Earlston Rugby Football Club in Times Past

Earlston Rugby Club is the focus here in our new  series looking at 

Local Clubs and Societies

Its History
The Club is thought to have been formed in the 1870s by two Yorkshiremen who were installing machinery in the local woollen mill.  

One  of their first games was against Kelso in 1876,   the result being a draw. On 7 March 1879, Earlston played Kelso  in one of the first matches staged under electric floodlights. The Club also played in the first Melrose Sevens  in 1883. 

Earlston Rugby Football Team, 1876

In the early years the Club's pitch was located at the Georgefield Road close to where the school pitches are today. In 1921 the present pitch at the Haugh  was leased from A. Brownlie, Timber Merchants. Two years later the first Clubhouse was erected. 

During the Second World War,  the rugby pitch and clubhouse were requisitioned by the military.  One third of the pitch was dug out and concrete laid to make a "hull down" park for the tanks of the Polish Division stationed in the area,  preparing for D. Day. 

In  1968 the clubhouse was extended  with further major work carried out in 1988

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Earlston Rugby Football Team, 1932 

Press Reports from:   Southern Reporter, 22^nd August  1935

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

At the annual general meeting ol Earlston Rugby Club Mr John Weatherston (president) occupied the chair. The treasurer submitted a financial statement for the past season, which showed a credit balance of £5 7s 1d- The office -bearers elected were : President, Mr John Weatherston; vice-president, Mr R. Geggie;  secretary, Mr D. W. Denham; treasurer, Mr G. D. White; captain, D. D Fleming;       vice-captain, D. W Denham.  Messrs J. L. Turnbull and J. W. Tail, the retiring secretary and treasurer, were cordially thanked for their excellent services to the Club for several years.  Mr John Rutherford, who retired from the Committee, was also thanked for services rendered.

A HANDSOME SILVER CUP

Patrons and friends, including Earlstonians abroad, have generously subscribed a substantial amount to a fund which will enable the Club to purchase a handsome silver cup for competition at their annual September seven-a-side sports. It was decided to name the cup Earlston Rugby Football Challenge Cup, and that it would be competed for on September 7th for the first time.

Press Report From:  Berwickshire News:  2^nd October 1951

MATCH PLAYED SATURDAY 2ND SEPTEMBER 1951: 

EARLSTON 8, KIRKCALDY 6

"Earlston Rugby XV had Kirkcaldy as visitors to Earlston. Earlston attacked early on but Clark, Kirkcaldy full back, brought relief with long kick to touch. L. Wilson, Earlston centre, made a great break through, but knocked-on. McLeod, Kirkcaldy half, sent his threes away but Weatherley, Earlston full back, made a great tackle and prevented a score. Kirkcaldy were awarded a free kick and Hamblin, narrowly missed. After a great run Falconer was crash-tackled near the line.

Earlston continued to press and Clark fielding a long ball was nearing Earlston line when he made an effort to pass J. Cowe, who, however, grassed him. Earlston forwards broke away, ably led by G. Wilson, hooker and captain of the team, from a loose rush R. Bell scored. Reid goaled from an easy position, shortly before the half-time whistle blew.

On resuming, Kirkcaldy attacked and from a scrum the ball went to Hamblin, who raced over to score.  The same player failed to convert.   Earlston defence were under pressure for a time, but L. Wilson and J. Weatherly brought relief with good touch kicking. J. Rutherford, Earlston winger, broke away and was going all out for the line, but Clark tackled him.  Earlston threequarters again attacked, but Clark again averted a score.  Reid, the drop goal opportunist, dropped a lovely goal for Earlston.  Nearing full time Kirkcaldy scored another try through McLeod.  Hamblin failed with the kick from an easy position. 

Result: Earlston. one goal, one dropped goal (8 points); Kirkcaldy, two tries (6 points).

Earlston team was: —J. Weatherly; J. Rutherford, W. Falconer. L. Wilson, and A. Dickinson: E. Reid and M. Whiteford; R. Bell, G. Wilson, J. Cowe, W. Kerr, J. Wilson, W. Sheridan, D. Mundell, and R. McQuillin."

