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Graveyard survey starts at the Church...
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If you had peeped into the graveyard at Eddleston Parish Church on Saturday 6th October you might have wondered what was going on. You would have seen about a dozen hardy souls scattered around the gravestones some clutching clip-boards and peering intently at the grave monuments trying to decipher lichen-covered lettering and others bent over 30-metre tapes trying to read measurements in the blustery wind. What were these folk up to?
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‘Winged soul’: from the memorial to Thomas Purdie, tenant of Milkiston, who died in 1815 aged 95 years.
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In fact, what the group had started on that windy Saturday was a survey of the historic graveyard, by kind permission of Reverend Calum MacDougall and Scottish Borders Council. The survey of the Church is
just one part of our Eddleston Parish Project. Over the next few years the Society hopes to carry out an archaeological survey of the whole of the parish. Our aims at the end of the survey will be to produce not
only a technical report but also a more popular account of the archaeology of the parish for the general public.
During 1999 and 2000 we had made a start on surveying the west side of the Eddleston Valley, carrying out fieldwalking at Hattonknowe, Darnhall, Cloich and Shiplaw by kind permission of Messrs Smellie, Walker, Grierson and the late Willie Bertram respectively. We’ll be describing those results in our next newsletter.
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In our next bulletin...
Shiplaw’s Stone Age secrets traces of Eddleston’s earliest settlers revealed!
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This year of course our fieldwork out in the wider countryside was brought to an abrupt stop by the Foot and Mouth outbreak. All being well we hope that we can start again in the new year, but that is the reason why we have embarked upon the graveyard survey now..
To start us off on our graveyard survey, we were lucky to be able to enlist the help of Geoff Bailey, who works with Falkirk Museums Service. Although Geoff is primarily interested in Roman archaeology, he has several other strings to his bow - among them an interest in the detailed recording of historic graveyards.
Drawing on his own experience of recording graveyards at Airth, Carriden and elsewhere in the Falkirk District, Geoff was able to introduce our group to various aspects of recording of the monuments, from basic terminology to assessment of their condition; from deciphering inscriptions to the recognition of carved symbols of mortality such as hourglasses and ‘winged souls’
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The Eddleston Parish Project...
Over the next few years, the Peeblesshire Archaeological Society’s fieldwork group hopes to carry out an archaeological survey of the whole of the parish. From time to time, we will produce short reports like this to keep you informed of our progress. If you would like to take part in the survey or would like further information, please contact our secretary, Bob Knox (01721 722203).
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While one group of us then made a start on the recording of the individual monuments, Geoff took another work party off to make a start on the survey of the graveyard as a whole, armed with those 30-metre tape measures...
Although everyone was initially on a very steep and unfamiliar learning curve, it was agreed that by the end of what had been a very interesting day, we had made a fair start on the survey.The north-east corner of the graveyard was beginning to take shape on our master plan, and a basic record had been made of around 30 of the grave monuments.
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Detail from the 17th century memorial to Reverend James Smith, who died in 1673 having been minister at Innerleithen and Eddleston for 36 years
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At the local level, what is already making the Parish Church project fascinating - and poignant - are the links that are beginning to emerge between the kirkyard and the farms in the parish that we had begun to get to know through our fieldwalking. Through the graveyard survey we are beginning to put names to some of the 18th and early 19th century occupants of local farms such as Darnhall and Shiplaw, Milkieston and Harehope and others.
Among the earlier (pre-1855) memorials there are also occasional insights into people’s occupations: not surprisingly, the picture is dominated by the farmers and tenant farmers, but amongst others, the list also includes a tailor, a candlemaker and a shoemaker. And few of us will have been aware that the churchyard contains a memorial to the Reverend John Dickson, who was a missionary for 24 years to the `Mahometans in Southern Russia’ and translator of the Bible into Tartar Turkish.
Although the earliest surviving monuments only date from the late 17th century, there has been a church in Eddleston since the early 12th century. According to records of the time, the church building that existed in 1796 was said to be around 200 years old, but no obvious traces survive of that or any of the earlier buildings on the site.
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The south porch with the monument to the Reverend James Smith to its left
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That church was seemingly extensively rebuilt in 1829 and then further restoration took place in 1897 after a fire. As a result, no part of the existing fabric of the church appears to be older than the 19th century. However, built into the SW angle of the church is an 18th century sundial, while several interesting 17th and 18th century armorial panels and funerary monuments have also been incorporated into the 19th century structure.
Of considerable interest too, is the fine bell which hangs in the belfry on the east gable (see photo). The bell is said to bear an inscription: IC BEN GHEGOTEN INT JAER ONS HEEREN MCCCCCVII which translates as ‘I was cast in the year of Our Lord 1507’. It is thought to have been cast in the same foundry as the bell dated 1520 that hangs in the Tolbooth at Crail over in the East Neuk of Fife.
Returning to the graveyard itself, there is still a lot of work still to be done, but when the graveyard survey is complete we will have made an important contribution to the recording of our local heritage. This is especially timely, as the problems of the decay of Scotland’s carved stones and the conservation of our historic graveyards are currently matters of national concern (see for example, Historic Scotland’s leaflet The Carved Stones of Scotland. A Guide to Helping in their Protection)
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The society has just been invited by Peebles Museum to mount an
exhibition about its Eddleston Project in Spring 2003. Watch this space
for further details!
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If anyone would like to help with the process of recording please contact our Secretary, Bob Knox No previous experience is required - but if you do have any skills as a geologist, genealogist, or local historian, or as a draughtsperson, photographer or surveyor, so much the better!
Trevor Cowie
Chairman
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