to be run by a former Provost, having been founded by his father and is now run by his son.

That will be the Northern Meeting Games some time in the 1920s judging by the clothes. They were held in the Meeting Park each September as part of the Northern Meeting - a collection of local nobs and their Hooray Henry pals.

I believe the piper's name was Bill Millen.

Snorbens.... I remember him being called both.

Bill MacDonald was captain of the 8th Coy in the 60s and possibly before and after as well. I think he lived in Dochfour Drive and married a doctor late in life. Herb MacDonald, I seem to recollect, was Captain of the 6th. He may have been the successor of Teetums (bad eyesight) - not to confused with Feetums who was Ian Reid, an officer in the 2nd Coy who had an uncomfortable gait. Feetums, Teetums, Scoobies.... the Inverness BB of old was some institution!

Scarlet... many will share your sentiment which is laudable. However the history bit at the end is a bit off the beam since I think you may be getting your Stevensons/Stephensons a bit confused. The railway locomotive the Rocket was the creation of Robert Stephenson, who was from Northumberland so hence English, and the son of George Stephenson. Robert Stevenson on the other hand was Scottish and a lighthouse engineer responsible for, among others, the Bell Rock lighthouse off Arbroath. As for the quote which you say is from Stev(ph)enson, I have tried Googling it both in whole and in parts and the only results I get are where it has been quoted by yourself on three different occasions here on CTO!