Earlston Rugby Football Team 1960

Earlston Rugby Football Team at Biggar 1984 after winning a League title. 

Sources

• Earlston Rugby Club on Wikipedia
• Earlston Rugby Club on Facebook
• British Newspaper Archive 
• Photographs from Auld Earlston Collection  
  

    Contributors:  James McQuillin and Susan Donaldson of the Auld Earlston Group. 

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Earlston Orchestral Party

Did you know that Earlston once had its own orchestra - 

known as the Earlston Orchestral Party?

"Earlston Clubs and Societies" was the intended theme of our 2020 exhibition - postponed  of course because of the Corona Virus.  Earlston Orchestral Party was  just one of these groups that residents could enjoy in times past.

So here as a taster for hopefully  next year,  when we will be featuring  items on all kinds of local organisations - sporting, social, youth, musical, dramatic, educational etc.  - including  some you may never have heard of.

Earlston Orchestra in Concert, 1898

The earliest reference found in the local press to the Orchestral Party (sometimes called Orchestral Society) was in “The Southern Reporter“: 28th October 1886. The occasion was a concert and dance, organised by Earlston Street Lighting Committee to raise funds to provide winter street lighting in the village. After the concert part of the evening, dancing 

 Southern Reporter:  28th October 1886

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, local newspapers regularly reported on the activities of the orchestra.  Chief conductor was Mr. Samuel Fisher, with Miss May Smith and Miss Betty Kerr taking on the role as deputies.
 
1902 – At the church choir social evening, “The Orchestral Party discoursed excellent music throughout the evening, which was spent in singing, reciting and dancing." "(Berwickshire News: 4th March 1902. 

1903 - The Southern Reporter: 23rd April referred to a presentation of a handsome silver mounted ebony walking stick, suitably inscribed,  made to Mr. Bertie Smith on his moving away from the village. He was 

“made the recipient of a handsome gift from the Earlston Orchestral Society of which he had been a member since its inception and in appreciation of his services as Orchestral Accompanist.”

1906 - The Berwickshire News:  17th July gave a fulsome report on another presentation to a founder member, when Samuel Fisher, conductor,  entertained members of the society to tea, after which   a presentation was made of a silver cake basket  to Miss Ethel S. Younger on the occasion of her forthcoming marriage. Mr Fisher referred to her:

"great musical gifts, zeal and enthusiasm for her studies as a violinist and the valuable support she had always given the orchestra in their public engagements, in which she uniformly acquitted herself with the utmost credit".

 
During the First World War, the Orchestral Party was a regular participant in fund raising concerts, held to provide Christmas gifts to serving soldiers; to assist the War Relief Fund; and for the War Comforts Fund under the banner “Under the Flag of Britain” in a programme of patriotic music, with the plaudits:

“The Earlston Orchestra gained fresh laurels from the high standard of excellence reached by its members”. (Berwickshire News: 7th December 1915)

The 1920s marked a busy time for the orchestra. Events included playing  at Carolside in aid of the Scottish War Memorial Church [at Edinburgh Castle]; at a major two-day Masonic Bazaar;  and at Earlston Horticultural Show where the:
 "The pleasure 

During the decade, other performances were given at a Golf Club gift sale;   a concert at the Earlston Lodge of Good Templars;  a WRI sale of work where the orchestral played "in a tasteful and effective style"; at a lecture on "A Month in Sunny Italy" held at Ercildoune Church Young Men's Club,  and at a Kinderspiel (children's play) to raise money for the  children's excursion fund.

 

A Kinderspiel Concert in Earlston  - undated. 

In the 1930s only two appearances of the orchestra were noted in the local press - in a concert with Earlston Dramatic Society and at a concert in aid of the  church hall renovation. 

Conductor Samuel Fisher died 8th May 1938 aged 75, buried in Earlston Churchyard.

