Shopkeepers
Amongst the shopkeepers, only one
baker is mentioned (Carruthers,
successor to Wully Beattie and
Lindsays corner) but numerous other
shops and household's sold pies,
home-made scones, sweets and
lemonade.
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There were two butchers
on 'butcher's corner' at Eastgate - Johnston in
what became Douglas's
shop and Thomas Beattie
next door. Behind both
shops were
slaughterhouses and
Ramsay remembers how the
village boys used to go
there to hold a candle
and watch.
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One of the butchers shops also sold
groceries, sticks of rock and scones
with a slice of potted meat inside.
There were four other grocer's
shops in the village and a poultry
shop in Sunnyside. The woman who
kept it used to travel into Hawick
or Jedburgh with any produce she
could not sell in Denholm.
There were three cobblers. Tom Park
in 5 Main Street was one of them, Mr
Hume in the Poplars was another, and
the third was in the Canongate.
There were three tailors, John
Turnbull's father in Rosebank had
several men and apprentices - and
three dressmakers, two of them in
Elm House.
The Draper's shop in the middle of
the Main Street used to have a fine
display at Christmas. Next door,
part of the house that is now
Leyden's View was a crockery shop,
kept by an old man with a cork leg.
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A woman in the Neuk
in Eastgate sold baskets
and brushes from her
house. Between Elm House
and Elm Cottage there
used to be an old
building where coal and
turnips were sold and
'tick' was marked up on
a slate.
The Neuk, Eastgate
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On the north side of Eastgate
there was a public wash house and in
Leyden's Road old 'Mrs Parcel' (Mary
Percival Scott) took in clothes to
be mangled. The post-office, managed
at that time by the Miller family,
was in the Main Street, where
Greenside is now. It had a savings
bank, an insurance department and
letter and Telegraph services. It
also sold groceries and the
newspapers.
There was a large public weighing
machine on the green, near where the
bus shelter is now. Loads of coal,
hay, straw etc were weighed on it
and it was looked after by the Baker
on the corner.
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Inns and
lodging houses
By this time only two
of the five public
houses were left, the
Fox and Hounds and the
Cross Keys, both had
stables behind. The
owners of the Fox and
Hounds kept a dog cart
and wagonette and one or
two carriage horses
which they used to hire
out. Ramsay says the
wagonette went to
Hassendean every day.
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Fox & Hounds Inn |
An earlier landlord of the Fox
and Hounds, William Leyden, had been
a well known athlete. He is said to
have walked to Innerleithen, taken
part in the sports there, and walked
back to Denholm on the same day. The
owners of the Cross Keys at the end
of the 19th century were the
Andersens.
In addition to accommodation at
the two Inns there were several
lodging house's which put up tramps,
hawkers, tinkers, muggers (mug
sellers) and the many migrant
Irishmen and casual labourers. These
appear to have been mainly summer
visitors. 'Magenta Robbie', a well
known Tramp, used to stay from time
to time. Examples of these lodging
houses are Leyden's View, remembered
by Mark N. Robson as the old White
Swan, several cottages on the south
side of the Canongate and the the
now demolished two-storey building
(previously a stocking mill) behind
Sunny Bank Cottage, in Leyden's
Road. The owner of this last one
rejoiced in the name of Bridget
Danny Hoo!
Other services
Somerville Buildings |
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The
doctor lived on
Sunnyside where
Somerville buildings are
now. His coach and
coachman were housed in
the coach house up the
pend through the arch.
The village constable
lived in the police
station at the bottom of
what is now Eastlea
Drive. His main duties
were to help catch
poachers and deal with
the drunk and
disorderly.
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They were sometimes
locked up in the old
police station or "House
of refuge", a building
with barred windows at
the top end of Kirkside
(now Seaton cottage).
Ramsay mentions a local
fire brigade (formed in
1890 with eight men)
with a base in the Wynd,
and remembers them
giving the Leyden's
monument an annual wash.
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Seaton Cottage |
Since 1882 the village was lit by
eight lamps - but not on windy or
moonlit nights.
Concerts used to be held in aid
of the "lighting fund." The lamp
lighter, a hard drinker, was
pestered and made fun of by the
village boys.
By this time there was a proper
hearse, kept in the Loaning, but it
was not often used as most burials
now took place in the new cemetery
beyond the Canongate and the coffin
was simply carried there by pall
bearers. Fewer Denholm people were
now being buried at Cavers. The
registrar, Mr Moody, lived in Fern
Bank. Ramsay remembers him as a very
tall stately man who wore a half
tile hat. Behind his house was
another stable.
The village Bible woman lived in
Leyden's Road. She was Jesse
Armstrong who, according to her
tombstone, was also "sick nurse in
Denholm for many years."
Libraries
There was a subscription library
in Barries cottage on the corner of
the Wynd, dating back to 1805. It
was set up by Andrew Scott,
schoolmaster, and four others,
including William Barry who became
the librarian. The Barry family
continued to look after the library
until it closed in 1906. A full
account of its hundred years can be
found in an article entitled 'an Old
Denholm book' by William F Cuthbertson, Hawick archaeological
Society, transactions, April 1933.
