Earlston Corn Exchange Opening Events

The 1860's was a significant decade in Earlston history: 

• The Commercial Bank of Scotland opened a branch in the village  in 1864. 
• The Berwickshire Railway from Reston reached  Earlston in 1863 and was extended  to Newtown in 1865,  with the completion of the Leaderfoot Viaduct.
• The Corn Exchange opened in the Market Square in 1868.

How did the Corn Exchange come into being? 
Corn Exchanges were originally built as a venue for corn merchants to meet and arrange pricing with farmers for the sale of wheat, barley and other corn crops. With the repeal of the Corn Laws  in 1846, a large number of corn exchanges were built in town centres across Britain, coinciding with the expansion of the railways, making transportation of the corn easier.

The buildings were also let out for many other purposes,  including public meetings concerts and dances, lectures, fund raising events, and in the 20th century as cinemas.  

A photograph that can be dated pre 1920 

when the pump well on the right was demolished to  make way for the War Memorial. 

An article in “The Southern Reporter”: 28th May 1868 reported on the plans for a Corn Exchange in Earlston.

“There is now a certainty of the long-talked of Corn Exchange and Public Hall being erected. A site on the north side of the Market Place and adjoining the Reading Room has been purchased and now the whole works have been contracted for.

The plans and specifications have been prepared by Mr. Rodger of Rodger & Co., builders, and show shops in front and a main entrance of seven feet in width on the ground floor, with rooms which can either be used as dwelling houses or business rooms.

Behind is the Public Hall and Corn Exchange which is to be 60 feet long by 32 feet wide, with a height of 22 feet and will be lighted from the roof.

The hall is also to be provided with stalls, opening from the wall and which, when closed, enable the whole length and breadth of the hall to be made available for public meetings, or Volunteer drill.

The Directors go forward in the expectation that the building will be finished for a sum not exceeding the share capital of the company which is fixed at £1400. [equivalent to £87,652.60 today]

The mason work has been let to Messrs Rodger & Co., Earlston; joinery work to Mr. John Wallace, Earlston; slating and plumbing to Mr. Murdison, Earlston, and the plaster work to Mr. John Johnstone, Gattonside. Mr. Herbertson, builder, Galashiels has been appointed inspector over the works.

The building, it is expected will be roofed in and the hall finished by the middle of October and the whole work completed by the middle of December.

We may here notice the deep interest taken in the building by Mrs. Colesworth of Cowdenknowes, she having, in addition to her subscription to the share capital, presented the company with a very handsome piano.

It is proposed to hold a bazaar on the day the hall is opened, for the purpose of liquidating any debt that may be left."

It was May 1869 before a public dinner  was held to celebrate the opening of the Corn Exchange.

 An article in "The Southern Reporter"   gave a fulsome report on the  occasion where Mr. Balfour of the Commercial Bank was given a presentation of a "silver tea and coffee service of chaste design"  for "his unwearied labours  in connection with the Corn  Exchange"  and  "his excellent business sense, his affable and gentlemanly deportment, and his kind and obliging disposition." 

Further reports in "The Southern Reporter" commented  on "a handsome if not actually imposing structure"........"In addition to its usefulness as a place of business on market days, it is also proving a place of amusement". 

So what events  took place in the Corn Exchange  in the late 19th century - as reported  in the local press?  They span dramas, bazaars, concerts, balls, election and evangelical meetings. As ever with newspaper reports of the period, the style of writing is wordy - but entertaining to read.

• In Spring 1869 a series of "Penny Readings" were held with the comment that these were  "instructive and pleasing entertainments."
   
• On 4th November 1869, "The Southern Reporter"  described the formal opening of a piano donated to the Corn Exchange by Mrs Colesworth of Cowdenknowes.   
  
  The ceremony was slightly marred by an "unforeseen accident" in opening the piano, but this was followed by "three hearty cheers for Mrs Colesworth"  and  "a  grand concert of miscellaneous music......with the hall crammed in every part."  

