Auld Earlston Show Proves a Popular Draw

Auld Earlston's  exhibition and slide show at the Church Hall has been a voted a great success. 

The exhibition theme of "The Changing Face of Earlston: 150 years of Shops & Businesses” drew a large audience throughout the two days. 

Visitors took a visual tour of the village, looking at information panels,   displaying vintage photographs of street scenes and shops, advertisements, and memories gathered from older residents.

 

 Large scale maps from 1857, 1897 and 1967 highlighted the location of shops in the different time periods.   

Drawing particular attention was the display  of the Earlston Gingham Girls Banner, carried in last year’s procession in Edinburgh to mark women gaining the vote in 1918.  

The browsing table of photographic albums again proved popular and visitors were also  asked to post on a panel, their own memories of the village. 

Throughout the event, four slide shows attracted capacity audiences who enjoyed a “Look at Earlston Then and Now”, with the slides sparking a lively discussion, continued later over tea and coffee. 

 Chairman David Lothian said "We are delighted by the many positive comments we have received and would like to thank everyone involved, who contributed material and came along on the two days to help our group keep Earlston's past alive for future generations". 

 

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Just a  week to go until our Exhibition and Slide Show 

See opening times on the poster below. 

The event's  theme this year is:

"The Changing Face of Earlston - 150 Years of Local  Shops & Businesses" 

  and features new material not previously on  display with :

• Three large scale maps of Earlston dating from  1857, 1897 and 1967,  showing the location of shops.
  
   
• An hour-long slide show with lively commentary on "Earlston "Then and Now - with new images. 
  

• A visual tour of the village  with photographs of people and places, old advertisements, shop receipts and press cuttings.

Lizzie Burrell who ran the sweet shop on the Green

• Memories and anecdotes gathered from older residents on shops and shopping in the village.
  
• The first public display in the village of the Earlston Gingham Girls' Banner, remembering Earlston's Whale sisters, the mid 19th century  gingham manufacturers.  Created by two members of Earlston SWI, the banner was carried on last year's Edinburgh  march to mark the granting of the vote to women in 1918.
  
  
  DO COME ALONG - WATCH THE SLIDE SHOW - BROWSE THE EXHIBITION - 
  CHAT TO FRIENDS  - AND ENJOY  A CUP OF TEA OR COFFEE.
  

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• AULD  EARLSTON
  Valuing the History of our Village for Future Generations
  
  
  EXHIBITION
   “THE CHANGING FACE OF EARLSTON”
  150 years of local shops & businesses.
  Photographs, Memories and Maps
  
  
  SLIDE SHOW
  “EARLSTON  - THEN AND NOW”
  
  
  Saturday June 22^nd:  10.00am-4.00pm
  Sunday June 23^rd:12.00noon-4.00pm
  in the Church Hall.
  
  
  Slide Shows:
  Saturday:  1100am & 2.00pm
  Sunday: 1.00pm &  2.30pm
  
  
  Admission £3, Children Free - incl. Tea/Coffee
  ALL WELCOME
  
  
  Tel. 01896 848240.  E-Mail: auldearlston@aol.com 
  
  
  
  
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John Spence (1789 -1852) of Thorn House, Earlston

Introduction  
John Spence (or Spense) was born in Channelkirk around 1790. John would qualify as a “writer”, the old Scottish title for a solicitor and he  lived and worked in Earlston as a writer and Clerk to the Sheriffʼs Court.

In 1820 he married Margaret Bell in Melrose. Around that time John had commissioned the building of The Thorn, one of eighteen listed buildings and monuments in Earlston Parish.

The Thorn 
"The Thorn" was completed around 1830 and Historic Environment Scotland considers the building to be of special interest since:

“The house stands on ground formerly known as Thorn Park on account of an ancient thorn which once grew there. The site is thus marked on the Ordnance Survey maps. In 1825 the land was feued to one John Spence, writer in Earlston, who subsequently built the house and other outbuildings."

"Presumably the house was designed so that Spence could conduct his business from offices entered from the W, whilst the private living quarters were entered from the S. For many years the house was owned by local doctors who operated a similar arrangement.” 

