Yetholm History Society were recently gifted a trove of images by the Tokeley family. Some were familiar, but the hoard also included several unique images which we are extremely grateful to add to our archive, Some of these images have been used in recent blogs - for example HERE (Fasterns E'en) and HERE (horse racing). The picture shown above, of John Wakeford, boot maker, is another fascinating example from this hoard.
John Wakeford's family background was typical of many in this area. His father (also called John) was born in Colstream and worked, usually as a coachman in upper-middle class households, on both sides of the border. John himself was born in Kirknewton in 1881. He went to various schools in both England and Scotland, including a short period in Yetholm. In 1891 he is living with his family in Belford, Northumberland. In 1901 he is living with his parents, aged 19, and seven siblings, in Gordon, Berwickshire - at that point he is working as a ploughman. He married Isabella Scott of Harrietfield on 26th January 1906. in 1911 he is working as a ploughman and living at a cottage at Primside Mill, near Yetholm. The couple have two children. In 1921 he is living with Isabella and three children (a son James died aged 1 in 1914) in 'Church Lane', Town Yetholm, and working a a roadman. At some point thereafter he set up as a cobbler - the newspaper adverts start appearing in 1924. Given that, as referenced above, he learned his trade from watching a bootmaker called Watson at work in Huntsman's Cottage, then it looks like he saw his opportunity to start up in that trade himself after the death of John Robert Watson in February 1924. [The tale that he watched 'John Watson's grandfather' can't be right - John Watson was from Jedburgh and only came to the village c.1908. That he learned from John Watson himself seems more likely. For more about this interesting man see HERE. John and Isabella celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary in 1956, at which date they were still living in the 'Border Boot Stores' (see above). The business seems to have closed soon after, probably when John died in April 1961. This was a period which saw the disappearance of many village shops. Coincidentally this year's YHS Festival Exhibition will be focussed on many of these local enterprises which have all now sadly been driven out of business. John's wife, Isabella Scott, died in 1966. Social and economic change also had its effect on the Wakeford family. Of their three surviving children, son James moved to Aberdeen and then, in 1957, emigrated to South Africa, where he died in 1998. Daughter Agnes married Percy Pierez (from Antigua) and lived in London, where she died in 1998. Only John remained in the Borders, dying in 1990. The photograph at the top of the page was taken outside Harden Cottage, where Mr Wakeford had his business at that time (1930s?). This house was later the home of Tom Tokeley who, very sadly, has recently died, and through whose devotion to the community of Yetholm photographs such as this one have survived. YHS is very grateful to both Tom and his family for handing on these relics to us for the curiosity of future generations. Locals and visitors to Yetholm will remember that Tom annually put out a colourful display of bedding plants in front of the cottage. One of the the images which the family have passed on to us shows us the front of the cottage in all its splendour, taken in August 1996 (below). John Wakeford would probably have been quite surprised to see how things had changed and what had been simply a rough pedestrian area in front of his shop window had become a garden! The photograph below shows the Wakeford gravestone in the new cemetery, on the Morebattle Road. For information about the remarkable book in which the photograph of the Wakeford children can be found, click HERE.
