The weather was foul, but YHS had a relatively dry pitch for our stall at the Yetholm Shepherds Show on Saturday 7th October. As well as selling books and advertising our events, we had a 'What's that Thing?' competition in which visitors had to identify varoius moderately enigmatic objects in our collection. Prize winners to be contacted shortly. One of the posters which we used is shown below.
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St Ethelreda, c. 636 – 23 June 679 AD, (also sometimes Etheldreda or Æthelthryth or Æðelþryð or Æþelðryþe – or, more usually, just plain Audrey) was an East Anglian princess, whose main claim to sanctity was that, although married twice, she was determined to remain a virgin and to live as a nun. Her second marriage was to Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria. Ecgfrith initially agreed Ethelreda should continue to remain a virgin, but about 672 he appealed to Bishop Wilfrid for the enforcement of his marital rights as against Ethelreda's religious vocation. The bishop succeeded at first in persuading the king to consent that Etheldreda should live for some time in peace as a sister of the Coldingham nunnery, founded by his aunt, Æbbe of Coldingham. Eventually, in light of the danger of being forcibly carried off by the king, Ethelreda fled back to the Isle of Ely with two nuns as companions. There she founded a monastery and lived the usual austere life (rough clothes, infrequent bathing etc). She died of a neck tumour, said to a punishment for her former love of fancy clothes and jewels while a young princess. After death her body remained uncorrupted and many people visited her shrine for healing, particularly if they suffered from illnesses of the neck. There are few churches dedicated to St Ethelreda and those that are located in the south of England. Most famously Ely Cathedral is devoted to her and it was there that her shrine was located until the reformation. The drawing above shows a capital in Ely Cathedral which Illustrates a miraculous incident which took place when Ethelreda fled from Northumbria. Worn out and weary she lay down to rest. She stuck her staff in the ground and when she awoke the staff had turned in a great tree, providing her with shelter while she rested. Despite the paucity of dedications to her in the north there are tantalising references to a chapel dedicated to her in the Halterburn valley, near Yetholm. It is generally assumed that this chapel was associated with the monastic grange of Kelso Abbey which was located along the Halterburn, in what was then generally recognised as England. No remains are now visible, but the first Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1859) indicated that is stood close to where a sike flowed into the main burn - see arrow on map below. Several years ago Tom Broad of YHS organised a field survey to try and locate this mysterious chapel – but with no success. More recently Tillvas (the Till Valley Archaeological Society), having found medieval pottery in a test trench close to the site indicated on the 1859 map, have organised a dig to try and find out what was going on there – see photograph below, the excavations are to the right of white tent - the location is also marked on the map above with a star. The dig took place in mid September and the project included a visit to the site by children from Yetholm Primary School and an open day for general visitors on the final Saturday; there was also a display of finds in the YHS Heritage Centre in Town Yetholm. A substantial amount of medieval pottery was found, also a (shroud?) pin, a metal arrowhead and a 14th c. silver coin. See photograph below. Apart from these portable, scattered medieval objects there was clear evidence of substantial building work in the area. See photographs below. Was this the chapel? Nothing as fine and as obviously ecclesiastical as the carved to stone capital at the head of this blog post was found! May it have been a mill? The finds are tantalisingly enigmatic. More work is clearly (hopefully?) needed.
On Saturday 23rd September a group from YHS were given a private guided tour of Mellerstain House by Leslie Abernethy. Much of the house was built through the energy and supervision of Lady Grisell Baillie, who will be the subject of Leslie's talk to the society on October 3rd - our first talk of the season. Leslie has written the definitive biography of this fascinating and formidable woman. Grisell left voluminous memoranda and correspondence which has enabled Leslie to paint a detailed picture of her life and times. The photograph below shows her instructions to the nurse of her daughter (also called Grisell - or 'Grisie') - she clearly expected her daughter to work had, as she herself did.
