Wednesday, 1 November 2023

What's in a name?


Suppose road signs had been compulsory over the centuries. In that case, these names would have appeared instead of Earlston - Earlstoun, Earlstown, Earls Town, Ercildoune, Ersilton and Ercheldun. And just to be inclusive, the perhaps the sign should incorporate the Gaelic for Earlston - Dùn Airchill. 

So what’s in a name?

If you grew up in Earlston in the 1950s and 1960s, chances are you called 'the burn' the Trufford burn. 


Now it's called the Turfford. 


Has the name been changed, or was the wrong name used before?


This newspaper clipping dated 1896 shows that the burn was known as the Trufford. Yet forty years before the newspaper notice, a map of the area shows the name 'Turfford'.


Credit: Southern Reporter 1896

Some old documents claim that Turfford's name came from an area of ground close to the burn that the owner of Cowdenknowes allowed villagers to cut turfs to use as fuel for their fires. This was before the Midlothian coal fields and transport links provided a coal supply. The peat bog was subsequently drained during the construction of the railway.


Cowdenknowes was known as Coldaned Knolls. In a charter to Mungo Home, King James IV refers to 'the mains of Ersilton called Coldaned Knolls with fortalice and manor thereon.' As recently as 1889, Cowdenknowes was referred to as Cowden Knowles.

The Earl of Dunbar, who owned much of the land around the village, got into a dispute with the monks from Melrose who worked their farm at the Grange. The Earl tried to move them off the land. But the church was too powerful, so he gifted the monks with 'the whole arable land called Sorouelesfeld on the west side of the Leader, towards the Grange of the aforesaid monks as fully as William Soroueles held it.' Sorouelesfeld is now known as ‘Sorrowlessfield Farm’.

Farms feature in street names in Earlston - Huntshaw, Summerfield, and Georgefield are all local farms.
 
Farm fields are given to street names. The 'Gun' is an oddly shaped field that looks like a rifle with its butt towards Huntshaw and its barrel extending towards the village. The Gun has lent its name to several streets. To the west of the 'Gun', an adjacent field lay in the crook formed by the High Street and Thorn Street, giving its name, Westfield, to several streets built there.

Credit: Ordnance Survey 1857



Streets prefixed 'Thorn' refer to the ancient thorn that grew close to where the Black Bull stands.


'As long as the Thorn Tree stands, Ercildourne shall keep its lands'.This was the first of several prophecies attributed to Thomas the Rhymer collected by Robert Chambers, who identified the tree in question as one that fell in a storm in either 1814 or 1821, presumably on the about the last remaining acre belonging to Earlston. The prophecy was lent additional weight at the time because, as it so happened, the town merchants had fallen under bankruptcy due to 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.


Some streets have been named after their destination - Church Street, Station Road, Mill Road and Haugh Head Road.


Three streets are named after historical events. Queensway and Crown Crescent mark the succession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne. And Everest Road commemorates conquering Mount Everest.


A few streets are named after people. Hope Knowe nods to the Hope family that once lived at Cowdenknowes. Roger's Place, William Bank and Jane Field are named after family members of the builders, Rogers. Roosevelt Place refers to Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the USA. The houses were built by stonemason John Mercer and were completed in 1910, the year after Roosevelt left office. The connection to Roosevelt could be more apparent. However, John Mercer's brothers, George, Andrew and James, had emigrated to America. The brothers settled in Hackensack, where George became a successful businessman in Lodi, the postmaster for several years and the mayor. The block of houses may have been named after the former president to acknowledge the Mercer family's fortunes in America.

Portrait of George Mercer
George Mercer
Credit: Auld Earlston Collection


The derivation of Halcombe Crescent is controversial. One school of thought is that the name is derived from 'Hawk Kaim', a low hill on the south side of the Turfford where it is thought that the Earl of Dunbar had his hawking house. But it also appears in an earlier  document from 1484. 
This was an agreement between Earl of Angus and Alexander Home to purchase twenty pounds worth of land of Ersilton, namely 'the mains of Ersilton with its pertinent, the 'lang akers' for £2, Carelside for £1, the 'Thowlescrouk' for £1 the 'hal orchard' which is called the manor of the same, the mains with Cowdenknowes for £6, the five husbandlands next to and on the east side of the manor for £5 (a husbandland is about 26 acres or 10.5 hectares) Philipston, Fawlo, and Willestroder meadow for £5, all in the lord ship of Earlston and Sheriffdom of Berwick' dated Edinburgh 11 October 1484.
Since a 'combe' is the name given to a wooded valley, Halcombe may be the 'hal orchard' mentioned above. Indeed, a recent visit to the Redpath road showed an excellent crop of apples in the woods just next to Halcombe Crescent!  