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Text by Margaret Rustad, 2024 The earlier years of this century can be accounted for by oral sources; many local people had anecdotes of Mrs. Wauchope’s time living here after her husband’s untimely demise in the Boer War at Magersfontein, commemorated on his memorial on Town Yetholm Green. The picture of this lady is not entirely sympathetic, and it’s suggested that she regretted that her husband had not lived long enough to be knighted, as she felt that a title would have been welcome. However, she was a benefactor to the village, particularly in the presentation of the Wauchope Hall to the village in her husband’s memory. Tom Tokely’s mother Annie remembered the fearsome lady using her walking stick to clear children out of her path if she was out walking. After the house had been purchased by the Beveridges, her former cook and housekeeper (or perhaps maid?) stayed in ‘The Old Hall Guest House’ as it was then called, and took particular pleasure in staying in the bedroom which had been hers (top right as you look at the house from the garden), because this would definitely have displeased her! The black poplar trees in a group opposite the house in the garden are said to have been planted at her wish to provide a shady, sheltered spot for taking afternoon tea. On an early visit here shortly after purchasing the house in 1980 we met Robin Butler and his brother John, who then ran their building business together. John recalled that as a boy he had helped his father empty the cellar of wine and spirits at the beginning of WW2 in order to transport them to Edinburgh; the house was being requisitioned. The History Society already has a scan of a small newspaper-cutting concerning the use of the house as an Officers’ Mess. We understand that the walled garden became a smallholding during the war. In 1981, during our first summer living here a lady came to our door: she was visiting Mrs. Krueger who then lived in Morebattle and had heard that a ‘normal’ (!) family had bought the house, and she was encouraged to call without previous notice. Her story was that she had been evacuated here from Edinburgh with her bedridden mother and a toddler. She herself was pregnant and her husband, a naval officer, had been posted missing; subsequently she heard that he had died. She shared the house with another family. Despite this distressing personal situation, she could look back and tell us that she was happy living here! Another pair of visitors that summer were the Mackinnons. Carol Butler knew their twin daughters well when they were renting the house in the 60’s, and as they were visiting her she too encouraged them to call in on this ‘normal’ family! Bill Mackinnon was wearing the kilt, as was his wont. He had been teaching English at Kelso High School. His wife (Grethe?) was Norwegian, and after living here they moved to Bergen, where he lectured in English at the University. Through mutual acquaintances in Norway (which is a small world) I can relate that he was a weel-kent figure in Bergen, striding around in his kilt! Mrs. Mackinnon had a full-size weaving-loom up in one of the bedrooms, and it is probably they who installed a ‘Jøtul’ woodburning stove in the dining-room – which we still use, and on which we cooked during the Great Blizzard.... Their family subsequently called in later on another occasion to see what they could remember of their time here. Needless to say, it was a huge but very enjoyable coincidence that two half-Norwegian families have enjoyed living here. After the house was sold to the Beveridges, Anne & David (son of George & Jean) converted the stables/chauffeur’s/gardener’s flat ad loose boxes into two semi-detached cottages, now known as Stable Cottage (which Tom Broad and his late wife Margaret eventually purchased) and Hall Cottage, which we subsequently purchased, so that it has reverted to the same ownership as the house, and gives us valuable, safe road access onto the back lane instead of the precipitous driveway out onto the blind corner on Kelso Road. Mrs. Beveridge apparently slaved over the house virtually single-handed, stripping and decorating; an internal door was built on the lower ground floor to separate the basement from the rest of the house, thus rendering it slightly less draughty, and the basement stair rebuilt in wood, though the original, even steeper, stone stair can be seen poking out at the bottom. The stone staircase to the first floor was also clad in wood; it is said that the steps were very worn, possibly as a result of episodes when it was an officers’ mess.... Handbasins were installed in the four main bedrooms. The house then became a thriving guest house under Mrs. Beveridge’s management. A kitchen was installed upon the ground floor (there is the original kitchen, complete with range, in the basement) and a serving-hatch put through into the present dining-room. Villagers recall Burns Suppers and Christmas Dinners here. The guest house was in great demand, especially at the time of the Kelso Ram Sales. About 2 years before we purchased the house in 1980 Mrs.Beveridge sold the house to someone known as ‘Bobby’ Coles. She no longer wished to live in the house where her husband had died a while previously. (George Beveridge was apparently, according to the Rev. Joe Brown, a horse-breaker of great skill and patience.) Mr. Coles enjoyed country sports and the associated lifestyle. He caused the wall between a small room at the front of the house and the larger room behind it to be removed, thus knocking the 2 rooms into one large, well-lit sitting-room. His other mark on the property was to cause a physical division between the house and Hall Cottage, leading to the necessity for the owners of this house to use the dangerous access onto Kelso Road. (James Wauchope later on kindly gave us permission to erect a mirror on his land on that blind corner; Borders Regional Council had refused permission for us to put it on the roadside verge.) We moved here in April 1981 with two young daughters; another daughter arrived in 1982. We installed secondary glazing where shutters did not exist, and a very basic range cooker in the ‘new’ kitchen, subsequently replaced by an oil-fired Stanley range cooker with central heating. Apart from that we have concentrated on maintenance, especially of the roof and chimneys. We have also landscaped the scrappy gardens between the house and Hall Cottage into a sunny courtyard to be enjoyed by both households. Mrs Beveridge was a keen gardener and we can now enjoy mature trees and shrubs planted by her. The walled garden has been a source of fun and pleasure for many people over our years here: camps, barbecues, parties, fundraisers... the Guides in particular met here on Mondays throughout the warm months for campfires, rounders and woodcraft. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, to round off this series on Yetholm Hall, a somewhat enigmatic glimpse of social life in the Hall in the early 20th century. One of the postcards in our collection is shown above. Unfortunately it is difficult to read, although it was clearly sent from 'The Hall, Yetholm, 10th August 1904' and is addressed to a Mrs Muir of Grimstone Avenue, Folkestone. Census records show that in 1901 a 35 year old widow called Frances Muir was living at that address, along with five children (+ two neices & five domestic servants - two of them French) - all the children were born in India. Clearly a relatively well-off family with colonial connections.