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POSTSCRIPT
An obituary paid tribute to Mr Adam Hewitt as “one of the prime movers and founders, along with the late Mr. Samuel Fisher of Earlston Orchestral Society, now alas!  defunct.” (The Southern Reporter: 29th May 1941).


In the same year, an obituary of Mr David Hogg, a handloom weaver, noted that “he was the last of the original founders of Earlston Orchestral Party among whom he played the double bass for a long period" (The Berwickshire News: 2nd. September 1941). 

But with the death of Samuel Fisher, 

 this once showcase of Earlston musical talent appeared to come to an end. 

SOURCE

British Newspapers 1710-1963 on FindMyPast

Contributor:  Susan Donaldson of the Auld Earlston Group  

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Five Years of the Auld Earlston Blog

Working lives, shops & shopping, leisure activities, clubs & societies, building,  events,  travel & transport,  war & remembrance,   emigrants, local people who have made their mark in some way, newspaper headlines, personal memories,   and Earlston down the decades from the 1790's to the 1950's. 

These are  all topics that have featured on the Auld Earlston blog, first launched five years ago to provide a written record on all aspects of the village's past.                 

Facts and Figures
In the five years,  165 posts have been published  and  the blog has received a total of  115,680 page views, with readers, predictably from:

• USA 
•  UK
• Ireland
• Australia
• Canada
• Rest of Europe

     Take a look back at some of the most popular articles over the years:

  
Top Five Posts Ever 

• Earlston Reading Room - Its  Past and its Future  
  
  
  Enjoying a break in the  Reading Room, 1960s.
  
• Earlston on Parade  - A look back at Civic Weeks and and other events
  
  
  Having Fun!
  
  
  
• Earlston's Posties of the Past
  
  Postie James McQuillin - late 19th century
  
• A Look at Earlston during the Second World War 
  
  Earlston Munition Workers
  
  
•  Earlston Railway Cuttings - Celebrating the First Sod

  
  Earlston Station

     

Top  Six Posts of the Past Year

• Earlston Shops & Shopkeepers in Times Past 
• 200 Years of Earlston Post Office 
• How Earlston got Its Name
• Sir Thomas Learmonth of Ercildoune - Thomas the Rhymer
• Looking Back to Earlston in the 1950s
• Earlston in the Headlines   A New Year Mill Festival and other Events        

 Thank you to all our readers for your continued interest and support.

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We would very much like to include  more items from  readers.

Have you come across an interesting story from the past?  
 Why not share memories of  more recent times  with others? 

Contributions are welcome from snippets, to short articles

 (approx. 200 to 1200 words in length)

We can add relevant photographs from our collection. 

Contact us at:     auldearlston@aol.com 

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A Look Back at VE Day in Earlston - 7th May 1945

Seventy five years ago, in the early hours of May 7th, 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies at their headquarters in Rheims,  thus bringing an end to the war in Europe. Later that day, the UK Government declared May 8th a national holiday which was to be known as VE Day or Victory in Europe Day.

In Earlston, and with little time to plan or prepare, the High Street and Square were decked out with flags and bunting. Shops and businesses closed and children were given two days off school.

In the afternoon, those with access to a wireless tuned in to the BBC and listened to Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, give an address to nation. The following day, people would again gather round the radio to listen to King George VI, when he broadcast to “the peoples of the British Empire and Commonwealth”.

Many newspapers published VE-Day Souvenir issues. The Berwick Journal and Northumberland News managed to get its VE-Day edition on the streets by one o’clock that afternoon. The paper carried photographs of the local men who had been killed in action, the names of the wounded and prisoners-of-war, the details on the various air raids that had occurred in the area including the names of the twenty-five civilians who had been killed.

In the evening a short intercessory service of thanks giving was held in Ercildoune Church, conducted by Reverends Wylie and Gray. After the service, a bonfire was lit on the East Green.

Compared to the celebrations held to mark the end of World War One, these events were low key. In 1919, a Peace Celebration was held with a picnic for all villagers in the gardens at Cowdenknowes. The picnickers could cross the footbridge over the Leader river to where a family sports day had been organised in a field at Sorrowlessfield Farm. In the evening fireworks were set off from the Black Hill where a beacon was lit.