What's going on in the photo above? It was clearly taken in Yetholm, outside the White Swan Hotel in Town Yetholm. By the look of the men, it was probably taken in the first decade of the twentieth century. Six miscellanious horses are lined up, as if about to start a race. The image is one given to the society by the family of Tom Tokely. Unfortunately, as with many in the collection, the photo is fairly battered - and there is nothing to indicate exactly what was happening. However, as mentioned in last month's blog, it may be that what we are looking at is the line-up at the start of a horse race, which was once a feature of Yetholm 'Border Shepherds' Show, which took place every October. Quite a few post-card images have survived from this period showing beautifully manicured horses which are competing in the 'Best Groomed Horse and Harness' catagory. A typical such image, also from Tom's collection, can be seen at the foot of the page. It is dated 1910. The image shown above, featuring a race of some kind, is - so far - unique. In the last few years Yetholm Show has featured a few sporting activities, mainly the Brae House running race and a fun tug-of-war. But, as discussed in August's blog, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the show included a wide variety of athletic events - running races, jumping, throwing, wrestling etc - and, as today, some fun ones, such as a sack race and a pillow fight. It is also clear that there were often horse races of differing kinds. Here is an advert for the show from the Newcastle Journal, 11th October 1902 - horse competitions feature quite prominently: There is no consistency from year to year of the kind of horse races that were presented. Sometimes, as in this advert, horse jumping seems the main category. In the years immediately before the First World War such serious eventing seems to have faded and 'Scampers' for boys and girls are listed instead. As mentioned, we have no idea when the photograph at the top of the page was taken, or what race was about to begin. Might it have been in 1903? Here are the 'Sports' results for that year: As can be seen, a prominent race that year is the 'Tradesman's Horse Race'. The horses in the image are certainly a mongrel bunch of working horses, with the white ponies the kind of animal used to pull a tradesman's dog-cart. It seems likely the bigger animals closer to the camera would have taken the prize. Might the sedate mustached gentleman be R.T. Russell - and the keener jockey, leaning forward in his saddle, be George Tice ... or might it be the other way round ...??? The same race took place in 1902 - and the same two gentlemen took the top prizes. George Tice was a baker in Yetholm. He had a son also called George, who was killed in the First World War, in October 1917 aged 29. A person named George Tice is listed as coming both second and third in 1902 - so perhaps both father and son participated in that year. R.C. Russell (not 'R.T.', which is a misprint) was the landlord of the Plough Inn. He clearly had the better horse and won in both years. A postcard image of The Plough (posted 1904) when he was landlord can be found in the YHS archive - see below. Intriguingly it shows a gent on a horse standing proudly in front of the building - can the same man be identified in the photograph at the head of the page ...? We also have a photograph of George Tice taken in 1927 - below right. Could the man sitting calmly in the horse race photograph be the same man? Unfortunately the mists of time have obscured the what exactly took place on that festive occasion over a century ago.
The last YHS blog discussed two photographs in our archives showing preparations in Kirk Yetholm for the annual Fasterns E'en ba' game. We have no images of a game in progress - the painting above is by Alexander Carse, dated 1818, and shows the famous and still active game played in Jedburgh. Yetholm's game would have been much the same. By all accounts, such events were inevitably very rough and rowdy. Both images discussed in the June blog were taken in 1912. But when did the tradition end? The question was put to the Society by John Messner, who is currently writing a book on the game as it is/was played all across the British Isles. Our photographs show that it was still very much alive in 1912. Newspaper records show that the Bowmontside Games took place as usual a couple of years later in March 1914. However, in the summer of that year Britain declared war on Germany - the First World War had begun - and the games were abandoned for the next five years. The games were revived in 1920, as the following newspaper cutting, from the Southern Reporter (19th February 1920) , shows: Although the ba' game itself may have been a chaotic affair, the 'Bowmontside Games', to which it acted as a grand finale, was a carefully organised event. Nineteenth century newspaper accounts show that there was a properly constituted committee which put in a lot of work to make sure the event went smoothly. The Kelso Chronicle of the 18th March 1921 records a meal at the White Swan in which Mr John Hogg was presented with a walking stick for his 25 years service as committee secretary. The presentation was made by James Turnbull, shoemaker, the oldest member of the committee, Mr Hogg is praised for his 'supreme effort' in snatching 'this "relic from the past" ... from the verge of bankruptcy'. James Turnbull, who apparently had made the Town Yetholm ball for about 50 years died in February 1923, aged 76. The names of the committee are given in a very full and enthusiastic report of the games (shown more fully at the end of the last blog) in the Kelso Chronicle of 3rd March 1922: However, the games don't seem to have survived very much longer. So far, the last reporting sighting of the Yetholm Fastern E'en ba' game dates from 1925. In that year the Southern Reporter (5th March) tells us that 'the weather was fine, but a cold wind prevailed, and this no doubt accounted for the moderate attendance, which however witnessed some keen and interesting events'. The winners of the various racing, jumping and wrestling events are then listed. The report ends: There is at least one further reference, two years later, to the Bowmontside Games. The Edinburgh Evening News of 3rd March 1927 records prizewinners from the Bowmontside Games of that year - however it doesn't mention the ba' game. It may well have taken place at that date, but the report is relatively brief. The ba' game of 1925 marks, then, the last reported sighting of the traditional rough and rowdy Yetholm game - unless further rummaging in the archives turns up a later explicit reference. In the early 1960s an attempt was made to revive the game. The Edinburgh Evening News (20th March 1961) announced these plans, noting that 'it is over 30 years' since the game was played - it would seem there was a vague local memory of it last occurring in the late 1920s: Why did this 'relic from the past' fade into oblivion?