Halcombe Crescent showing apple trees
Credit: Author


Like the Turfford burn, the name of the Kidgate has changed over the years. Readers may remember the lane was called 'Kirkgate', but according to the Berwickshire OS Name Book of 1856-1858, Kidgate is the correct name.  The book describes the street as 'A narrow lane leading Southward from the South end of New Street consisting of a few thatched Cottages with two or three slated houses and tenanted by Mechanics and labourers.'


New Street is now Thorn Street, and the 'Mechanics' would be tuners from the tweed mill. 


And to confuse things, here's an old postcard of 'Kirkgate' showing what appears to be a church (but is, in fact, the 'Manse Hall'). 


Kidgate showing Manse hall

Kidgate showing Manse hall

Credit: Auld Earlston Collection



Can you help? 


We have yet to find out where the names come from for three streets: Arnot Place, Kilknowe and Bellevue Terrace. Please let us know where the names are from in the comments below.



Picture of the Month - November 2023


 

Thursday, 19 October 2023

More Earlston Far Flung Connections

Jeff Price's  recent blog post  took us on a lighthearted tour of Earlston's contribution to world history.  It prompted me to consider more Earlston folk who made their mark beyond the village.

What connects  Earlston Sunday School trip to Iowa farmland?   This blog post takes  us from Earlston Sunday School trip to a Scottish offshore prison to the Australian Gold Rush and whaling,  before arriving in Iowa.  All, of course linked to Earlston.   

 **********

Earlston Sunday School trips were by tradition to Spittal, in Northumberland.  However after a young girl (not from Earlston) was drowned there, the venue was changed to North Berwick. 

North Berwick is notable for many things and one is that you can take the boat trip out to the  Bass Rock, famous for its bird colony, described by David Attenborough as "one of hte wildlife wonders of the world".  

 But the Bass Rock has a dark secret - it was one of Scotland's offshore prisons and one man who was held here was Earlston born Alexander Shields.

ALEXANDER SHIELDS  (1661-1700) life spanned Earlston, the Bass Rock off the East Lothian coast  and Scotland's failed Darien Scheme for an overseas settlement, 

He was born  in Earlston at Hauighhead Mill in 1661 - the home for generations of the Shields Family. 
 
 

 The site of Haughhead Mill, 2018 
 
Alexander became a Presbyterian Minister, a Covenanter  and an author.  
 
Covenanters were those who signed the National Covenant in 1638 to confirm their opposition to the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Alexander Shields  was brought before the Judiciary Council  for holding private worship services and was imprisoned on the Bass Rock before being returned to the Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh from  where he escaped.  
 
 
The Bass Rock off the cost at North Berwick.
 
He went onto write his most famous work "The Hind Let Loose"   asserting the rights of the individual . 
 
With his brother Michael, he  joined the ill fated Second Darien Expedition  in 1699. 

The Darien Scheme  was Scotland's ambitious attempt to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "Caledonia" on the isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darien  in the late 1690s. Thousands of ordinary Scots  invested money in the expedition, to the tune of approximately £500,000. Five  ships sailed from Leith in July 1698 with 1,200 people on board. 
 
But  the project was beset by poor planning and provisioning, divided leadership and finally disease.  Seven months after arriving, 400 Scots were dead.   More ships set sail from Leith in November 1699 loaded with a further 1,300  pioneers,unaware of the fate of the earlier settlers. The colony  was finally abandoned in 1700 after a siege by Spanish forces,  
 
Only one ship returned out of the total of sixteen that had originally sailed.  With the  loss of the £500,000 investment,  the Scottish economy was almost bankrupted. 

 Alexander  set sail to return to Scotland, but died of fever in Jamaica in 1700, never returning to his homeland at Earlston. 

A full account of Alexander Shields life can be found HERE. 

 *******************
 
The purpose  of the  Darien Expedition was to establish a Scottish colony in South America  which was thought to be "the land of mail and honey". 

Another Earlston man had plans to put the village on the map, not in the land of milk and honey,  but in the land of gold and butter - Australia. 

ISAAC WALLACE (1841-1921),

Scottish history is full of men and women who  stepped into the unknown by leaving their homeland behind and emigrating to far flung places.  Many of them might not be familiar names, yet they made their mark abroad, but never forgot where they had come from. They also demonstrated a sense of entrepreneurship, community involvement,  and a strong belief in their Presbyterian faith.

