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Jedburgh

Jedburgh’s Blue Plaque Trail

March 3, 2022 by dpike Leave a Comment

Jedburgh Blue Plaque Trail takes the visitor on a trip back in time, unfolding the town’s fascinating history, highlighting significant events and its famous sons and daughters.

It’s a gentle two-mile walk (3.2km), starting in Abbey Place, that links 32 blue plaques, placed at points in interest around the town. The roll call includes …

The Ramparts – French troops reinforced the Scots to defend Jedburgh against the English in 1548 and their commander, General D’Esse constructed gun platforms that give this raised area its name.

James Thompson (1700-1748) – Famous for the words to “Rule Britiannia,” James Thompson was the son of a local minister. On moving to London he became a well known poet.

James Veitch (1771-1838) – Developed skills as an engineer, mathematician and astronomy becoming famous for his telescopes and other scientific instruments.

Mary Somerville (1780-1872) – Known as the ‘Rose of Jedwood’ Mary became famous for her writings on mathematics, astronomy and the sciences. Somerville College, Oxford was named in her honour and she became the first woman, other than a royal, to appear on an RBS banknote,

A special booklet with a map of the trail and detailed information abut each plaque is available from the Visit Scotland tourist information centre and selected outlets in the town.

A key feature of the design is the inclusion of a QR (Quick Response) code on each plaque that links to the town website and more information.

Heralded as the historic gateway to Scotland, Jedburgh is an essential stop for visitors from all over the world and the Blue Plaque Trail helps to bring its illustrious past to life.

You can pick up the Jedburgh Blue Plaque Trail booklet from Visit Scotland’s information centre next to the Town Hall.

Filed Under: Border Towns, Jedburgh, Out and about Tagged With: Jedburgh, Jedburgh Blue Plaque Trail, Scottish Borders

Jedburgh Abbey

February 27, 2022 by dpike Leave a Comment

The Scottish Borders was a magnet for monks in medieval times – truly men on a mission. In a region with ancient Christian traditions and lured by the promise of royal patronage they set up four mighty monastic institutions at Jedburgh, Melrose, Drybrough and Kelso.

In the years before he was crowned king of Scotland, David 1 masterminded a plan to set up monastic centres throughout the Borders and was responsible for populating them with colonies of monks from England and the Continent.

Jedburgh Abbey was built from designs inspired by Europe’s finest churches and its roots trace back to 1118 when a group of Augustans from the Abbey of St-Quentin, at Beauvais north of Paris, set out for a new life in the Borders – a sort of early twinning arrangement – and served a royal castle located in the town.

The priory they established was given large bequests of lands and fisheries by David l and duly prospered. The men of the monastic orders were every bit as good at business as they were in upholding the faith.  It was raised to abbey status around 1154.

David’s successor, Malcolm died at Jedburgh Abbey in 1165 and Alexander lll was married there to Yolande of Dreux, another notable French connection.

There is nothing quite like a great ruin for visitor appeal and Jedburgh’s 12th century Abbey ranks alongside the best of them, providing a breathtaking welcome for those arriving in the town from the south.  

Down the centuries, not all visitors were welcome.

As a gateway town to the Borders and Scotland, Jedburgh bore the brunt of many unwelcome visits from invading English armies.

During incursions made in the 1540’s Jedburgh was reduced to ruins by Henry the Eighth’s armies. It was a time that became known as the ‘rough wooing’ resulting from the Scots refusal to ratify the betrothal of the infant Mary Queen of Scots to his son Edward, then at the tender age of seven.  

It was fatally destroyed after a series of major raids from south of the Border in 1523 and 1544. The Protestant Reformation of 1560 led to Jedburgh’s final demise as a monastic institution.

Jedburgh Abbey, however, is still an imposing building. The great abbey church of St Mary the Virgin stands almost entire and the eastern end has Romanesque architecture of the highest quality.

Still used on special occasions it is home to a museum housing historic artifacts from the area and run by Historic Environment Scotland.

Ample free parking is located close to Jedburgh Abbey and free audio tours available to use on-site in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

More at www.historicenvironment.scot

Filed Under: Border Towns, Jedburgh, Places

Jedburgh’s Enigma code hero

February 25, 2022 by dpike Leave a Comment

On a wall in the British Legion Club in Jedburgh, neatly positioned between two Victoria Cross memorials, sits a third commemorative display, this one containing a George Cross.

It is no exaggeration to say that the remarkable story attached to this George Cross, awarded posthumously to First Lieutenant Tony Fasson RN, changed the course of the Second World War.

