From our files - Argyllshire Advertiser March 7 2025

TV writer’s real life drama

 

An award-winning television writer had a lucky escape on Saturday when her car nearly plunged into Tarbert Harbour.

 

Donna Franceschild, 61, who won a BAFTA in 1994, watched open mouthed as her pride and joy slid towards the water.

 

Luckily, the four-wheel drive Honda, which she has owned since it was new in 1998, stopped, resting precariously on the stonework.

 

Originally from Illinois, in the United States, Mrs Franceschild moved to Tarbert in 1996.

 

Harbour barge-master, Craig Robinson, 32, used his crane to lift the vehicle back onto solid ground.

 

Mr Robinson said: "I have only been here five weeks and this is the second car I have seen which has nearly plunged into the water."

 

TWENTY YEARS AGO

 

Friday March 11 2005

 

Warning as Mid Argyll suffers car theft spate

 

A car thief sparked a helicopter search and rescue operation near Lochgilphead on Saturday.

 

Police received a report of a car in a ditch at Castleton, Lochgilphead, at 7.10am on Saturday morning.

 

Enquiries revealed that the car had been stolen.

 

With the driver nowhere to be seen, a rescue operation was launched.

 

Inspector Eric Dearie explained that in such circumstances police have to assume that an injured person could be lying somewhere in need of help.

 

The police helicopter was called out and the crew used heat-seeking equipment to scan the area, but it appeared that the thief had made his escape.

 

This was the latest in a spate of car thefts from the area. In recent weeks a total of five cars have been stolen, many from rural locations such as Kilmichael Glassary.

 

Police have warned that the majority of the cars were left unlocked with the keys in the ignition.

Four vehicles were taken in one evening between Monday February 28 and Tuesday March 1. 

 

A Ford van and a green-coloured 4x4 vehicle were taken from Kilmichael Glassary, a black-coloured Citroen Xara was taken from Cairnbaan and a green-coloured tipper lorry was stolen from the County Yard in Lochgilphead. 

 

Police are now following a positive line of enquiry into the thefts. In the meantime, Sergeant Martin Balkeen reminded motorists, especially those living in outlying areas, to keep their cars secure. 

 

He said: "People should remember to keep their cars locked, even if they are of relatively low value, in order to prevent making them easy targets for thieves." He added: "Don’t leave your keys in the ignition."

 

Community support for Craignish Primary School

 

There has been a buzz of activity at Craignish Primary School over the past few months, with pupils and staff enjoying a wide variety of activities and events.

 

Pupils at the Ardfern school have been auditing their garden, which is set for an exciting make-over.

 

Amongst the ideas proposed are plans for a sensory garden, which will include separate sections specifically designed to be seen, heard, tasted, touched and smelled. 

 

There will also be an area with robust outdoor play equipment, as well as a hard all-weather playing surface. The school has also benefited from a recent ‘slave auction’ run by the PTA, which raised over £3,000 to buy non-fiction material for the school library. 

 

The auction took place at the Galley of Lorne in Ardfern, and saw villagers dig deep to buy services provided by their neighbours, including half a day of carpentry, babysitting, a day of fishing and a disco.

 

Even headmaster James Wylie was roped in, one lucky bidder securing his services as a car valet!

 

Mr Wylie was delighted that Ardfern’s residents gave such tremendous support. He said: "Thanks to Katie Ritchie for all her hard work organising the auction. I’m overwhelmed by the community support, and I’d like to thank everybody for their support, which will make a huge difference to the children’s education."

FORTY YEARS AGO

Friday March 8 1985

Tarbert and the Reagan

 

There is conclusive evidence that a forbear of American President Ronald Reagan came from Tarbert in the nineteenth century.

 

And a visit by the President to Tarbert next year cannot be ruled out.

 

The President’s ancestors have in the past been associated with the Carradale area. The Tarbert link is through a name found in the Carradale story, Blue. 

 

The Reagan’s examination of their ancestors in Scotland followed their searching for family roots in Ireland. It was Mr Reagan’s wife, Nancy, who asked Burke’s Peerage, a firm which traces family trees, to explore their family links with Scotland. 

 

Rev. Clem Robb, minister at Tarbert Parish Church which plays a key role in the story, explained that during the course of their researches, Burkes Peerage discovered that a man called Blue had married a girl called Jane MacFarlane, of ‘MacFarlane’s Land’, Tarbert. 

 

In 1821 their third son, John Blue, was baptised at Tarbert Parish Church.

 

This son went to America, married and his descendants include the mother of Ronald Reagan, and of course the President himself.

 

Other members of the family moved from Tarbert down to Carradale.

 

When Rev. Robb became aware of the link between Tarbert, its church and Mr Reagan, he wrote last year to the President with details of the church which in 1986 celebrates its centenary, and with details of the President’s Tarbert ancestors.

 

He was able to bring to Mr Reagan’s attention a remarkable historical coincidence. 

 

In 1885, the old church was demolished - except for the baptismal font in which the President’s ancestor was Christened. 

 

Rev. Robb invited the President and his wife to the centenary celebrations of the church in Tarbert.

 

He received a reply last year on behalf of the Reagans which was reported at the time to the church congregation. 

 

The letter thanked Rev. Robb for his ‘lovely invitation’ and said that the President sincerely appreciated the fact that Rev. Robb took the time to send photographs of the church details about his family’. 

 

Although the President could not make a commitment so far in advance as far as attending the centenary celebrations was concerned, a ‘special note’ would be made of the date for the future.

