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

Earlston Worthie - Rev. William Shillinglaw Crockett (1866-1945)

We are grateful to Jenny Cockburn of Redpath for contributing this article on the life of the Rev. William Shillinglaw Crockett - an Earlston Worthie

Introduction

On entering the old entrance to Earlston churchyard there stands a gravestone for a Reverend William Shillinglaw Crockett.  He lies buried with his parents and infant brothers with his wife close by.

For an ‘Old Worthie’,  his passing in 1945 is relatively recent. There will be those who will possibly recall his name from their childhood. However, for the rest of us he is relatively unknown.  Yet William Shillinglaw Crockett was Earlston’s very own home grown celebrity.  Google his name, and the results page is peppered with his works.  A search of newspaper archives including; national and local papers and periodicals provide us with a detailed record of his eventful life, lectures and writings.

In his time, he was described as “a distinguished litterateur and perhaps the most capable living writers on the Borders” His books were “eminently readable and adorned with all the literary power and grace”,  and to “Border themes he brought remarkable knowledge and charming style”. 

Needless to say, he was well respected for his expertise on the Borders, its lands, poetry, poets and folklore. One reports suggest that in addition to this remarkable intellect:

“ He was also genial, affable with a kindly disposition, though not without a modicum of gentle irony and dry humour”.  He liked to “hear a good story and could tell, any amusing anecdote himself, especially about some of the old worthies of Earlston in days gone by.  Although he had mixed with many great eminent persons he had no ‘side’ and was (as the old Scots saying aptly has it the same to a cadger as the king.”

Early LIfe
 Born on the 24^th June 1866 in Earlston, his father was William Crockett a Postmaster at Earlston whose family came from Galloway and his mother was Margaret Wood whose family belonged to Earlston. His grandparents Helen Shillinglaw and James Wood, having married in Redpath in 1817, appeared to have moved into Earlston sometime in the 1840s.

 In a speech celebrating the centenary of Redpath Village Hall, Crockett claimed his grandparents were among the founders who built the school there. He also reported that his great grandfather George Shillinglaw, a nurseryman from Redpath supplied Walter Scott with many saplings which he grew in Abbotsford, and that Joseph Shillinglaw (his great uncle) was a cabinet maker who was a constant visitor to his friend Walter Scott in Abbotsford.

Earlston was Crockett’s hometown. Sadly, in 1872 his father, died at the young age of 54, when William was 6 years old. Yet when describing his early years in Earlston, William Crockett always appeared upbeat, expressing the “love of visiting the scenes of [his] happy childhood and schooldays’.   His mother Margaret had a Grocers shop in the High Street. William Crockett was to be her only surviving son and she appeared keen to support his education. He attended the old Earlston Parish school where, his teacher was Daniel Aitkenhead. He was so fond of his teacher that they remained good friends throughout their lives until Daniel's death in 1922.  

After school,  Crockett became an apprentice to a local chemist. However, it is understood that “he did not take kindly to the pestle and mortar” (Berwickshire News)  and after qualifying,  he made the decision that being a chemist was not for him.  He therefore chose to ‘swap drugs with divinity’ and became a minister.  His mother supported him with this decision and he entered Edinburgh University to study. 

Fifteen months after he was ordained he was elected as Tweedsmuir minister for the Church of Scotland in 1894 where he remained for 50 years, celebrating his jubilee year just the year before his death.

An Author and Lecturer

In 1893 the young newly qualified Crocket wrote his first book “The Minstrelsy’s of the Merse”.  This book was a collection of verses from poets and lyricists  who were born or lived in the Berwickshire area. Crockett was able to use his expertise on their lives to provide the reader with biographies as well as their  works. The book was a hit, apparently favourably reviewed in over 50 newspapers including leading journals.

During this success in 1894 he married Mary Ross:

“What she was to her husband everyone was aware of. She was his eyes, his hands his feet, at occasions when some overstrain cast him into the depths.  She looked over his proof sheets advising or suggesting what her own wise virile perceptive mentality considered should be left out or at least refurbished.” (Scotsman Obituary,  1945)

Crockett continued to write titles including A Berwickshire Bard (1897) The Scott Country (1902,  The English and Scottish Border (1905), In the Border country (1906),  The Scott Originals (1912), In Praise of the Tweed (1899) and Lays from Leaderside (1928).  As well as this,  he was involved in writing articles for newspapers -  the Scotsman, Berwickshire News, and periodicals such as the Berwickshire Naturalist. 