As a young boy he lived in Lanton Tower, near Jedburgh, growing up in the beautiful Borders countryside and a world away from the horrors of trench warfare ravaging Europe at the time.
 
In the early 1920’s, at the age of seven or eight, Tony went off to boarding school
and from there joined other young hopefuls at Dartmouth Naval College to prepare for a career in the Royal Navy.
 
Along the way this natural athlete became an expert and strong swimmer – a combination that would have fateful and historic consequences.
 
In 1941, and now First Lieutenant Tony Fasson, he was assigned to join the crew of HMS Petard, a 1,540 ton destroyer newly off the slipway at Vickers Armstrong yard on Tyneside.
 
As part of the Mediterranean fleet, HMS Petard and its crew, captained by Lt Commander Mark Thorton, would distinguish itself on many occasions, but none more memorably than on October 30 1942.
 
On that day Petard, in company with three other Royal Navy ships, was steaming to waters off Port Said on the Egyptian coast to investigate reports of radar contact with a German submarine.  A sustained depth charge attack was laid down, eventually forcing the U-boat to the surface, and after Petard’s 4” guns caused serious damage the crew started to abandon ship.
 
Searchlights stabbed through the pitch black to reveal its identity as U-559 with its distinctive white donkey emblem on the conning tower.

Quick action was needed if the submarine was to give up any secrets. Tony Fasson together with Able Seaman Colin Grazier dived into the sea and swam across to the stricken vessel, followed in one of Petard’s boats by 16-year-old canteen assistant Tommy Brown.

Clambering down into U-559 the men made their way to the captain’s cabin where they found two code books printed in water-soluble ink. Passing them out to Brown they went back into the submarine to continue the search. U-559 made her final dive taking Tony Fasson and Colin Glazier with her. 
They would never know the importance of their actions and nor, thanks to the cloak of secrecy that was thrown around the incident, would anyone else for a very long time.

In fact the documents they rescued, a Short Weather Cipher (Wetterkurzschussel) and Short Signal Book (Kurzsignalsheft), would turn out to be absolutely priceless.

Just over 2,500 miles away at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, Britain’s top code breakers had hit a brick wall after the Germans introduced a fourth rotor into their brilliant Enigma machine code systems.

For months the upgraded M4 Enigma TRITON, named after the son of the Greek sea god Poseidon, had Bletchley’s best brains stumped.  Closeted in Hut 8, cryptanalysts had given their task the code name SHARK but they had yet to sink their teeth into TRITON.
 

These were desperate times for convoys braving U-boat packs in the Atlantic. Had Germany managed to prevent merchant ships from carrying food, raw materials, troops and their equipment from North America to Britain, as well as vital supplies to North Africa, the outcome of the Second World War could have been very different.

The ultimate sacrifice made by Tony Fasson and Colin Grazier has to be set against this potentially cataclysmic backdrop. Their courage allowed a glimmer of light to penetrate the darkest days of the war and enabled the Bletchley boffins to get back on track.

It took 24 days to get the code books from U-559 to Bletchley and the breakthrough came on December 13. The short weather cipher was precisely what the cryptanalysts
needed. 
 
Solutions to the hitherto impenetrable four-rotor Enigma messages between U-boat command and vessels on active duty soon began to flow. Only an hour after the first decrypts were made intercepts of U-boat signals were sent to the Admiralty’s submarine tracking room – revealing the positions of 15 submarines.
 
U-boat movements were exposed and the use of long range bombers and aggressive anti-submarine tactics gradually turned the tide in Britain’s favour. The scale of the breakthrough can be gauged by the fact that an estimated 1,250,000 tons of shipping and the lives of many seaman, were saved in December 1942 and January 1943 alone.
 
Both Tony and Colin Grazier were posthumously awarded the George Cross and Tommy Brown, the George Medal.  Tragically the young Tynesider was to die trying to rescue his sister from a house fire in 1945.
 
For the Fasson family, Tony’s death was to be followed by more devastating news when brother Jim, a Colonel in the Lanarkshire Yeomanry, was taken prisoner by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore. Incarcerated in the notorious Changi POW camp he was later shipped with is men to Manchuria until the end of hostilities.
 
The two brothers met, for what turned out to be the final time, completely by chance in Simonstown in South Africa. Jim was on his way to the Far East and, soon after, Tony sailed for active service in the Mediterranean.
 