 

Thorn Street with Thorn House on the corner hidden by the  trees, c.1910 

Thorn House Today

Post Master  
In 1836, George Lindsay, Earlstonʼs Post Master died. John, who was related to Lindsay by his wifeʼs family, took on the role of Post Master.

He may have used the side entrance (W) for the post office, but by 1850, John now had premises on Earlstonʼs High Street that was officially designated as the Post Office. When John died in 1852 his wife, Margaret, took over the role of Post Mistress.  
In 1855, when the Ordnance Survey was compiling a map of the Earlston area it noted that:

"An apartment of a dwelling house is occupied as an office where letters are received and dispatched to and from Melrose daily also to Legerwood, Gordon, Fans and Redpath etc. Mrs Spense Post Mistress."

Solicitorʼs Apprentices
We know from the 1841 Census that the Spenceʼs had a John Lindsay living with them;  the grandson of George Lindsay, the previous Post Master, and the nephew of Margaret Spenceʼs family. When the 1851 Census was conducted in Melrose, John Lindsay was living with his aunt, Helen Crease, Margaret Spenceʼs sister, and his occupation was listed as Solicitors Writing Clerk.

 A James Henderson also  worked for Spence. Henderson would be implicated in a crime that shocked the nation in the 1850s in what was known as “The Bramhall Tragedy”

The Bramhall Tragedy  
The Henderson family originally lived in Galashiels before renting a farm in Gordon. James, the eldest son, was apprenticed to John Spence as a Solicitorʼs Clerk before leaving to work with Messrs. Sanderson and Murray, wool merchants.

The family moved to Hardy Farm on the Bramhall estate in Cheshire. On September 30,1857, James Henderson,   senior was murdered as he lay in his bed, shot at close range by a musket.

James junior was arrested for the murder of his father and committed for trial. He  was described by the police as being "five feet four inches tall, light complexion, hazel eyes and a deeply sunk forehead." We also know that James suffered from some form of deformity of his feet. Those that knew him described as “being a person of quiet habits, and though disposition what is called deep, not all likely person to commit such a dreadful crime as he stands charged with.” 

There was a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence that would appear to support the case against hi.  The mot damning was reported in "The Berkshire Chronicle" on Saturday October 10th 1857.  The correspondent wrote:

“The strongest evidence against the prisoner is the wadding found upon the breast of his father, on the landing, the stairs, and that found under the pear tree, where he shot a sparrow Tuesday morning, the morning before the murder was committed - all of which have been torn from a page of “The Cottage Girl", or "The Marriage Day.” A piece of paper corresponding to the wadding and evidently forming part of the same leaf, was also found in the prisonerʼs chamber service, under his bed.”

Regardless of the strength of evidence presented in court, the jury acquitted James of the charges.

Perhaps the time served as John Spenceʼs apprentice was time well spent!

Legacy  
Spence chose Thorn Park to build his house, The Thorn, which is a lasting reminder of one of the predictions of Thomas the Rhymer, Earlston's 13th century poet and prophet

"This Thorn-Tree, as lang as it stands, Earlstoun sall possess a' her lands."  
or
"As long as the Thorn Tree stands / Ercildoune shall keep its lands".

Robert Chambers, the  nineteenth century publisher, claimed that the “Thorn Tree” as one that was uprooted in a storm in either 1814 or 1821, that had been growing on the last remaining acre belonging to the town of Earlston. The prophecy was lent additional weight at the time, because as it so happened, the merchants of the town had fallen under bankruptcy by a series of "unfortunate circumstances".

According to one account, "Rhymer's Thorn" was a huge tree growing in the garden of the Black Bull Inn, whose proprietor, named Thin*, had its roots cut all around, leaving it vulnerable to the storm that same year. [An 1825 trade and business directory identified William Phin as one of Earlstonʼs inn-keepers.]
 
The prophecy certainly came true for the landlord of the Black Bull inn. The demise of the business is captured in the 1855 Ordnance Survey Name book with the description “A house of entertainment formerly having a licence but having lost the licence. It is used as an Eating House.” 

Death  
John Spence died in Melrose on December 19, 1852. His wife, Margaret, died of acute bronchitis on December 29, 1859. She is buried in Earlston churchyard.

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 Postscript 
The newly formed “Earlston in Bloom” has adopted as its logo the Thorn Flower in recognition of its significance to the village.

