31st July, Sunday: Jedburgh

After a minor re-arrangement of my rear nearside trim J, H & I set off in a mini convoy to Jedburgh.   Nice camp site walking distance from the town.  Pitched the tent for me so they could sleep in the Van.  While not a by-pass as such, the A68 has always by-passed the centre of the town and I have driven up and down the A68 many times in the past but have never stopped to look at the town.  The town has almost the full hand of cards: Mary Stuart, Robbie Burns, Walter Scott, Bonnie Prince Charlie.  Just need to scratch around to find associations with William Wallace and Robert the Bruce…..

It has a lovely ruined abbey as well as a house lived in by Mary Stuart and castle with a jail.

King David I (Scottish) wanted to show the English how rich & civilised the English were so encouraged abbeys to be built on the borders, hence Jedburgh, Melrose, Kelso and Dryburgh Abbeys.  As this part of Scotland changed hands on several occasions, they were all “devasted” (I want to say “slighted” but I think that is just castles?)

So the next few blogs are about abbeys.  Helen and I were discussing scoring them….

1. Melrose is the “poshest” as Melrose seems to be smart and wealthy and the abbey is on the edge of town and caters for coach loads.  Photos on another day.

2. Kelso is the biggest market town and there is very little left of the abbey so the abbey is not on the tourist circuit – and only merited the one photo:

3.  There is very little settlement at Dryburgh and the abbey was made into a “romantic ruin”.  It is next to a very desirable house on one side in which I suspect someone rich and maybe famous lives.  On the other side is a posh hotel. Again, photos on another day.

4. Jedburgh Abbey is right in the middle of the town and Jedburgh seems to be the most economically challenged – there are some empty shops and a few charity shops (and an embarassing Red Cross property.)  Both Mary, Queen of Scots’ House and the Castle Jail are free – I suspect that is to encourage tourism.  This one gets my top marks

West End

East End

Looking East

Looking West

A Roman inscription from an altar used in the construction of the Abbey

While out of date order I will “do” Jedburgh now.

As mentioned Mary Stuart lived here – not quite sure for how long, but it seems to have been “living” rather than being held captive.

Jedburgh from the castle

The castle…

  is really just a posh jail

Chemical make-up of Rayon

North British Rayon arrived in Jedburgh in 1929 and employed 850 people.  However this only lasted until 1956.  Also Lyle & Scott, Willian Laidlaw, Stewarts – all been and gone

 

I had difficulty taking this picture – it is an object gifted BY Queen Mary in 1928 which I thought remarkable as she is renowned for demanding things to be given to her.  Perhaps this is something she was given and didn’t want to keep..?  It was auctioned and achieved £120, funds for refurbishing Mary Stuart’s house.

Hutton’s unconformity at Jedburgh: he presented a paper observing that on the river Jed Water horizontal bands of red sandstone are lying on folded bands of rock, challenging the Bible.  I will write more about this.

 

A rather nice looking shop, sadly closed