Scotland Peebles, Scottish Borders

Peebles is an attractive and thriving town on the banks of the River Tweed and Eddlestone Water. It is the third largest town in the Borders.

Peebles is one of the original Royal Burghs, being established by 1152 by King David I of Scotland Burgh and he built a castle here on the site of what is now the Old Parish Church. It controlled the crossing of the River Tweed and a town (the Old Town) grew up beneath it. The castle was probably demolished in the Scottish Wars of Independence in the C13th to stop it falling into the hands of the English.

Peebles became an important market town with up to seven annual fairs. Its importance was recognised as the chief courts of justice had to be held annually in either Edinburgh or Peebles. James III was a regular visitor.

It escaped the worst of the Border conflicts and continued to be very prosperous. However, the town was almost completely raised by English in 1549 during the Rough Wooing when Henry VIII tried unsuccessfully to marry his son Edward to Mary Queen of Scots.

Following the Union of the Crowns and the departure of James VI and his court to London, the town lost its importance and gradually fell into decline. The start of the industrial revolution had little impact on Peebles at the beginning. In 1801, the town was described as ‘stagnant and almost lifeless’ or ‘as quiet as the grave’ Poverty and hunger were common.

The arrival of Railway in 1855 brought an increase in trade and in particular a growth in industry, transforming the woollen industry from a cottage industry into an industrial one with with the opening of several woollen mills.

The railway also brought visitors and there were attempts to establish Peebles as a spa resort and a huge hotel was built on the edge of Peebles to provide water cures and hydrotherapy treatment for visitors to the town, attracting many visitors to the area. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1901 but was quickly replaced by the present splendid Peebles Hydro building.

Today, Peebles is an attractive and bustling town and still the main shopping centre for the area with a good range of small independent shops including a very good bakers and butchers as well as a traditional ironmongers shop. It still retains a lot of open green spaces in the centre of the town. It remains a popular tourist centre as well as being a commuter town for Edinburgh.

The town is divided into the Old Town and the New Town.

The Old Town was the original centre and lies to the west of the junction of Eddlestone Water and the River Tweed. It was where the workers lived in small thatched cottages. The area was largely destroyed by the English in 1459. Now most of the buildings are C19th

The New Town was built in the latter part of the C15th on a spur of land between the River Tweed and the Eddleston Water, which may have been regarded as a more defensible site. It is now the main shopping area with more substantial houses and properties.

Peebles is best explored on foot and there is a town trail.

cont...

 

[Eleanor]

Peebles New Town

This is based round Eastgate and High Street. Narrow alleys lead down to the River Tweed with bits wide grassy banks and the elegant foot suspension bridge and the stone built Tweed Bridge. There has been a bridge here since the Medieval ages but the present bridge dates from the late C17th although has been widened several times.

This is the main shopping area.

The Mercat Cross is here, having been moved back here in 1965. It traditionally marked the right to hold markets and fairs at this point. The top has carvings of a salmon (from the Burgh Coat of Arms) and strawberries (from the Neidpath Coat of Arms.

The three salmon from the Burgh Coat of Arms are also depicted on the the statue outside the Theatre on Eastgate. The burgh motto is Contra Nando Incrementum which is variously interpreted as ‘against the tide we multiply’.

Perhaps the two most impressive buildings are the Old Town House and the Chambers Institute, the two white harled buildings half way down on the south side of High Street. The Old Town House was built in 1753 and was used for council meetings until 1911. Next to it is the Chambers Institure.

The Chambers Institute building was originally known as the Dean’s House and had belonged to Cross Kirk. It was then owned by the Dukes of Queensbury and was referred to as the Queensbury Lodgings, before being sold to the Reid Family.

The property was bought by the publisher William Chambers who had been born in Biggiesknowe in the Old Town. He gifted the building to the town in 1859 to improve facilities for their ‘social, moral and intellectual improvement.’ Retaining the external appearance, the building was substantially altered by adding an art gallery, with a reproduction of the marble frieze from Parthenon, a small museum and a reading room.

The cost of upkeep was high and in 1905/6 the premises were altered to included a council chamber, police court and municipal offices. Ownership passed the burgh council in 1911 and the Library extended in 1912 funded by Andrew Carnegie. It continued to be used for council meetings until 1975. The John Buchan Story is now housed here.

The splendid War Memorial in the courtyard was constructed in 1922. 225 men were killed out of a total male population of 2257. It was unveiled by Field Marshall Earl Haig. At the centre is a Celtic cross. Names from the Second World War and the one person killed in Afghnistan were added later.

Towards the bottom end of High Street is the Tontine Hotel dating from 1808. The name comes from the way it was funded by several subscribers with the last surviving one taking possession.

The pink granite fountain in front of the hotel is dedicated to Professor John Veich who was born in Biggiesknowe and was a respected Professor of Logic at St Andrews and Glasgow universities.