One such man was Isaac Wallace of Earlston  who emigrated to Victoria, Australia,   where  he named his new home "Earlston", set up a butter factory, and involved himself in community affairs, both in Australia, but also on a return visit to Earlston towards the end of his life.

His Early Life - Isaac was the eldest of eight children,  born to master joiner, John Wallace and Martha, nee Brown.  His sister was Isabella Wallace. who later became known as "Earlston's friend and benefactor", with two memorial plaques around the village.

In 1859 the 19 year old Isaac, a farm servant who could read and write,  set sail for Australia.  In 1862 he married Mary Hogarth who had emigrated with her parents from Lauder - a further  link with the Borders.  Seven children were born to the marriage until Mary's early death in 1876.


 Isaac Wallace's Family c.1875

Isaac married again - his wife, Nicholes Brown nee Rogerson, a widow with four sons. A daughter Elizabeth was born to the marriage.  Together with the twelve children, they moved to  Isaac's land allocation of 320 acres, naming it Earlston.  It was situated in Violet Town, 108 miles north of Melbourne. Maintaining the floral theme, Violet Town's  streets were named Cowslip,Tulip, Orchard, Rose, Lily and Hyacinth. 

It was the discovery of gold in the north east of Victoria which led to large numbers of itinerant  prospectors passing through the area  and the village grew with the  railway arriving in 1873. 

Isaac's New Business Venture - Isaac,  noticing the swing to dairy-farming,  purchased Brown's unused flour mill and  and converted the building  into a butter factory  -  the first such creamery  in the region.  Isaac's venture flourished at first and he was greeted as a benefactor of both the town and countryside. But success was short lived as competitors sprang  up and circumstance were against him.  The company was wound up in  1906. 
 
A Community-Minded Man  - Isaac involved himself  in his  community , becoming a Justice of the Peace and  was appointed a Magistrate in 1886, sitting on the bench at Violet Town.   An active member of the Presbyterian Church, services were held in his home from 1887.  Isaac was president of the Mechanics Institute in the 1890’s and a member of the Progress Association.
 
A Return to his Homeland - Shortly after the death of his second wife, Isaac left  Melbourne aboard "The Runlc" in late March 1907 on a trip to the old country. 

A  news snippet was traced in "The Southern Reporter" of 20th August 1908 which reported under the Earlston District News:
"Golf:   The final tie for the Silver Challenge Cup, presented by Mr Isaac Wallace, Australia, an old Earlstonian,  was played on Wednesday afternoon."
"The Berwickshire News" of 4th May 1909 reported on a Parish Council meeting at which the provision of seats in the village was discussed. 

"It was agreed that nine of these seats should be provided at a cost of 9 shillings and 3 pence each.  The Rev. W. S. Crockett, Minister of Tweedsmuir [also an Earlstonian], and Mr Isaac Wallace, Australia  agreed to defray the expenses of one each and these to be placed in the West Green." 
 
 
A group photograph taken on Isaac's return to Earlston
He is thought to be the tall figure on the left of the back row,
with his brothers, John,  Robert & George and sister Isabella.

Isaac died on the 22nd February 1921, aged 80, and was buried with his second wife, Nicholes  in Violet Town cemetery.  His estate, real and personal, was valued at 7,291 pounds, 13 shillings and 5 pence (equivalent to £211, 880 in British money today)  - enough then to buy 265 horses. 

With grateful thanks to Garth Grogan, a  descendant of Isaac Wallace, through his daughter Mary, for this detailed account of Isaac's life. 
 
 
**************** 
When Isaac  returned to the UK,   he sailed on board the SS Runic which was built  at Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the White Star line, entering the service  to Australia in 1901.  In 1930  SS Runic was sold and converted to a whaling factory ship  and renamed SS New Sevilla. 

In Earlston  whales are more likely to be associated with two business women, Christian and Marion Whale who, ahead of their time,   developed the Earlston Gingham  in the first half of 19th century.  
 
Entrepreneurship seemed to run in the family, since a descendant Lancelot Watson established a successful business in the USA in Iowa.
 
 
 LANCELOT WATSON  (1824-1913)

This press cutting caught my eye:    

1th April 1913 - Hawick Advertiser.

 But who was Lancelot Watson  who had Earlston connections, who sailed the Atlantic 40 times  including on the paddle steamer  Britannia, the first boat of the Cunard Line, whilst  his last trip, was on  the  Lusitania, then regarded as the biggest and most modern boat of the Cunard Line.