In addition to his written work,  Crockett was a powerful speaker and he made a lecturing tours of the United States and Canada. During the First World War,  he preached and lectured to troops in France and in 1929 accompanied by his wife he made extensive tours of the Middle East and Europe. 

  Part of a lengthy report in the Berwickshire News on a talk 

the Rev. Crockett gave in Earlston on  9th April 1918. 

Newspaper cuttings towards the end of his years suggest that the Crocketts enjoyed many holidays and visits to Earlston and indeed it was reported that he bought a house in Thorn Street to retire to.  The couple appeared at many social events and William continued with his lectures and speeches around the Borders.

Later Life
In 1944 William  celebrated his Jubilee year as the Minister of Tweedsmuir. However in January of that year Mary his wife passed away. William died the next year, the day after his 79^th Birthday on the 25th June 1945 and was buried in Earlston alongside his wife, mother and father.

 Earlston Parish Church - Rev. William Crockett's burial place.

In the preface of Crockett's "Minstrelsy of the Merse", Blackie writes that:

“The name Burns occupies such a prominent position in Scottish song that persons are apt to speak of him as the creator of the lyrical art of his country………Nothing could be a greater mistake.  He was the biggest tree in the forest; but not the only tree he was not the forest and did not make the forest, the forest rather made him."

Crockett introduces us to the lyrical forest in 

Earlston, Berwickshire and the Borders.  

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Sources:
Information taken from The Berwickshire News, The  Southern Reporter and The Scotsman newspapers.

 

 In case you missed previous Auld Earlston blog posts on William Crockett:

• Memories of Earlston People and Places , by the Rev. William Crockett.
• More Memories of Earlston People and Places, by the Rev. William Crockett.
  
  

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An Earlston Worthy - John Newton (1822-1893) of the Red Lion.

John Newton was a well-known figure in Earlston  in the late 19th century.  as the  man for over 30 years  behind the Red Lion Hotel in Earlston.  Newspaper reports give us a picture of his personality and contribution to life  in the village. 

An obituary, written in the  effusive and wordy journalistic style of the time,  appeared in  "The Southern Reporter " of 18th November  1893: 

"John Newton came to Earlston  from Melrose and he succeeded the late Mr. James Shiels.  The  Berwickshire Railway   came to Earlston [in 1863]  which  tended to enliven the quiet little town and gave an  impetus   to the  business of the place.

Mr Newton was well fitted for his post and he was able assisted  by his help-meet,  the late Mrs. Newton, who was deservedly popular and highly esteemed for her large-hearted charity and kindly disposition.

Under their united skilful management, the Earlston hotel took a position in the estimation of the public  almost unequalled by any similar house in this part of the country. 

Mr Newton bore a high character for honesty and integrity and his good name was never sullied by any of those failings and frailties,    which are commonly supposed to be the heritage of a landlord of a country inn and which,   at least not seldom,   mark the course of the man whose occupant of a country inn, exposes himself to many temptations.

Besides the hotel,  Mr. Newton also held the tenancy of a small farm on the Mellerstain estate of the Earl of Haddington."

A few years before his death, on March 27th 1889, John Newton was entertained to a public dinner and presented with an illuminated address "as a mark of the esteem in which he was held by his  community".  

"The Berwickshire News" of 2nd April 1889 reported:  

After lengthy "loyal and patriotic toasts", readings and songs, the chairman Mr Dunn concluded:

"During your long residence in Earlston, you have earned for yourself the character of being an upright, honest and exemplary man, diligent in business, kindly in disposition, sincere and warm-hearted as a friend."

The certificate was recently returned to  the Red Lion,
by Australian descendants of John Newton.

Postscript: 

The Newcastle  Daily Chronicle, along with local  newspapers,  advertised in December 1893 and May 1894 the sale by public roup [auction] of John Newton's estate which included: :

"Six horses and cobs, a milk cow, 1000 stones of clover and ryegrass hay, 1 landau, 1 brake, 2 wagons,  1 chapel cart, 2 luggage barrows, harnesses and stable utensils, and horse clothing.

Farm implements incl.  carts, wagons and a turnip sowing machine.

The whole of the hotel furnishings incl dining tables, parlour tables,  sofas,  couches, curtains, whatnots, time-pieces, cabinets, mirrors, and carpets.  

French and canopy bedsteads, bedding, blankets, carpets, basin stands, dressing tables, fenders and fire-irons,

Kitchen and scullery utensil. crockery,  dinner sets, crystal,
electro-plated spoons and forks,

Terms - Ready Money.