However, in May 1945 the UK and its Allies were still at war with Japan. Rationing of food, clothes and other essentials remained in force; military personnel who had been fighting in Europe were still liable to be sent to the war effort in the Far East, and sadly, there were still weekly casualty reports published in the newspapers. 

The government, fearing attacks by U-boats, maintained the Coastal Lighting Ban keeping black-out conditions in towns and villages along the coast. But at least the War Department censors had lifted the prohibition on publishing weather forecasts. Earlston, residents were told, they could look forward to light to moderate south-easterly winds with  occasional thundery rain or thunder storms and the temperature was to be warm. In any event, it rained.

On Wednesday evening a dance was held in the large hall of the Corn Exchange. The music was provided by musicians from the Polish army. The Polish Lancers were stationed in Earlston and in appreciation to the hospitality they had enjoyed presented the villagers with a Polish “Flash,” mounted and inscribed, to hang in the Reading Room. Lieutenant Kaysta made the presentation on behalf of the Commanding Officer. The Flash, which is in the colours of the Polish insignia of red and white and a gold stripe was suitably inscribed and was and mounted on black velvet by Mr A. W. Kerr, joiner and member of the Reading Room Committee. When the Lancers and their tanks arrived in the village, the tanks were parked on the rugby pitch which had been concreted over to stop the ground turning into a quagmire. Home games had to be played in Galashiels. Now Earlston Rugby Club could look forward to hosting games at its own ground.

 

Polish tanks in the Square - note the two little boys giving them a close look. 

                          The Polish wartime dance band

The dance presented the Earlston Girl’s Training Corps with the opportunity to raise money for the “Welcome Home Fund” and £35 was donated on the night. Along with the returning service personnel, an estimated 90,000 British prisoners-or-war held in Europe would be returning to the UK.

One such PoW was David Fleming who lived at Roosevelt Place in the village. David was a sapper in the Royal Engineers who had been taken prisoner in Crete in 1941. He had been held captive at Stalag 18A, Wolfsberg, a camp in Austria, until it was liberated by the Allies. David had previously been reported missing,  so although  he  arrived in Earlston a week after VE-Day, there was still cause for celebration.

The school children would have a double cause for celebration come August 1945 when the war with Japan ended. The Children’s Victory Trip Committee, headed by Mrs Campbell, the village doctor’s wife, and assisted by Mesdames Allan, Boyd, Redpath, Mercer, Frater, Sanderson, Kerr, Patterson, Cree, Amos, Semple, Syme, Hewitt and Herd, organised a trip to the seaside town of Spittal for all the school children (190 children travelled to Spittal), an event that would be held annually for decades to come under the auspices of the Church Sunday School and known as “the Spittal Trip”. The committee wound up its business in September 1945 and the remaining funds were donated to the Drygrange Children’s Hospital.

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With thanks to Auld Earlston member Jeff Price
for writing this article.  

Auld Earlson welcomes from its readers contributions of
short articles (approx. 300 to 1000 words in length)
on any aspect of Earlston's past.

Please contact:   auldearlston@aol.com 

Earlston in March in Times Past

What was making the news in Earlston  in 100, 150 and 175 years ago?  Below are some items from the local press - and beyond.  They make interesting reading, not just  for the content,  but also for the wordy style of journalism - quite a contrast to today's punchy press. They also are important in giving us  a picture of life at the time, as written at the time.

So read on about the cow that entered a watchmaker's shop; the sow who escaped to the roof, the entertainment on offer at the Corn Exchange; the popularity of penny readings and a ball organised by "the gentler sex", plus concerns at dancing being introduced  at the Hiring Fair.

100 YEARS AGO IN 1920

Local residents enjoyed:

• "A Ball, organised and conducted  under the  auspices of the gentler sex came off with brilliant success on Wednesday night in Earlston Corn Exchange. There were 50 couples in attendance and the dancing went on from 8.30pm to 3.30am  to the  music of Galashiels Town Band.  The MCs were Miss Lochhead, Mrs McNair, Mrs Jane Kerr and Mrs J. MacDonald".   (Berwickshire News:  2nd March 1920) .

