NON-FOOTBALL STORIES 1912

While looking through old documents, it is almost inevitable that the reader's attention will be drawn from the intended target to other articles. The reports below were found in an old Glasgow Herald and Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald newspapers.  Although they have no football content, they may be of interest.

MOUNTAIN AND SEA
Magnificent weather has been experience at Ardrossan for over a week and the numerous visitors are spending the ideal holiday.  The Town Council has fixed the sand-building competition for children to take place on Wednesday 17 July so that Glasgow children will have the opportunity of competing for the prizes.  Steamboat traffic at the harbour has been very heavy, the Arran, Belfast, Portrush and Isle of Man sailings proving as popular as ever.  Bathing, boating, fishing and golf take up the time of most of the resident visitors while others are finding the motor drives along the coast very attractive.  The underground well at the Castle has been only a few days open to the public and already over four hundred persons have visited it.
               
Glasgow Herald, 7 July 1912

THOUSANDS VISIT ARDROSSAN CASTLE UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS
Something like 4500 people have visited the underground chambers at Ardrossan Castle this season and the Corporation is thereby richer by nearly £19.
                Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 23 August 1912

SEAL IN ARDROSSAN HARBOUR
A seal was seen disporting itself in Ardrossan Harbour as the Arrochar excursion was sailing out.
               
Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 23 August 1912

REPEAT OFFENDER
One of the men who was charged at Ardrossan Court with trespassing at Stevenston and received an admonition, was apprehended three hours later in Saltcoats for begging.
                
Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 23 August 1912

 PHOTOGRAPH OF HMS ORION
Councillor Reynolds, Ardrossan, has received per post a photograph of HMS Orion as a souvenir of his visit to the vessel from the bluejacket who showed him round.
                
Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 23 August 1912

 THE FUTURE OF ARDROSSAN – THE BATHING POOL PROPOSAL
There is no diminution of interest in the proposal to form a bathing pond at Ardrossan.  The question is being discussed by all the classes in the community, certainly by all who take any interest in the welfare of the burgh.  It is a great pleasure for us to be able to report, moreover, that favourable opinions on the project continue to be expressed on all hands.  We have never seen, indeed encountered, anyone who is opposed to the scheme.  The most cautious of the ratepayers appear to be convinced that if Ardrossan is to do anything to assert itself among watering-places, this is the thing to do.  Such unanimity is seldom found in a place like Ardrossan and, in this case, it would seem to indicate that, unless something unforeseeable happens, a long-discussed idea will, at last, be realised.
         A great many of the ratepayers, although favourable to the project, even to the point of enthusiasm, are averse from giving public expression to their views, a fact which we are inclined to regret, for it is only by making use of the press as a convenient vehicle of opinion that it is possible to show the trend of the burghal mind.  This week we give the views of a few more of our townsmen.  It should be explained that those ratepayers who have permitted us to state their views have not been selected in any way.
         Mr Samuel Black speaks with great hopefulness of the scheme.  He is one of those who have for a long time pondered the various ways and means of improving the status of Ardrossan and he states that a bathing pond has for some time seemed to him an institution much to be desired.  He has visited the pond and adjuncts at Gourock and he is of the opinion that the proposed site at Ardrossan is infinitely superior in every way.  Mr Black is able, like a good many more in the town, to recall the days when large numbers of visitors came to Ardrossan, mainly on account of the services of the hot sea-baths, and he holds that the resuscitation of that service must be essential to any scheme adopted by the Town Council.
         Captain Charles Murchie, when asked to say what he thought of the proposal, gave it as his opinion that this undertaking would prove beneficial to the town.  Ardrossan was undoubtedly in need of some substantial means of attracting visitors and, so far, he could see no better means within the reach of the municipality than the renovation of the hot sea baths and the construction of a pond.  It was well known that in time past, the hot baths attracted a very good class of people to the town and he saw no reason why the place, if put into good order and conducted in a business-like way, should not do even better in the future than it had ever done.  He understood that the site of the proposed pond had several advantages over any other in Scotland and these, he thought, would go far towards attracting a large public.  The fact that the scheme would be revenue-producing was a strong argument in its favour.
         Mr James Carson, shipping agent, gave emphatic expression to the view that the carrying out of the scheme would be one of the best things Ardrossan could do.  The lack of proper bathing facilities had always been a reproach against Ardrossan and now that more people were taking to bathing, and especially to swimming, he thought the time was opportune for constructing a pond.  The proposed site was excellent, as he knew from early experience, and the improvements which would be involved in the making of the pond could not fail to do the town a great deal of good.
               
Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 23 August 1912