 Research revealed that  Lancelot was born, not in Earlston,  but in Hawick in 1824, son of George Watson and Ann Whale.  His mother was descended from a long line of well-known Earlston names - Whale and Clendinnen,  most notably with links with Thomas Whale and his daughters Christian and Marion Whale, 

Lancelot married in 1856 his wife Mary A Spalding Watson.  Two years later the young family were in Canada where,  where over the next five years,  their children were born.

By the time of the 1880 census the family had moved to Mason City, Iowa, where Lancelot , aged 55 was a Land and Loan Agent.   

His work involved frequent  trips to Britain where he lectured and advised people on emigrating to  Iowa, promoting the benefits of farming in the state.  Newspapers of the  period feature many such advertisements in both England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

 North British Agriculturist:  10th November 1880

 

 Advertisement in "The American Settler":  19th March 1881

Online Passenger lists between Britain  and New York confirm a Lancelot Watson, born Scotland,  making many transatlantic trips  including one on the Britannia, named in the first article above.  He would have  been 56 years old in his  most busiest period 1880-81. 

 

Paddle Steam Britannia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia-class_steamship

.


 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lusitania-British-ship

The Steamship Lusitania, built by John Brown & Sons, Clydebank made its maiden voiyagle in 1907 and won the prized Blue Ribbon for the fastest transatlantic crossing.   Lancelot Watson's last journey was on this ship.  But it was destroyed by a German U-boat - an event which contributed to the USA entering the First World War to support the allies.

 Lancelot Watson died in 1913  aged 90, with  "The Berwickshire News" of April 8th printing a fulsome  obituary, commenting he  was "known as one of the most prominent and enterprising of American Borderers" - not born in Earlston but proud of his Earlston heritage.

*************

 Sources:   

  • www.ancestry.co.uk 
  • www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
  • www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
  • https://en.wikipedia.org
  • Descendant Chart of the Whale Family, provided by an Auld Earlston reader. 

**************





















Sunday, 1 October 2023

From Punk Rock to Moon Buggies

Earlston's contribution to world history (or let's take a light-hearted, time travelling culture tour)


In 2015, there was a TV show called 'Six Degrees of Separation'. The show centred on finding a connection between six unlikely objects.


So, for a change this month, we'll look at the connections between six unlikely topics - punk rock, Caribbean sugar plantations, BAFTA TV Awards, New York book publishing, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Moon buggies - which are all linked to Earlston.


***************************************


Tom Davidson (https://tomdavidson.co.uk), the Earlston-based artist, has his gallery on Earlston High Street. The gallery is where his grandfather, Willie Alchin, had the village baker's shop.


The shop now doubles as Tom's studio and gallery, where he creates stunning lino-cut prints of local landscapes. His ability to capture light reflecting off the Leader river or sunshine piercing through the trees of Cowdenknowes Woods is a joy to behold.


But Tom also gained fame in another of the arts - music.


Tom studied at Carlisle University and joined The Limps, a punk rock band. The band released several singles and appeared on the John Peel Show in 1979.


The Limps(1)


The band eventually broke up, and members drifted off to do their own thing.


Their music lives on, though. They appear on a recently released compilation album with bands like The Jam, The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees.


Gary Crowleys Punk and New Wave(2)


There's a whole new audience that appreciates their music.


A film studio recently contacted the band asking to feature their track 'Someone I Can Talk To' on the closing credits of a new movie still in production. Its release date has not been announced, but look out for its title - 'The Snack Shack'.


Sugary snacks, like music, can hit the right note or, as they call it in the food industry, the bliss point. This is where the snack has just the right amount of sweetness. Any sweeter and it would be too sickly; any less, it wouldn't be sweet enough.


The bliss point makes you come back for more, which is great news for dentists and sugar producers alike.


John Redpath was an Earlston man who made his fortune through sugar refining in Canada.


John was the son of farm servants working on farms in the Earlston area. His father had the foresight to see the changes in store for farm workers due to the 'improvements' between 1760 and 1830.


The 'improvements' centred around better fertilisers, drainage, and more selective crops. As a result, farms became more productive and larger. The downside was that the farms needed a smaller workforce. Thousands of families left farming during this period in what became known as the lowland clearances.


John was fortunate in that he managed to get an apprenticeship with his uncle, a stone mason in Edinburgh. However, by the time John became a master mason, the Napoleonic Wars had just finished releasing thousands of soldiers, including stone masons from the engineering regiments, into the job market. Consequently, John decided to emigrate to Canada.


Within a few years, John had established a successful construction business. Seeing an opportunity and with enough spare capital, he constructed a sugar refinery in Montreal importing raw sugar from Caribbean sugar plantations.