Newspaper evidence suggests that the activities which characterised the Bowmontside Games were absorbed into the Yetholm 'Shepherds Show', which took place in October every year. It is noticable that nineteenth century newpaper reports of the October 'Shepherds Show' Show very much emphasize the various competitions for sheep (and sheep dogs). Gradually there are references to an 'Industrial Section' (with an initial focus on butter making). In the period before the First World War there are occassional references to sports, but nothing comparable to the athletic events which characterised the Bowmontside Games. The Southern Reporter (29th October 1903), for example, lists the following 'Sports' at the Shepherds Show - Best Groomed Horse, Horse Jumping, Pony Race, Tradesmans Horse Race, One Mile Walking Race, One & Half Mile Cycle Race*. By the late 1920s, however, there are increasing references to running races, wrestling, quoits, jumping (and a regular pillow fight!) taking place at the Shepherds Show. It is noticable that lists of members of the Sports Committee at Yetholm Shepherds Show in the 1920s refers to several of the same individuals who were also on the Bowmontside Games committee. The Berwickshire News & General Advertiser of 10th October 1922, for example, includes the names of Alex Lillie, John Hogg, James Reid and William Stenhouse as being involved in organising sports at the October show - all of whom are also listed as on the organising committee for the Bowmontside Games of that year (see cutting above). It would seem, then, that at some point in the late 1920s the Bowmontside Games committee decided to amalgamate with the Shepherds Show in October. Athletic activities continued, but at that point the venerable ba' game - which was traditionally associated with Fasterns E'en (Shrove Tuesday) in February/March - was inevitably dropped. * More on these horse races in the next blog-post. The photograph shown above is one of the most intriguing in the YHS collection. Given to us by the Tokely family, it shows an elderly lady holding the decorated ball that was used in the ball games that once took place annually in Yetholm. Tom Tokely has labelled the two children on the left as Bessie and Richie Stenhouse. Bessie Stenhouse was born in 1898 and Richie in 1902 so, judging the ages of the two in the photograph, this image was probably taken between 1910 and 1912. This would make it roughly contemporary with the only other photograph of the game which we have - a postcard image, shown below - which is dated 1912. In fact, looking closely at the postcard image, it is possible to pick out Richie (or possibly it is the other unnamed boy - they are both wearing the same style of clothes) and the mysterious elderly lady shown in photograph at the top of the page. Richie can be seen towards the left of the group of children gathered around the elderly gentleman holding the ball, while the mysterious lady can be seen standing immediately behind the ball. See below:- As they appear to be wearing the same clothes in each photo it is safe to assume that both images can be dated to 1912. The lady in first image is unidentified, but John Messner, from Glasgow University, who is researching the tradition of Ba' Games in Scotland and England, suggests it may be Richie and Bessie's grandmother Mary Stenhouse. In the 1911 census Mary is said to be 80 years old and is living next-door to her son Richard Stenhouse, a baker in Kirk Yetholm. An alternative identification is that the mysterious lady is Janet Scott. A newspaper report of the Fastern E'en games in 1921 (Kelso Chronicle, 11th February) noted that the 'Kirk-Yetholm ba', as for the last 50 years, was decorated by Mrs Janet Scott'. Janet Scott appears to have died in 1922, aged 72, so she would have been aged 62 in 1912. Might the photograph have been taken to commerorate her handiwork? Yetholm Ba' Game took place on Fasterns E'en (Shrove Tuesday) and was the culminating event of a day of sporting activities, often referred to as the Bowmontside Games. There were actually two ba' games, one starting in Kirk Yetholm and the other in Town Yetholm. The two teams were formed from the Married and the Single men in the villages. The ball for each game was specially made and decorated and was thrown to start the game by the oldest inhabitant. The 'hails' (goals) were at Duncanhaugh and the point where the Stank meets the Bowmont Water. In the Yetholm games the balls were kicked, not carried, as is the case in other places. Sir George Douglas of Springwood Park, Kelso, gives us a description of the Kirk Yetholm game in his book Diversions of a Country Gentleman (1902), pp. 224-7 - click HERE for a copy available via the Internet Archive. Sir George says that before the games commenced the decorated ball was paraded round the village, but stripped of its ribbons at the start of the action. Our two 1912 photographs show the ball both decorated and undecorated - perhaps the elderly gentleman was about to throw it into the air? It is possible two elderly figures feature so prominently because they are the oldest man and woman in Kirk Yetholm in that year - ? If the lady is indeed Mary Stenhouse then she died a couple of years later in 1914, aged 82 A vivid description of the Town Yetholm game can be found in the Kelso Mail of 22nd February 1882. The route in which the ball was carried from the green, through the Plough Inn yard and down Wa' Roadie (the 'Little Well Road') is recognisable today: The ba' games took place after the sports had finished, preceded by eating dumplings (not pancakes). This is