 

In a worldwide schedule, there could yet be a place for Tarbert next year in the activities of a President.

 

BBC plans better reception

 

TV reception for viewers in the Tayvallich, Clachan, Easdale and Southend areas could be radically improved through BBC plans possibly costing over £100,000.

 

The BBC intends to build four new transmitters to service these areas at a cost per transmitter of between £20,000 and £40,000. Mr Trevor Sykes BBC engineering Information officer-based in Glasgow said that provisional inspections and tests had been made in each area and they were now in the process of acquiring the necessary sites.

 

Each site was at a different stage of negotiation but there were no reason to expect any problems, said Mr Sykes. 

 

Planning applications had been submitted for the transmitters to serve the Southend and Tayvallich areas.

 

He thought it would be around 18 months before the transmitters were ready and in operation.

 

He added: ‘We have a fair idea throughout the UK of where people live who cannot receive our programmes. If an area has more than 200 people unserved and we think we can serve these people from one site then that qualifies to go on the list of areas where we will try to build a station.’ 

 

There were many areas outstanding but they gradually worked the way down the list.

 

The reception problem varied from area to area, said Mr Sykes.

 

Self-help TV schemes were in operation and for many people in Tayvallich, for instance, reception was not too bad.

 

Southend had good reception ‘but it happens to be Irish programmes and we have a commitment to give them Scottish programmes.’

 

Easdale had very poor reception, he added. Mr Sykes said that various consents had to be obtained before they built the transmitters which usually consisted of a 17-metre high wooden pole with the receiving and transmitting aerials attached. At the foot of the pole is a small cabin for installations.

 

The project is done in collaboration with the Independent Broadcasting Authority who will install their transmitters, for commercial television in the installation erected by the BBC.

 

Mr Sykes had one word of warning, however. He said that the stations would be erected to serve the central communities and as many of the outlying households as possible. But there would always be some people who for geographical reasons could not be served, he added.

SIXTY YEARS AGO 

 

Tuesday March 9 1965

Argyll hit by blizzard

 

"A nightmare" was how drivers described conditions on Wednesday after battling in vain through the blizzard which swept Argyll and most of Scotland all day and paralysed road, sea and air communications throughout the West Highlands and Islands.

 

But while stranded motorists abandoned their vehicles by the roadside as the snow piled up high into drifts, an urgent call went out at Campbeltown to the local ambulance crew.

 

The call — to convey a seriously ill man to a Glasgow hospital - was made only after the ambulance plane had to turn back.

 

The air ambulance was alerted at Renfrew, circled three times around the airfield at Machrihanish but the cross-winds, which swirled the driving snow in all directions, prevented it from landing.

 

Leaving Campbeltown at 12.30 p.m. with a police escort, the ambulance headed north for Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital some 134 miles away.

 

Progress was slow enough but by the time the Rest-And-Be-Thankful was reached, a snowplough with the escort in attendance, towed the ambulance over the hills. 

 

Conditions improved afterwards and the hospital was reached some eight hours after the ambulance left Campbeltown.

 

Elsewhere in the county, the story was much the same with drifts piling up as fast as the snowploughs were clearing them.

 

Although road squads fought valiantly, some Mid Argyll roads were blocked, among them Inverneill Hill and the Ormsary-Kilberry road.

 

Said a county roads official: "Conditions were so bad at times that snow-plough crews had to stop as they couldn’t see where they were going."

 

He added, however, that their task had been made much more difficult as they encountered abandoned vehicles.

 

"It was bad enough clearing the snow but the crews had a terrible job trying to keep the roads open with vehicles lying all over the place," he complained. 

 

As the blizzard heightened, Islay was completely cut off from the outside world. In quick succession, B.E.A. cancelled their scheduled Glasgow-Campbeltown-Islay service and Messrs David MacBrayne took similar action when the Islay-West Loch Tarbert steamer stayed at Port Ellen all day.

 

One boat which won through to Tarbert was the Lochfyne, which completed all calls both outward and inward via Dunoon, Innellan, Rothesay and Tighnabruaich.

 

But for the Lochfyne coming to the rescue the day after the blizzard housewives in Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islay might have gone without bread but the steamer sailed from Gourock with some 4,800 loaves of bread aboard to save the day.

 

Bus services were of course, severely restricted and crews on the Ardrishaig-Oban route had to stay overnight at their respective destinations.

 

Their troubles began after their respective outward runs on Wednesday morning from Ardrishaig and Oban.

 

Both buses ran behind schedule, the Ardrishaig-bound bus arriving hours late. Conditions deteriorated so rapidly in the afternoon, however, that the services were withdrawn.

 

The morning bus from Campbeltown was 2½ hours late in reaching Glasgow but when the Rest-And-Be-Thankful became impassable a skeleton bus service was run between Ardrishaig and Inveraray and the service from Ardrishaig south to Campbeltown was suspended.

 

On Thursday, however, a temporary service to Glasgow was provided, although the bus departed from Tarbert instead of Campbeltown as scheduled.

 

Mail services too were seriously affected as the G.P.O contract bus from Campbeltown which conveys mail to Glasgow every evening, didn’t get any further than Lochgilphead on Wednesday.

 

In the early hours of Thursday morning, however, a West Coast Motors’ bus set out from Glasgow and re-established the mail connections.

 

Attendance at Lochgilphead Secondary School on Thursday showed a marked reduction from the previous day as buses were unable to collect pupils from surrounding villages.

 

With the commencement of the thaw on Thursday, conditions improved and most of the minor roads which until then had been blocked were reopened.