John made his fortune from sugar. He returned to Scotland just once, but he took the time to visit Earlston when the Corn Exchange was being built. He presented the villagers with the clock in the Corn Exchange tower that chimes the hours as his lasting legacy.

In Canada, you can buy Redpath sugar in almost any grocery store or supermarket to satisfy your bliss point. Of course, not just humans enjoy sugar; horses also have a notoriously sweet tooth.


Redpath Sugar(3)


Satisfying your sugar tooth and eating too much sugar will likely result in putting on weight, which in turn will slow you down. Presumably, the same is true for horses as well as humans.


Slow Horses was the name of a TV series starring Earlston High School former pupil Jack Lowden. Jack graduated from the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2011. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award (2023) for Best Supporting Actor in his role of River Cartwright. The series follows a team of intelligence agents who serve as a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes.


Jack Lowden(4)


The series is based on the book 'Slow Horses' by Mike Heron and published by Baskerville.


Slow Horses(5)


And talking of publishers, Robert Carter was an Earlstonian who established a publishing company in New York.


Robert was born in Earlston in 1807 with an apparent unquenchable thirst for knowledge. At an early age, Robert showed his love for books when he watched an auctioneer dispose of the household effects of a neighbour.


Robert Carter(6)


Included in the sale was a copy of Josephu's works, complete in one thick volume. When the auctioneer asked, 'How much am I offered for this?' Robert replied in a faint voice, 'Fourpence'. The auctioneer immediately handed the book to Robert, saying, "You shall have it, for you are the smallest customer I have had today'.


By age fifteen, Robert was holding night classes for local boys. Robert went on to attend university.


Years later, he gave up his teaching job in New York and opened a bookstore on the corner of Canal and Laurens Street in 1834. From selling books, he began to publish books at his New York book publishing company, Robert Carter and Brothers.


That first book no doubt changed Robert's life just as some of the books he published and sold would change the lives of others.


No wonder they say that the pen is mightier than the sword.


Of course, the most famous type of Scottish sword is the claymore, the weapon of choice for hundreds of years.


In 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie led his Jacobite army south towards London, the army camped at Fans, a few miles from Earlston. When the army marched southward again, it was discovered that a soldier had left his claymore behind.


Bonnie Prince Charlie(7)


When news of the army's imminent arrival in Earlston, locals feared the Jacobites' notorious reputation for looting. Valuables were hidden wherever possible. Horses were hidden in a hollow below Caldies Hill known as 'Howe of Hope'. The exact spot had provided Covenanters a meeting place one hundred years before.


Caldies Hill is part of the old Earlston Golf Club. 


On August 8th 1906, a meeting was held in the Smaller Exchange Hall to discuss the formation of an Earlston Golf Club. Twenty men attended, and the site chosen for the proposed course was Caldies Hill, owned by Lord Binning. The Chairman of the meeting, Rev N C Keith, advised the group that he had already gained permission from Lord Binning and his tenants.


On August 30th, Willie Park, a professional golfer and course designer, visited the site to draw up the plan for a nine-hole course.


The course was officially opened on Wednesday, November 7th 1907. However, the first competition occurred in October 1907 for the Silver Challenge Cup, presented by Issac Wallace, an Earlstonian who had emigrated to Australia. The Cup was won by Robert Lountain with a score of 79.


The game prospered in the village with both ladies and gentlemen sections. Two businesses, John McDonal, Saddler, and John Weatherston, Watchmaker, stocked clubs and balls.


Despite the best intentions, the Club was forced to close by the end of World War 2 due to a lack of members and funds.


However, the Club members were undeterred and boldly decided to open a golf course on the Moon.


To quote the Club's website (https://www.earlstongolfclub.com/):


With the purchase and restoration of the original golf course being unattainable at an Earlston Golf Club Committee Meeting in 2000, it was agreed to pursue the purchase of land to build a course on the Moon. This transaction was completed on November 3rd 2000, and initial planning was soon under way.

 

 There are 18 Seas on the surface of the Moon, each of which has a Latin name which has been translated and given a Scottish Borders flavour to reflect the origins of the Club.

 

The holes on the Earlston Golf Club Moon Course were named to keep the authenticity of the course location whilst ensuring that the history and traditions of the Club are echoed in each hole.


One can assume that Moon buggies will be substituted for golf buggies.


Moon Buggy(8)



Credit links

Do you know of any unlikely topics or objects that are connected and linked with Earlston? Let us know in the Comments section below.