how the event is described in the Jedburgh Gazette, 21st February 1874: 'The games being concluded, the people repaired to Kirk and Town Yetholm, and after an hours interval, during which there was universal feasting upon the characteristic "currant dumplin'", the game of foot-ball was commenced. In observance of the old custom, the oldest inhabitant of each village threw up the respective balls in the Green, surrounded by many enthusiastic athletes eager for the first kick.' There are numerous newspaper accounts of the games (see a couple of them below) and John Messner would like to pinpoint when this old festive tradition came to an end. Unfortunately no-one alive now remembers watching a ba' game - though it was revived, briefly, in the 1960s. Can anyone cast any light on the question? More in the next blog. This year's kirkin' of the Bari Gadgi & Bari Manushi on Sunday 11th June. The photograph above shows this years principals, Angus Wauchope and Gemma Litster, at the front. Beside them stands Carol Butler, with her husband Robin standing behind and others who have been principals in years gone-by. Carol (Harvey - as she then was) was Bari Manushi in 1962, over 50 years ago. The photograph below shows her on that occasion, with the bari gadgi, and other local notables of the time. As can be seen from that date printed at the top of the page, at that time Yetholm's Festival Week took place in August.
With May 2023 seeing the coronation of King Charles III it would be interesting to know what went on in Yetholm seventy years ago when Elizabeth II was crowned. Unfortunately our archives are rather thin when it comes to that event. One record that we do have is of the planting of a 'Coronation Tree' at the cricket ground, by Mr Roberton - see image above. Not exactly an exuberant event, by the look of it! Another, photograph (below) of the same event shows Peggy Wraith apparently planting the same tree - perhaps everyone in the village had a turn? Mr Roberton was the Farmer at Yetholm Mains. Peggy Wraith was the neice of the landlady of The Plough and very active in village life. It is unclear what has happened to the tree. Note, in the background of these photographs, some of the huts which had been used as accommodation for German Prisoners of War and which were still standing at this date.
Yetholm History Society has a number of photographs about which, frustratingly, nothing is known. Neither the donor, nor the identity of subjects, in the photograph shown above, has been recorded. It is clearly a wedding photograph, with a rather serious central couple, and their relatives and friends, dressed in the best clothes, gathered around. The donor must have believed it had a Yetholm connection and the harled building behind looks like it could be in Yetholm. We have few photographs taken before c.1880 and, judging by the clothes, the wedding probably took place between then and 1900. The figure on the right is clearly the minister who officiated at the wedding - if we could identify him, then dating would be more certain. In that period there were three churches, with three ministers, in the village. The Rev. Adam Davidson was minister of of the established church from 1862 to 1907 - 45 years. We have a photograph of him - with a full beard - and the man in the photograph doesn't look like him. That means it could be the minister of the Free Church on Dow Brae, or of the Border View UP church (now the Wauchope Hall). The Rev. Archibald Torrance was minister of the Border View church from 1883 to 1897 and the Rev. Norman MacPherson minister of the Free Church from 1878 to 1895. We do not have a photograph of either man. However ... .... a photograph of Norman MacPherson (and his wife) in his old age has been posted on the Ancestry family history website by a descendant. Material posted on this site always needs to be treated with a degree of scepticism, but it also does allow genuine material to be shared which would otherwise be lost in private family archives. Could the man shown in both photographs be the same? The minister on the left has a fuller face and seems in the prime of life. MacPherson was born in 1848, so arrived in Yetholm when he was 30 and left in his late 40s. He died in 1920 and the photograph on the right was presumably taken in his retirement, shortly before his death, when he was in his 70s. Might this explain the thinner face? Both men have prominent eye-brows and cheek-bones and sport a similar mustache. Let the reader decide! The Rev. MacPherson seems to have been a very active minister. Soon after his arrival he oversaw the construction of a new church building on Dow Brae. In 1895 he was called to Trinity Free Church in Glasgow - a very large number of members signed the petition to request his services. Interestingly he was not a Borderer, but a Gaelic-speaker from the highlands, being born in Trumisgarry (Trumaisgearraidh), north Uist. One wonders what he made of the Borders when he arrived - and what Borderers made of him - ? After his arrival in Glasgow he occassionally took services in Gaelic and newspaper reports show him sometimes taking Gaelic services in highland churches too. Our photograph was obviously not taken in or near a church building, but at that date weddings took place either in the manse or in a family home. The married couple might put in a special appearance at church on the Sunday after the wedding, but the ceremony itself took place elsewhere. YHS also has another photograph of a wedding taken at around the same time, shown below. Again details of donor and subjects are missing. Any suggestions?