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The second last
building at the West end
of the main street
housed a reading room
where people could sit
and read magazines and
periodicals. Sir James
Murray's father had been
a promoter of the
Reading room Club back
in the middle of the
19th century.
Barries Cottage |
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The
gentry
Mr James Douglas had
died in 1872 without a
male heir and had been
succeeded as Laird by
his niece, Mrs Palmer
Douglas.
The largest house in
the village was
Craigview (now called
Denholm Lodge). It was
built by the Scott
family, owners of Lyle
and Scott, Hawick.
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A Mr Andrew Stewart lived in
Belleview (now Denholm house) and
Ramsay remembers that the family
used to bury all their pets in the
garden. He remembers 'quite a swell'
called Mr Campbell who lived in Main
Street and worked in a bank in
Hawick.
Church life
Much of the villagers leisure time
and social life was connected with
the Church. The Chapel Sunday-school
was well-attended and the highlight
of the year was the annual picnic at Spital tower or Penielheugh. Farm
carts were borrowed for the journey.
The Kirk ran the Bible class and the
young men's fellowship. The Band of
Hope met every week during the
winter with a magic lantern show,
depicting scenes from "Pilgrim's
progress" or the lives of John Knox
and George Wishart.
On find some evenings services
were sometimes held on the Quoiting
Haugh by the Teviot bridge with
music from the organ carried down
from the chapel. The Kirk ran an
annual "soiree", a musical evening
to which came violinists and other
musicians from Hawick. The children
would be treated to a bag of buns.
Also provided by the Kirk was a
Christmas-tree, a rarity then. The
choir used to go for an annual
outing on bicycles. There used to be
regular sewing meetings when ladies
of the congregation made articles
for the annual sale of work.
The sports
Parts of the old common arable
land were used at this time for
sporting activities, organised by
the feuars. In Ramsay's boyhood
"sports" were held in the field by
the Gang on the Jedburgh road. At
other times this field was used for
football and cricket. Later, between
the two world wars, it was rented by
Mr Dickman, the Saddler, and used
for hen runs. The 'sports' were
then held where the Ashloaning is
now, later behind Jedward Terrace
and, before the Second World War, in
the Croft field between the
Canongate and the Jedburgh road.
The
Quoiting Haugh
The piece of ground to near the
entrance to Dean Burn House had once
been used as a wrestling ground.
Quoiting Haugh |
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In the 1870's however
the owners enclosed part
of it with a hedge and
the public playground
became instead the
riverbank between the
Teviot Bridge and the
old suspension bridge.
The grassy slope behind
made a good terrace for
onlookers. The men of
the village used to play
quoits here and it
became known as the
Quoiting Haugh.
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The game died out after the first
world-war but the name is still
used.
The Flower Show
The Denholm Horticultural Society
was founded in 1848 and the annual
flower show was held in the school
which served as the village hall.
Sir James Murray recalled that as a
boy in the 1850's he used to compete
for the prize for the best
collection of wild flowers. "My only
serious rival was Willie Crook (who
grew up to be one of the last
Denholm stocking makers). He
generally beat me in tasteful
arrangement while I had the pull in
my knowledge of the botanical names
and the power to arrange them in
scientific order".
Another of his contemporaries,
John Scott (1836 -1880), gained all
the prizes for hardy annuals and
cultivated flowers. This success
encouraged him to take up gardening
as a living and he became a well
known horticulturalist. While at the
Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh he
corresponded with Darwin and
experimented with hybridisation of
plants.
The
Big Green
The Big Green was still let for
grazing to butchers or smallholders
but Ramsay also remembers how it
used to be a meeting place on New Year's Day for friends from near and
far. Some folks brought melodians
and concertinas and football would
be played. In the summer large
parties would come out from Hawick
in brakes, wagonette etc. they
refreshed themselves at the Fox and
Hounds and then came out on to the
green to dance to music from a
fiddle and concertina.
The Bough o' Bale was celebrated
at this time and as yet there was no
association with Guy Fawkes. The elm
trees on the green served as public
notice boards and were studded with
hundreds of nails left after old
notices and been taken down.
Soldiers on recruitment marches
used to camp on the green. They were
given a reception by the chief feuar
(the chairman of the feuars
Committee), the minister, the doctor
and the schoolmaster. The local
band, the old volunteers, would turn
out to play.
The
Shows
In 1892, Mr Milligan, the
auctioneer, was asked to allow
'Shows' on to the small green in
order to give some amusement to the
youth of the village and in Ramsay's
boyhood the Shows would come every
year with a shooting galleries,
stalls, sideshows and roundabouts.
Later, after the first world-war,
they were moved to the Croft field
where they were run by the Millar's,
a couple from Denholm who had eloped
from the village to get married.
Ramsay also remembers the circus
passing through, and travelling folk
who sold horses, donkeys and goats
stopped on their way to and from
fares in other places. The circus
elephants used to stop at a drinking
trough on Main Street which was
divided by the railings so that it
could be used by the cattle on the
green and the horses on the main
Street the trough would later taken
away but it seems that the elephants
never forgot it. In the 1930s they
still stopped at the same spot and
would not move until they had been
given their drink of water.
