Diane and Geoff Gittus of Kirk Yetholm have shared with us a copy of the picture shown above, which they have recently purchased. It is said to be by the famous Borders' artist Tom Scott. If this is so, then it must date from before 1927, the year of Tom's death. In the bottom left corner is the note 'at Yetholm', but if that is the case then where exactly are the buildings located which it shows?
   There is nothing in today's Yetholm which immediately seems to correspond with the buildings in the picture ... or is there?
   Rummaging through the YHS image archives there are a couple of pictures which might solve the mystery. The first, a colourised postcard, is shown below. It is a view looking down the loaning which runs up Yetholm Law, showing the buildings at the rear of the Old Brewery.

   For those unfamiliar with the Old Brewery the two buildings which are shown - the pantiled building on the left and the lighter-coloured building on the right - seem to be contiguous, but that is not the case. The building on the right is 30ft, or so, in front of the pantiled building. The two buildings form a partial courtyard and it is believed that there was once a now-demolished archway which led into this courtyard.
   Is it just coincidence that a cart can be seen tipped up in both images? Probably not, as the buildings were used in the early twentieth century as a farmyard by the Martin family. Their house was at the end of the row of thatched cottages which were later demolished and replaced by modern houses known as Deanfield Bank, but their working buildings were located in the Old Brewery. Doug Turnbull, in his memoirs in Bygone Yetholm describes how it was:
   The last house along the row was the home of Jim Martin and his wife Mary. I remember the sons Jim and Tom, and daughters Annie, Nina and Ruth. Annie became the mother of the Tokely family. Across the way were the outhouses and byre where the cows were milked daily. The main buildings which comprised their farm were at the Old Brewery. The stable was there and another byre, with other buildings housing cattle and pigs, and there was also storage for hay and fodder ...

   A more detailed comparison of the two buildings (above) shows that, although there are some minor differences, the configuration of an arch, a door and window are the same. The roof in the painting looks, at first sight, as if it may be thatched, but the edge of the roof is scalloped, indicating that pantiles, as shown in the photograph, are actually intended.
    A final piece of evidence that strongly suggests that the painting shows the Martin farmyard is provided by the photograph shown below, recently given to YHS by the Tokeley family. It shows James Martin in his cart (the same one shown in the painting?) circa 1910. The horse is decked out in in an array of fine brasses, so presumably it was taken shortly before Yetholm Show. The buildings in the background can be correlated with those shown in the painting - the pantiled roof of the building with the arch is clear, but note also the flat-roofed building with a doorway, on the left, and then, behind it, another pantiled roof. These are the same buildings that are to be seen on the left of the painting.

   The Old Brewery is currently unused. At some point the building with the archway shown in the painting was demolished, leaving only the rear wall standing. A lean-to shelter was then constructed, roofed with corrugated iron. The situation today is shown in the photographs below - the green sliding doors on the building on the right were installed when it was used as a garage.

YHS has a copy of another image (below) of the Old Brewery, as it once was. It was given to us by Francis Christie and drawn by 'J Thomson', who was obviously known to Francis. It is a slightly broader image and shows the thatched roofs of the houses that were demolished to makeway for Deanfield Bank, in the end one of which the Martin family lived.

   During the nineteenth-century towns and villages throughout Britain clubbed together to create Reading Rooms - lending libraries - for the benefit of the community. Yetholm was no different. In nearby Donaldson's Lodge a small building was purpose built to house the community library. It is still standing, with a neat fireplace in one wall, but abandoned and strewn with rubbish. Yetholm, although a much bigger village, does not seem to have been as ambitious and its 'Reading Rooms' seem to have been peripatetic. At one point the books were housed in the house called Montana, next to Gibson's Garage. In it's latter years it seems to have been housed in the school, where it was managed by the redoubtable Tibbie Herbert. When it closed, and what happened to the books, is a mystery.
    The poster shown above dates from 1910 and seems to mark an attempt to inject new life into the project. An account of the 'Conversazione' is given below (from the Southern Reporter, 27th October 1910). Dr Rodgers, who presides, gives some useful background information about the history of the Reading Room, although even he seems a little unsure about its origins.
   It is interesting that gentlemen were charged a shilling to attend the ball, which followed the conversazione - while ladies got in free (and no children)!

   Dr Rodgers lived in Romany House, which was built for him as a wedding present. Miss Downs, the pianist,  was the schoolmistress at Mowhaugh. 'Miss Rebecca Downs' is listed as schoolmistress there in the 1903 Slater's Directory. She lived with her widowed mother. In 1917, in her mid-40s, she married William Tait, a farmer at Middleton Hall, near Wooler. At that time it was expected a married woman would not continue in work. When she duly left Mowhaugh she was presented with a 'handsome silver tea service' by members of the library based in the schoolhouse there. From the report of the event (Jedburgh Gazette 20th  April 1917) we can see that she had for many years been secretary and treasurer of that remote Reading Room. 
   In many ways we are better informed about efforts at self-improvement at Mowhaugh than we are at Yetholm. In the 1870s, for example, the teacher (and poet) there, Mr Henry Telfer, established a 'Mutual  Improvement Association'. Below are a couple of newspaper reports about his efforts. The first (Kelso Chronicle, 11th August 1871) gives us some idea of the kind of books which the Mowhaugh library contained, presumably similar to those on offer in Yetholm, while the second (Kelso Chronicle, 10th November 1871) suggests that, as with Yetholm, efforts to improve the intellects of locals did not always meet with total enthusiasm (especially when 'members had a long way to come' - by foot, over rough moorland!).

   Hopefully the 'Conversazione' of 1910 was a convivial and successful event. All who have attended the ball have long since passed away, though we do - probably - have a picture of Mary Anne Rebecca Downs (1873-1950). Several photographs of the Mowhaugh School, with pupils and teacher, have survived, from the early decades of the twentieth century. The female teacher is nearly always shown with a pet pony, as in the image below, sometimes with a pupil perched on its back. It looks like Miss Downs, as well as encouraging reading and writing among the children of the Bowmont valley, liked to give her charges some fun as well.