We also have in our collection a newspaper cutting (below) which lists guests resident at the Hall in 1907, who attended the Buccleugh Hunt Ball in November of that year - a fascinating glimpse of the social circles (military, imperial) around Jean Wauchope. Two of the guests are called Muir - the 'Miss K. Muir' may be the Kathleen Mary Muir who is listed in the 1901 census - she would have been 17 in 1907. The postcard seems likely to have been sent by someone who was part of this coterie. Might it even have been sent by Mrs Wauchope? Unfortunately there is no readable signature. When the current owners of Yetholm Hall were redecorating the entrance hall of the house they discovered three wall paintings that had been hidden for many years. The paintings are quite large (3' X 2'), monochrome, and with tromp-l'oeil scrolls. The one shown above can be identified as nearby Cherrytrees house - as can be seen by comparing it with the postcard images of Cherrytrees shown below. The painting does not show the two side-wings but, according to The Buildings of the Scotland, ed Kitty Cruft et al., 'the single-storey and basement wings ... were added by Adam Brack Boyd in 1852'. The painting must, then, date from before 1852. Rather crudely executed, the postcard on the left below shows that the amateur artist has been equally free with the background landscape, giving a general impression rather than an exact representation. The other two paintings are shown below (click on each to see a larger version). In both, the background landscape seems even more fantastical - more like the mountainous Highlands than the Cheviot Hills. That said, the the hill in the background of the image below left, with a cliff scar on the lower slope, might possibly be meant to respresent Staerough - ? Might these two paintings be giving us a glimpse of other local sites? Both pictures seem to show farm steadings, rather than an elegant classical villa like Cherrytrees. Could they be attempts to depict nearby Thirlestane, or Lochside - ? If so, we are getting a rare glimpse of Yetholm before the advent of photography. Or they may, of course, simply be works of whimsy . . . As discussed in the last blog the earliest known tenant of Yetholm Hall was the financially constrained William Beckwith, who lived there in the 1830s with his unmarried daughter Mary. Could she - perhaps, like many well-brought up ladies of the period, an amateur artist - have spent endless rainy winter afternoons filling in her time in remote Yetholm by decorating her father's residence-in-exile -? Thirlestane, Cherrytrees and Yetholm Hall are, though, all in some way linked through the Brack Boyd family. The Boyd family had owned Cherrytrees from c. 1800 and, as noted in the last blog, the first known owner of Yetholm Hall (c. 1850) was Adam Brack Boyd. George Walker had owned the estate of Thirlestane from at least the 1750s. When he was 65 in 1793 he married for a second time, to a much younger woman, and started a new family. Thereafter George Walker seems to have declined economically and there was squabbling among his children about their inheritance. In 1807 he sold the Thirlestane property to Adam Boyd and he and his family moved to Town Yetholm. The exact location is not known - might it have been on the site of Yetholm Hall? The shifting fortunes of these two families are clear, though the details are obscure. Might these mysterious images in some way reflect the twists of fate that entangled the Walkers and the Boyds - ? For most of the 19th-century the Brack-Boyds of Cherrytrees were prominent figures in the local community, Adam Boyd of Cherryrtrees died in 1831 aged 81. Adam Brack Boyd, his nephew, died in 1862, aged 73: John Brack Boyd died in 1906 aged 89. The estate then passed to Adam Brack Boyd, his nephew, born in Doddington in 1859, who preferred the life of a coffee planter in India to that of a Borders farmer. Adam seems to have had no involvement with the Cherrytrees estate. His marriage (which took place in India in 1888) was childless and ended in divorce, the scandalous details of which were revealed in the press: At their height, the Boyd family built a neat mausoleum in Yetholm kirkyard to commemorate their name and Adam Brack Boyd was the last of the Cherrytrees branch to be memorialised there, although he actually died in far off London. The mausoleum now lies abandoned and uncared for - see HERE. By the early 1920s the Cherrytrees estate was in the hands of Major Marshall.
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