In the nineteenth century newspapers often illustrate their stories with drawings. The drawing above is from a long report on the grand gipsy coronation of 1898 in the Edinburgh Evening News of 30th May 1898. In this case the drawing is by a Mr John Jerdan of Edinburgh. In some ways his picture must be wrong - the cottages on the right, in front of the kirk, are shown as all having two stories, which was never the case. Even more mysterious is the bridge shown in the left foreground. Like the gipsy lady cooking over an open fire this could be a little bit of artistic whimsy, but there are reasons for thinking it may be accurate, as there was once an open ditch/burn which once ran in front of Tinklers Row, then ran across the lower green, before wiggling its way into the mill lade.

The burn was probably hidden in culverts in 1896, two years before the coronation, when there was a lot of work on sanition and drainage in Yetholm and across Roxburghshire. It was at that date that the cast-iron hand-pumps, several of which still survive in both Kirk- and Town-Yetholm, were installed. Nowadays the small burn can be seen running along the side of the road as you walk up the road from Kirk Yetholm towards Halterburn. It's a pleasant little stream, but in rainy weather it must have become quite fast flowing and turbulent. As it approaches the top of the village it drops into the dark 'cundy'. There are very few photographs which capture this burn, although it must have been a distinctive feature of the village for hundreds of years. One photograph which does is shown below - the burn is in the foreground and on the left, if you look carefully, are a couple of drainage pipes lying on the village green. It must, therefore, have been taken just before work was about to begin on hiding the steam. Mr Jerdan's drawing must have been made at some point prior to this and shows us a small 'pack-horse-bridge' which must once have been there, similar to the two which still survive over the dried up mill-lade further down the hill.

Due to COVID restrictions, we cannot hold an AGM in our Mission Hall this year. We have decided the best alternative is to circulate information about the activities and finances of the Society to members with a full list of the Trustees who are seeking re-election.  We will also post a copy of these papers on the village noticeboards.

The Treasurer's report - click HERE - describes activity up to September 2020. Instead of holding an exhibition in Festival Week, we mounted a very successful exhibition in October. In addition, our disabled access has been completed, a display table and stand have been purchased for the Heritage display in the Kirk, and work is well advanced on interpretative panels to be displayed in the Mission Hall.

If members wish to raise any queries about any aspect of our activities and finances, or if you wish to propose anyone as a trustee, please get in touch, in the first instance, with Elizabeth Watson 420602. Email [email protected]. 
 
Unfortunately, current restrictions mean we are unable to meet in person in the Wauchope Hall.  However, we do hope to arrange a Zoom meeting, with a speaker, for our March meeting on Tuesday 2nd March. We will provide further details when arrangements are in place.