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 A crowded wagonette outside the Red Lion, 

as the Church Choir set off on their annual outing, in 1907.

Sources:  

• British Newspapers:  1710-1963 on Find My Past website
• British Newspaper Archive
• Auld Earlston Collections
  

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Looking Back to Earlston in the 1950s

Earlston's more recent past is the focus of this article  with a look at what topics  were making the headlines in the local press. Some issues  still sound familiar today, with items ranging  from concerns on the state of roads, and  a village hall venue,  to housing in the village, and leisure activities.

ROADWAY AT THE GREEN

 "A Petition on the State of the roadway bordering the Green  was considered at the Berwickshire West District Meeting  with the  claim that:

"The road was in a disgraceful condition and the state of the drainage was disgusting. It was suggested that the balance of   £230 in the  Wallace Trust* could be used."  (Berwickshire News:  31st January 1950)

VILLAGE HALL FOR EARLSTON  
 The Berwickshire West District  Committee also discussed:

"The acquisition of a village hall for Earlston   as there were two church halls for sale.  It was left to local members of the committee to see if  the inhabitants would  raise funds to buy one". (Berwickshire News:  31st January 1950)

GAS SUPPLIES  - Berwickshire News:  4 January 1950

 

  
     

ANIMALS WOULD NOT LIVE UNDER THESE EARLSTON CONDITIONS
 This was the claim at a meeting of BerwickshIre Health Committee, with the housing of agricultural workers the focus of this discussion.

" People are being denied the essentials of life such as water".
(Berwickshire News:  31 January 1950)

EARLSTON HOUSING APPALLING 
The housing issue remained a key topic of concern at council meetings  with the comment:

"The housing situation is most acute.   There are 390 houses in Earlston and 230 workers coming into the village every day to work with the desire to live here.  18 houses are only one room, sublet to a families;  57 have two rooms sublet and 28 homes are overcrowded.  16 families are living in caravans  ............It was proposed a site be selected with a plan for the development of 50 houses."  (Berwickshire News: 16th May 1950)

A HANDYMAN FOR EARLSTON - 
At the same meeting, it was suggested that in the more populous villages, including Earlston:

"A handyman be employed  - his duties to include street cleaning etc , burial grounds, water,  lighting, drainage and public conveniences. he scheme was agreed on in principle."  (Berwickshire News:  31st January 1950)

GEORGEFIELD EGG PACKING STATION ADVERT: 

Advertisement in the Berwick Advertiser:25th July 1957

 Below:  Two photographs of the workers c.1950s - from the Auld Earlston Collection

 SUNDAY SCHOOL OUTING

 Berwickshire News:  28th June 1958.

"Six  buses conveyed to Spittal 150 children from Sunday Schools at Earlston, Redpath, Fans, and Mellerstain, together with 100 adults.  A "Tide Fight" was held at Spittal  along with paddling, races and a sandcastle competition.  The outing  was favoured with brilliant sunshine."

 EARL OPENS WEST GREEN GARDEN 

"There was a large attendance at the West Green Garden for its official opening by the Earl of Haddington, accompanied by the Countess of Haddington. .......All this had been made possible by the generosity of a very kind benefactor Miss Wallace,* who had left a fund to make Earlston a pleasant to live in.  Grateful thanks were also extended to Lord Haddingon for the gift of the land." (Berwickshire News:  4th August 1953)

 The small stone plaque (across from the War Memorial)

acknowledging Isabella Wallace's * generosity 

 Other newspaper editions of  the  decade abound with reports on leisure activities -   Corn Exchange concerts and dances, rugby and football matches, the Bowling Club, and Tennis Club, etc., plus groups that  we no longer hear about such as the:

• Weekly Whist Drive Club
• Earlston  Budgerigar Society
• Earlston Ornithological Society
• Earlston and District Ambulance Association

 

Tennis Club Dance, held in St. John's Church Hall, 1959. 

And Finally:
A CINEMA ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE 1950S.

 

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NOTE
*  the references to the Wallace Fund and to Miss Isabella Wallace:

Isabella Wallace (c.1854-1920) was the unmarried daughter of John Wallace, joiner.  In her will she left money to Earlston Parish Council for   "For the purpose of improving the amenities of the Town of Earlston including footpaths, paving,  and lighting, and similar objects". 

She never forgot that in 1874 a devastating fire had destroyed the family home and bushiness.  But the Earlston community rallied round and gave generously to support the family and enable her father to resume his business.   Isabella Wallace  repaid   this generosity through her will, to become "Earlston's Friend and Benefactor".

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