• Also in November 1869,  a meeting was called   in the Corn Exchange for the Electors of Earlston  to select a Liberal Candidate  to stand in the forthcoming election, on the current MP Robertson being raised  to the peerage.  The handbill for the meeting carried the headline  "Caution - Electors of Earlston - Beware!"   with Lord William Hay selected  to contend the seat. 

• September  1869 saw  the annual show of the Earlston Cottagers Horticultural Society  taking place for the first time in the Corn Exchange.  "The hall was set off in an artistic  and pleasing manner"  with contributions from the gardens and greenhouses of Cowdenknowes, Carolside and Drygrange.

• On a more serious note, in January1869 a series of evangelical  meetings was held  "commencing the evening of Monday and continuing nightly until Sunday", when Lord Polwarth's talk was "listened  to throughout his lengthy discourse with marked attention"  from the packed hall".
  
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• The September 1877   programme included  "a troup of darkies" in  the shape of Stow Christy Minstrels. 

• In December 1881 The Earlston Tradesmen held their annual  "Show of  Roots" in the Corn Exchange.
• In February 1882 a lengthy article reported on a lecture "Holidays in the Highland", given by local  bank manager John Mackenzie - one hopes he was a good speaker, as there would be no visual aids to enliven a long talk.
• A concert and ball were held in September 1886 under the auspices of the Earlston Street Lighting Committee to raise  funds for winter street lighting in the village.
  
  
  "After the concert, dancing commenced to the inspiring strains of Earlston Orchestral Party and carried on with unabated zeal  to  the  advanced hours in the morning." 
   
    
• Another fund rising event in July 1889 was on  behalf of the Bowling Club, founded six years earlier, who were looking to liquidate its debt, with"the amount taken far exceeded the sanguine expectation of the club."  A wordy description gave a picture of the stalls - along with the more usual cushions and crafts,   "live poultry" - and a painting by renowned Borders artist Tom Scott.
  
  
  
  
   
• In 1892, advertisements in "The Berwickshire News" promised the  following entertainment at  the Corn Exchange  
  

  and 

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• Taking to the stage on 17th September 1897 was "Alone in London - a   wonderfully sensational and  realistic Drama......the greatest ever put before a Scotch audience......witnessed on several occasion by Members of the Royal Family"

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Source of Information 
"The Berwickshire News" and "The Southern Reporter" on:  British Newspapers Online 1710-1963  at FindMyPast

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A History of Earlston's Clock

How often have you looked up  to check the time on  the clock above the Corn Exchange in the Market Square?   

Have you ever wondered how the clock came to be there? 

Its history stems back to Earlston-born John Redpath (1796-1869)  who emigrated to Canada, became a noted industrialist and philanthropist,  but never forgot his birthplace. 

Jeff Price of the Auld Earlston Group has looked  at the background to  John Redpath's early life in a story that spanned: The Lowland Clearances, The Battle of Waterloo and Sugar.

                       

Scotland's Agricultural Revolution

The Scottish agricultural revolution started in the early 1700s. In 1723 a group of landowners,  300 strong,  formed the Society of Improvers. The aim was to modernise farming techniques thereby improving productivity. It is undoubted that the improvements were successful, with Scottish agriculture progressing from one of the least to the most modern and productive in Europe. 

But this advance was at a terrible human cost. Thousands of tenant farmers, farm servants and cottars and their families were driven from the land to be replaced by sheep. Many would seek work in cities, while others would migrate to the Americas. Small wonder then that the “Improvements” were to become known as the Lowland Clearances.

It was into this state of affairs that Peter Redpath was born in 1741. His parents, John Redpath and Mary (nee Johnston) lived in Duns. Peter was employed as a farm servant when he met and married Helen Melros(s). We know that the couple had three children (it was not until 1855 that births, marriages and deaths were required to be registered). Their eldest son, Robert, was baptised in 1775, his brother James in 1784 and daughter, Elspeth was baptised on June 5, 1789. Their mother, Helen, died on September 29, 1786, and it is possible that she died in childbirth or as a result of complications arising from the birth of Elspeth.

Peter remarried in 1791 to Elizabeth Pringle. Together they had three children, George (his baptism was unregistered), John (baptised in 1796) and sister Ellen (1801). 