The last two blogs have had a horticultural theme – and this one has too – a trilogy! If you type ‘Yetholm’ into a search engine one of the results will almost certainly take you to a site about ‘Mr Little’s Yetholm Gypsy potato’. See, for example - HERE According to this site - Mr Little’s Yetholm Gypsy is a distinctive and unique heritage potato with a name which summarises its historical connection to its original community. It has a unique colour with an eyecatching and distinctive red, white and blue patterned skin, and has a versatile flesh good for boiling, steaming and roasting. It has significant ties to the Scottish Borders town of Yetholm in terms of cultural heritage. The potato appears to have been kept in production almost by chance. Interestingly this site suggests that “the DNA of Yetholm Gypsy has been tested by S.A.S.A. (Scottish Agricultural Science Agency) where it is held in their collection, and it has been found to be a variant of the King Edward potato.” This may well be the case, but the site’s discussion of the potato’s origin may not be entirely right in all of its claims: It comes from the Borders town of Yetholm and was thought to have been introduced to the town in 1899, although it is not known for certain whether this variety was originally bred by gypsies or by a local gardener. It was however, acquired at a horse fair by its namesake ‘Mr Little’ who then apparently grew it in his family’s garden for the next 50 years, keeping the potato in production. The potato variety was ‘discovered’ in 1998 by Alan Romans who got a tuber from the family, encouraged growth of it through his microplants project, and had the potato placed in the National Collection in 1999. Yetholm History Society has been given a newspaper cutting, unfortunately unsourced and undated (but fairly recent & probably from the Southern Reporter) which features an interview with Alan Romans – Mr Romans says he was given a sample of the potato by Matthew and William (sic - Geoff) Little at the Borders Organic potato Day in 1998. Mr Romans obviously found the journey down the Bowmont Valley to Kelsocleugh to meet the Little brothers an arduous and unnerving experience! The article provides us with a slightly different origin story: Matthew Little, a shepherd, explained he’s acquired the potato at the first Yetholm Fair after the Second World War, and called it the Yetholm Gypsy after the crowing of the Gypsy King in Kirk Yetholm in 1899 (sic – 1898) This sounds plausible, but we have slightly different information from Dr Grant Mooney, who was Yetholm’s doctor in the 1990s. He knew both Matthew and Geoff Little and recalls that when they visited him in the surgery in Yetholm (now sadly gone) in the early 1990s they would often bring him a bucket of the Yetholm Gypsy potatoes. Geoff was the shepherd at Kelsocleugh and Matthew the shepherd at Skirl Naked, over the border in Northumberland. His memory is that Matthew’s father – also called Matthew, who at one time was shepherd at Cocklawfoot, neighbouring Kelsocleugh - may have had a version of the potato and that Matthew later ‘rediscovered’ the potato growing ‘on the other side of a dike’ at Skirl Naked. When he returned to live in Yetholm he brought the potato with him. It is clear, in any case, that the Little brothers were proud of their tri-coloured potato and that the name, honouring Yetholm, derives from them. Although proud of their potato, it was not however not the Little brothers who added the prefix - ‘Mr Little’s Yetholm Potato’. For that, Dr Mooney was responsible. When Geoff, his patient, was in hospital towards the end of his life Grant wrote to the Henry Doubleday Research Association suggesting that the newly rediscovered variety should be named in honour of the brothers. The letter he got in response, which has been kindly donated to YHS, is shown below. Geoff was cheered when he then got a letter informing him of the new name. Matt apparently was a bit miffed that he hadn’t received one as well, so a similar acknowledgement was duly sent to him too!
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