With grateful thanks to Jeff Price of the Auld Earlston Group 

for researching and writing this article. 

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Headlines on Earlston

Old newspapers make fascinating reading for anyone interested in local history, as they  reflect life,  in all its aspect, as it was at the time.  Here are some random snippets on Earlston from the local press.

• NEW COACH EDINBURGH TO JEDBURGH VIA EARLSTON  
  Calling at Pathhead, Carfrae Mill, Lauder, Earlston, Leaderfoot.
  To Jedburgh In Five Hours. 
  Fares to Jedburgh only 5 shillings outside;  6 shillings inside.
  Caledonian Mercury:  29th September 1843
  
  
  FIRST CAR SIGHTED ON EARLSTON HIGH STREET
  Southern Reporter: 24th March 1898
  
  

  "A motor car passed through the village on Sunday morning.  The two gentlemen who were driving it left Newcastle-on-Tyne the previous day en route for Edinburgh. In this neighbourhood one of the tyres got damaged  and it was resolved to put up at the Red Lion. 

  
  

  This was done and the  car when it reached the hotel, being stopped for a little while was quickly surrounded  and examined with no small degree of curiosity, this being the first time  such a machine  has been seen  in operation here. "

  
   A REBUKE TO THE CONGREGATION

  "The Rev. Dr. Mair, Moderate to the Established Assembly, when preaching on the Sabbath Day in Earlston Parish Church, stopped in his discourse and severely rebuked members of the Congregation, who had not being paying attention to the sermon."

  
  
  

  • 

The State of the Village was of concern, with reports on  street paving, water supplies, and street lighting.

A NEW SUPPLY OF WATER.  Berwickshire News:  7th January 1879

 

PAVING OF THE STREETS:  Berwickshire News:  17th  January 1871. 

"A Public Meeting of the inhabitants of Earlston was held in the Reading Room Hall on Wednesday evening to consider the subject of making pathways on each side of the main street. Wm.  Colesworth,   Esq. of Cowdenknowes was called to the chair. As all agreed to the necessity of these pathways and the great comfort and convenience  to have them, he hoped that the efforts to obtain them would be successful. This was carried unanimously.  Thereupon a large committee was appointed with Mr Colesworth and Charles Wilson, manufacturer as joint conveners, and Mr Balfour as Secretary who was charged with canvassing the town for subscriptions. Messrs Rodgers, Wallace, Wood and Murdison  to report on the various modes of making such pathways as would be suitable. "

ELECTRIC STREET LIGHTING A DISAPPOINTMENT - Berwickshire  News: 5th  Sept. 1933

The change from gas to electric was not welcomed, with the lamps too high, the power too weak and the lamps to far apart.

Looking towards the West End High Street, c.1910

PROFESSIONAL TRAMP NUISANCE
Robert Smith Earlston  Inspector of the Poor sent a letter to the press deploring the "Professional Tramp Nuisance"  in the village.   Berwickshire News:  22nd February 1906.

FIRST AID LECTURES - Berwickshire News:  23rd February 1893

                                     

Thank

GRAND BAZAAR Berwickshire News:  October  1910

OTHER ADVERTISEMENTS THAT CAUGHT THE EYE - Berwickshire News:  June 1919 

CHILDREN ENTERTAIN  

Southern Reporter: 6th March 1906

"Kinderspiel" was a German term often used in this period, meaning a play or piece of musical theatre performed by children.
 
EARLSTON JUNIOR TOWN BAND IN CONCERT  -  Berwickshire News: 14th January 1919 - with the  reporter waxing  eloquently in a colourful account of a school concert where:

"The finale  was the performance of Earlston Junior Clown Band, trained by Miss Gill, one of the teachers, and her pupils did her infinite credit.  This  was thought to be the crowning performance of the evening and caused a great sensation.   Their grotesque garments and equally grotesque musical  performance  made the bandsmen the heroes of the hour, the observed of all observers, the cynosure of every eye.  Their contribution to the evening  was a veritable  triumph  and was rewarded with tremendous applause."

You do wonder what their "grotesque musical performance" sounded like! 

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With grateful thanks  to Jeff Price and Richard Smith, members of the Auld Earlston Group,

for their contributions to this post.