Like his father Peter, John faced an uncertain future in farming until his mother intervened. From the available information, Elizabeth had a relative, Margaret, who, in 1810, married George Drummond, an Edinburgh building contractor.

Elizabeth persuaded her relative and her husband to offer John an apprenticeship as a stone mason. John left his home near Earlston and went to live with his new family in Jamaica Street in Edinburgh.

The opportunity provided John with the possibility of a more secure future than agriculture could offer.


The Return of Demobbed Soldiers after the Battle of Waterloo

However, in 1815, as John finished his apprenticeship, the Battle of Waterloo signalled the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Tens of thousands of demobilised soldiers returned to Great Britain, driving unemployment up and wages down. By 1816, faced with further uncertainty, John elected to migrate to Canada in the hope of a better future. He was to be richly rewarded. 

Life in Canada
In 1818 John married Janet McPhee a native of Glengarry in Ontario. By the early 1820s John, now living in Montreal and with business partner Thomas McKay, won a significant contract to supply stone for the new Notre-Dame Church and the Lachine Canal. These and other contracts established John’s reputation.

In 1834 Janet Redpath died from cholera. John remarried the following year, to Jane Drummond, George and Margaret Drummond’s second eldest daughter, whom he knew from his apprentice days at the family home.

The Impact of a Move into Sugar 
John would have remained one of Montreal’s successful building contractors,  had he not decided to construct the first sugar refinery in the Province of Canada. Sugar refining went on to  establish him as a major businessman and philanthropist. 

                                          John Redpath's Sugar Refinery

By 1854, John invited his brother-in-law, George Alexander Drummond, to Montreal to manage the technical side of the sugar refinery. George would go on to become an industrialist, financier and senator.

Back in Earlston - the Building of the Corn Exchange.

 In 1868, it was announced in "The Southern Reporter":28th May 1868, that a new building which  became known as the Corn Exchange,   was to be erected in Earlston on the north side of the Market Place adjoining the Reading Room.  It  would consist of shops along the front elevation with rooms above. The rooms could be used for apartments or business rooms. Behind the Corn Exchange, a Public Hall would be built. The hall would be sixty feet long, thirty-two feet wide and twenty-two feet high.  

 The masonry work was let to Messers Rodger's & Son,  the joinery work to Mr John Wallace and the slating and plumbing work to Mr Murdison -  all Earlston firms. The plasterwork was let to Mr John Johnstone of Gattonside, and the overall inspector of the works was Mr Herbertson, a Galashiels-based builder.

The newspaper noted "The Directors go forward in the expectation that the building will be finished for a sum not exceeding the share capital of the company which is fixed at £1400."  [equivalent to £87,652.60 today]

Work commenced in June 1868 and was completed by December of the same year

Earlston Market Square with the clock and tower on the Corn Exchange. On  the right of the photograph is the Waterloo Memorial (a drinking trough for horses), to be replaced by the War Memorial in 1921.

John Redpath's Visit to his Birthplace  
The following year, John Redpath returned to Earlston on  his last visit to Scotland.  He offered to finance the building of a spire complete with a clock to be installed on the new Corn Exchange.  A plaque, mounted on the chassis of the clock mechanism, reads:

“The gift of John Redpath Esq. Montreal
To his Native Town of Earlstoun. A.D. 1869” 

 The Plaque mounted on the clock mechanism

John Redpath did an immense amount of philanthropic work in Canada, but it is only in Earlston that there is an hourly reminder of that good work

Sources: 

• The Lowland Clearances, by Peter Aitchison and Andrew Cassell. 
• Gentleman of Substance:  The Life and Legacy of John Redpath (1796-1869) by Richard Feltoe.   Natural Heritage, Toronto. 
• Redpath:  The History of a Sugar House.  Natural Heritage, Toronto. 1991.
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography Volume I.
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography Volume XIII.
• Scottish Agriculture Revolution - Wikipedia. 
• The Southern Reporter newspaper.
• National Archives Currency Converter. 

In Case You Missed:
An earlier blog post from 2016 focused on the life in Canada of John Redpath. 
Read it HERE.

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