HELENSBURGH Heritage Trust is one of the first groups in the UK to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund All Our Stories grant, it was announced yesterday.

The Trust's exciting project, "The Helensburgh Area in the Second World War", has been given £3,000 to record the memories of people who lived in the area during the war.

Last year BBC1 TV told the story of Pyro, the cat that flew with Bob Bird, the MAEE photographer, in a special edition of the Antiques Roadshow, and this year they interviewed Mrs Frances A.McLaren, a former MAEE scientific assistant, for a programme which was broadcast at 9.15 am on Tuesday November 6.

A NEW history of the steamers, ferries and personalities — including Henry Bell — that have served the Clyde resorts since 1812 has just been published.

It is entitled ‘Pleasures of the Firth: 200 Years of Clyde Steamers’, and author Andrew Clark, a Financial Times journalist, tells the colourful story from the first steamer, Henry Bell’s Comet, in 1812 to the present day.