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.