You had to wonder how many of the dancers had to be up early for work the next morning! 

• "Mr. Andrew Letta and his concert party gave an entertainment in Earlston Corn Exchange on Thursday evening. The programme consisted of conjuring, a ventriloquist,  and singing, with the  Joy Jumblers  giving a new and humourous jumble of harmonious snapshots  including songs, standard and popular musical interpretations, duets, trios and quartettes,  besides Letta's new age programmes of mystery and mirth".(Berwickshire News:  2nd March 1920) .

• "The first of five lectures on gardening, was given by Mr, Stuart of Edinburgh and East Scotland College of Agriculture.  The subject was digging and manuring of the garden ground, with Mr Stuart illustrating his remarks with blackboard sketches which contributed much to the perfect comprehension of the instruction." (Berwickshire News:  2nd March 1920)

• "The choir of Earlston United Free Church held its annual social in the Corn Exchange Hall.  Dancing commenced about 8pm  to the fine music of Miss Ruth Wallace (violin), Mr Henry Wallace (piano) and Mr Adam Hewitt (cornet) .  An excellent tea was served by the ladies and thereafter dancing  was resumed and carried on with zest until about 2.30am."

 The Corn Exchange, prior to 1920. when the pump well on the right was demolished to make way for the War Memorial.

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150 YEARS AGO IN 1870 

A spate of animal stories made the news in this year: 

• The Strange Adventure of a Cow:  
  The Southern Reporter:  3rd March 1870 recounted  a story when "A cow entered  the shop of Mr Dryden, watchmaker,  and first of all took a survey of the fancy stock.......

• A week later it was a sow that made the headlines in The Southern Reporter:   10th March 1870:
  

  "EARLSTON. Strange Adventure.- -One day last week the dwellers in New Street were started by the cry of "A sow on the house-top!"

    This story was picked up by the Chester Chronicle of 19th March  1879 and The The Staffordshire Advertiser:  26th March 1870 with:
  

  "An amusing episode occurred in Earlston,  when a sow found herself cribbed, cabined, and confined and made her escape onto the roof".

  You cannot help wondering   - was this just one animal incident, where the details changed in the retelling!

• Dancing at the Hiring Fair?
  
  Hiring Fairs, held in the Market Square,  were important events where farm  workers would gather to bargain with prospective farmers for work, and hopefully secure a position for the following 6-12 months.  Hiring Fairs were also social occasions with a rare opportunity for friends and family to meet and enjoy side shows and stalls.  
  
   
  However The Southern Reporter:  26th March 1870 expressed the concern by  some parties at the introduction of dancing in the Corn Exchange on the day of the  Hiring Fair, with:

"A diversity of opinion prevailed as to the propriety of letting the hall for this purpose, but there is no doubt, if it had  not been for the dancing, there would have been more drunkenness and the whole affair seemed to be under judicious management  and conducted throughout with peace and order."


               

Earlston Hiring Fair, 1909

• An Evening of Penny Readings was reported in The Berwickshire News:  8th March 1870.

"A crowded Corn Exchange Hall enjoyed the fourth of a series of Penny Readings  where a lengthy but select programme of readings, songs and recitations were gone through in a most admirable and pleasing  manner ........ This was one of the most successful meetings of its kind to be held in the Corn Exchange."

• The new village clock featured in The Scotsman:  1st March 1845.
  
  
  
   

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175 years ago in 1845 

The references to Earlston in March 1845  all featured clothing advertisements which included "beautiful Earlston Ginghams".  These appeared in The Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh), The Scotsman,  and The Witness (Edinburgh) - and further afield  in The Wolverhampton  Chronicle. 

 

The Scotsman:  26th March 1845. 

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Sources: 

• British Newspapers Online 1710-1963
• British Newspaper Archive