At the bottom of High street on the opposite side is Bank House. This was used as a meeting place for the town council before Town House built in 1753. The building partially demolished when the Cuddy Bridge over Eddlestone Water was widened. John Buchan often stayed here and his sister lived and wrote here.

cont...

 

[Eleanor]

Peebles New Town Churches

At the bottom of High Street is the Old Parish Church, built on the site of the old castle. The building was dedicated in 1887s and replaced an earlier building on this site. It is Victorian Gothic Gothic with a crown steeple. The clock is all that survives of the earlier church.

It is a large church with a gallery round three sides and could seat 1200 worshippers.

At the back a wood and glass entrance screen forms a small porch.

The original stone font is here in front of a stained glass window reflecting ‘God in Peebles.’ The other window reflects ‘God in Nature.’

The chancel is small compared with the rest of the church. The flags in the nave are the Colours of the Peeblesshire Militia raised in1801 during the Napoleonic Wars, but disbanded in 1816 after the Battle of Waterloo. The Standard of Peebles branch of Royal British Legion Sotland was laid up on the chancel pillar in 2019 following closure of the branch.

There is a carved pale wood reredos below the east window which has scenes from the life of Christ.

On either side of the chancel arch are brass memorials listing t4h names of those who died in the First World War.

Names from the second world War are displayed on pillars in the nave.

At the other end of Eastgate is St Andrew Leckie Parish Church which was built in 1876 as a memorial to Rev Thomas Leckie, who became a licensed preacher and was ordained the first minister of the Associate Burgher Congregation in Peebles in 1794. It had a congregation of nearly 400 at the time of his death. Family land near Tweed Green was donated to build a church in his memory. By 1900, there were 3 Presbyterian churches in Peebles. In 1918 St Andrew's and the West Church merged, taking the name of the former but the building of the latter. A restrictive deed demands that the church is still referred to as "The Leckie Memorial Church".

Across the road, still on Eastgate, is the Free Church, built in 1871. This is now the home of the Eastgate Theatre.

All three churches have a very similar style of architecture.

Next to St Andrew Leckie Parish Church is the less assuming St Peter's Episcopal Church. Before the church was built, worshippers met in the Tontine Hotel. A church was built in 1830 near the Mercat Cross. In the 1880s a more ornate Chancel was added with choir stalls,

cont...

 

[Eleanor]

Peebles Old Town

Peebles Old Town is across Cuddy Bridge and Eddlestone Water, a tributary of the River Tweed.

This was the original centre, growing up under the protection on Peebles Castle, built on the mound which is now the site of the Old Parish Church. Most of the Old Town was destroyed in 1495 and new building took place across Eddlestone Water in what was to become the New Town. Most of the buildings in the Old Town are C19th.

A few of the older weavers cottages can be seen on Bigggiesknowe.

There are a few shops at the bottom of Old Town.

Across the road from them is Old Town Gardens, an attractive small community Garden.

This has the remains of a 1800s cannon thought to have been used by Peeblesshire Yeomanry at the time of the threatened Napoleonic invasion.

Near it is the remains of the original Mercat Cross plinth.

The metal sculptures on the wall commemorate the March Riding and the Beltane Queen Festival. One of the conditions of being granted a charter was that the boundary stones were inspected every year on horseback by the Burghers of the town.

The Beltane festival Beltane marks the return of summer with the lighting of fires. Winter bedding was burnt and floor coverings replaced. It is now a week long festival culminating in the crowning of the Beltane Queen.

In the corner of the garden is a small rock garden created in 2020 in memory and recognition of those who gave their own life while helping save others during the Coronavirus pandemic.

At the top of the Old Town is the hospital and Hay Lodge Park, an area of open parkland with a children’s play area and a rugby field.

Across the road is the remains of St Andrew’s Kirk set in its graveyard. This was the original parish church and dates from the end C12th, soon the town had become a royal burgh. It was severely damage in 1549 when town destroyed by English and the parishioners abandoned St Andrew’s, transferring to Cross Kirk, a short distance away. Cromwell’s army stabled horses in ruins. Stones robbed from the church in 1663 for widening the Tweed Bridge. Only the tower survives, which was restored in the C19th.

Cross Kirk is to the north of the town town centre and was outside the medieval burgh. In 1261, a cross and an urn containing ashes were found on the site. The cremated ashes were thought to be those of St Nicholas, although there is no record of how they might have come here…

A church was built on the site by Alexander III and it soon became associated with miracles and a place of pilgrimage. In 1473, James III founded a monastery of the Order of Trinity Friars (which was founded in 1198 and dedicated to release Christian prisoners from the Saracens) around the church.

Cross Kirk was also destroyed by the fire in 1549 but was repaired. After the Reformation, the church became to Parish Church for Peebles, until 1784. By then its poor condition made a move essential. A new church was built on Castle Hill at the bottom of High Street. Cross Kirk was left abandoned. It came under government guardianship in 1925 and is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland and is the best preserved urban friary in Scotland