An effective alarm call!

LOCKERBIE’S Town Hall bell used to be rung every morning at 6 am in the days before alarm clocks. The old custom is revealed in the Recollections of Lockerbie pamphlet, by solicitor T Henderson. He writes: “Members of the younger generation will never have heard the town hall bell being rung night and morning at six o’clock. “Working days were longer then and I suppose the intention was to waken folks in the morning and warn them when to stop work in the evening.” He also touched upon a similar situation in Lochmaben, saying: “The bell in Lochmaben had been rung for a very long period. It is understood that it was started to warn the French prisoners who were billeted there during the Wars of Napoleon when it was time to be indoors in the evening.”