NOSTALGIA: '˜Weapons of death' handed over in 1988 and cinema plans revealed in 1998

These Kirton Middlecott pupils were in the news 20 years ago this week after the school held a prize-giving ceremony. Awards were handed out for effort, attainment, and attendance. There was also a prize for one pupil from each form who tutors thought had been particularly helpful or played a leading role within the form.

* Boston people handed in to police a total of 163 ‘weapons of death’ and about 6,700 rounds of ammunition in the county’s September weapons amnesty.

As well as the weapons, which included many shotguns, knives, and even a semi-automatic machine gun, five grenades and 10 flares were handed in.

Across the county, 500 guns and nearly 17,000 rounds of ammunition had been given over to the authorities.

Deputy chief constable for Lincolnshire Peter Bensley said it was in everyone’s interest to hand in the guns because the penalty for illegal possession of a firearm was set to increase to a possible five-year prison sentence and unlimited fine.

* Kirton’s brand new £230,000 fire station was officially opened.

The station, based in the suitably named Station Road, provided accommodation for one fire engine and had a lecture room, watch room, drying and kit room, kitchen, and outdoor training yard incorporating a drill tower.

In addition, once the Kirton bypass was completed along the former railway line, access to the site would only be seconds away, the Standard noted.

This week in 1998 ...

* “A five-screen cinema in Boston could soon be an exciting reality,” the Standard wrote.

A cinema chain was keen to come to Boston, the paper explained, saying plans were in the pipeline for the purchase of the huge between in West Street between the council offices and George Street.

Talks had been going on between the borough council and developers about proposals for a multi-screen cinema in the street and planning chief Paul Edwards said: “We’re of the opinion it would be a great thing for Boston and we are very keen to assist it.”

A planning application was expected by the end of the year.

* An appeal to provide Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital with a MRI scanner had hit the £1million mark.

The news came at a fundraising ball to mark the fourth anniversary of the appeal.

Appeal chairman Dr Cyril Nyman said he had been ‘humbled’ by the support of local people.

The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner was due to be installed in early 1999 – 10 years after another fundraising campaign saw a CT (computerised tomography) scanner added to the hospital site.