Lockerbie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lockerbie | |
|---|---|
| Gaelic: | Logarbaidh |
| Scots: | Lockerbie |
| Location | |
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| OS grid reference: | NY138816 |
| Statistics | |
| Population: | 4,009 (Census 2001) |
| Administration | |
| Council area: | Dumfries & Galloway |
| Constituent country: | Scotland |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom |
| Other | |
| Police force: | Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary |
| Lieutenancy area: | Dumfries |
| Former county: | Dumfriesshire |
| Post office and telephone | |
| Post town: | LOCKERBIE |
| Postal district: | DG11 |
| Dialling code: | 01576 |
| Politics | |
| Scottish Parliament: | Dumfries (Dr. Elaine Murray, MSP) |
| UK Parliament: | Dumfriesshire, Clydeside & Tweeddale (David Mundell, MP) |
| European Parliament: | Scotland |
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Lockerbie (Gd: Logarbaidh) is a town located in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. It is situated approximately 75 miles from Glasgow, and 20 miles from the English border. Lockerbie is a small town, with a population of just 4,009 at the 2001 census.
Lockerbie has a well developed transport network for a town its size. It lies next to the A74(M) motorway and also has a railway station on the main Glasgow–London West Coast Main Line. Lockerbie's town hall is the most dominating building in town, and is an excellent example of Scottish baronial style, built in the typical local red sandstone. The building looks over a war memorial built after the Second World War, with its characteristic bronze statue of an angel atop a white base with inscriptions.
Historically the town has been a trading post for both cattle and sheep. Because of its proximity to the borders, the cattle trade with England dominated local economy for a long time. The town is still home to sheep auctioning to this day.
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[edit] Lockerbie disaster
- Further information: Pan Am Flight 103
Lockerbie is known internationally as the site where, on December 21, 1988, the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 landed on the town as a result of a terrorist bomb. In the UK the event is usually called the Lockerbie disaster, bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven townspeople were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane's wings and fuel tanks crashed to earth in a fiery explosion, leaving a huge crater.
Until the September 11, 2001 attacks, the bombing of Flight 103 was the worst act of terrorism against civilian citizens of the United States. The 270 victims (259 on the plane, 11 on the ground) were citizens of 21 nations. Of them, 189 were Americans.
The subsequent police investigation was the largest ever mounted in Scottish history and became a murder inquiry when evidence of a bomb was found. Two men accused of being Libyan intelligence agents were eventually charged with planting the bomb. Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was jailed for life in January 2001 following an 84-day trial under Scottish law, at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. His alleged accomplice, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty. In 2002 Al Megrahi's appeal against conviction was rejected. [1] In 2005 a former Scottish police chief came forward to corroborate a statement made in 2003 by a retired CIA officer claiming that the evidence against al-Megrahi had been planted.[2]
[edit] Lockerbie Academy
Lockerbie Academy, the town's public high school, became the headquarters for the response and recovery effort after the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster. Subsequently, the academy, in cooperation with Syracuse University of Syracuse, New York, USA, which lost 35 students in the bombing, established a scholarship at the university for two of its most outstanding graduating students. Each year, two graduating students spend one academic year at Syracuse University as Lockerbie Scholars before they begin their university study. The scholarships have led to a lasting relationship between the university and the town. The rector of Lockerbie Academy, Graham Herbert, was recognized in November 2003 at Syracuse University with the Chancellor's Medal for outstanding service.
A former student of the Academy, Helen Jones, was killed in the 7 July 2005 London bombings. In her memory, a new scholarship has been set up, awarding £1000 towards further education to aspiring accounting students from the Academy.[3].
[edit] Lockerbie Drama Club
Lockerbie has an active and enthusiastic Drama Club. It was originally formed before the Second World War by members of local churches and was known as Lockerbie Churches Drama Club and plays were perfomed in the town hall. In 1964 the club acquired land at the corner of Well Street and Well Road, along with a prefab corrugated iron building that had been a workshop in the Technical department at Lockerbie Academy. This building became the Little Theatre.
Lockerbie Drama club puts on two plays per year and holds play readings during the summer.
[edit] External links
- The Lockerbie Bombing and the USS Vincennes
- A List of the Lockerbie Scholars at Syracuse University
- The HomePage for Lockerbie Drama Club