The incredible secrecy surrounding Bletchley Park and all things Enigma meant that the U-559 incident never really received the recognition it deserved. This story started when I read about Tony Fasson on a set of beer mats produced a few years ago to celebrate 12 ‘Unsung heroes of the Borders’.

The U-559 heroes are, however, commemorated with pride by their local communities.
 
Tony Fasson’s bravery is recorded on plaques at churches in Bedrule and Jedburgh – as well as in the Legion Club. His original George Cross now resides in the Scottish United Services Museum at Edinburgh Castle.
 
In Tamworth, home town of Colin Grazier, a town centre memorial and part of a small estate with streets named Fasson Close, Grazier Avenue, Brown Avenue, Bletchley Drive and Petard Close offer a permanent reminder.
 
And, more recently, a stained glass window has been installed in the Saville Exchange Building in North Shields to commemorate Tommy Brown’s part in the episode.
 
Everyone of us have reason to remember with gratitude the actions of all three.


 

 

Filed Under: Border Towns, Jedburgh, People Tagged With: Scottish Borders. Jedburgh. Enigma hero Tony Fasson.

Jedburgh Castle Jail and Museum

February 23, 2022 by dpike Leave a Comment

On a warm sunny day Jedburgh’s Castle Jail is one of the most pleasant looking buildings you could come across….from the outside.

Step across the threshold and you may find that it’s a different story. Here you will find tales of the gallows and and of ghosts – a grisly past and a very spooky present indeed. 

It is reputedly one of the most haunted places in the Borders, where apparitions are seen regularly, including a ghostly piper who walks the parapets, and strange lights appear at night.

The jail’s ghostly goings on have hit the headlines more than once and featured on TV when a team investigating the paranormal paid a visit. Their verdict – a spine chilling experience.

All of which is hardly surprising when you find that the prison was built on Gallows Hill and the site of the original castle, burnt down in 1409 to deny its use to the invading English. Despite its reputation Jedburgh Castle Jail continues to be a popular booking for ghost hunting groups from all over the country.

The castle was built in the 12th century by King David I and King Malcolm IV died there in 1165.

The present day building, a John Howard Reform Jail, went up in 1820 and was a model establishment in its day, though there’s no doubt that you wouldn’t have wanted to do time there.

The interpretation centre that is open to the public today reveals a prison regime that was as harsh as it was bleak.

You can walk through the original cell blocks, meet the inmates, examine the conditions they lived in and follow their stories. Step into one of the cells and just imagine the door being slammed shut and you’ll know what I mean.

The prison was mainly used as a debtors jail but, following longstanding tradition, executions continued to take place and criminals were hung on the gallows.

One such involved Thomas Wilson who was found guilty for the murder of a young shepherd at St Boswells Fair. It later transpired that Thomas was innocent (not the first and certainly not the last) and it may be that his spirit is one of those that roams the building seeking justice.  

Today it’s home to a museum that charts the town’s history and the achievements of its most famous citizens together and plays host to displays and travelling exhibitions.

Admission: Free.

More at… www.liveborders.org.uk/culture/museums/our-museums/jedburgh-castle-jail-and-museum/

Filed Under: Border Towns, Jedburgh, Places

Wallace stands tall in the Scottish Borders

February 22, 2022 by dpike Leave a Comment

There may be as much Hollywood as there is historical fact in Mel Gibson’s ‘Braveheart’ but it does nothing to diminish the stature of Scotland’s national hero, Sir William Wallace.

To the English he was an outlaw and murderer while in Scotland he is credited with laying the foundations for an independent Scotland under Robert the Bruce.

The son of a Scottish knight and minor landowner he came from a family whose motto was ‘Pro Libertate’ of For Freedom, and during an eight year period from 1297 until his capture in 1305 he waged his campaign against the English.

From his base in Ettrick Forest, he employed highly successful hit and run tactics against a more powerful foe – deeds that inspired others such as Andrew Murray in the north and fanned the flames of revolt throughout Scotland.

With much of Scotland marching down the path to liberation Wallace and Murray faced their sternest test in 1297 when they met an English army in open battle at Stirling Bridge.

They achieved a stunning victory leaving the English with 5,000 dead on the battlefield, including the despised treasurer Hugh Chessingham.

Wallace was appointed Guardian of Scotland in 1298, a ceremony that Selkirk claims to have taken place at its Kirk ‘o the Forest. In the years that followed Wallace laid waste to towns in northern England but was betrayed and eventually captured.

Taken to London for trial, the outcome a foregone conclusion, Wallace was found guilty and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. His head was impaled on a spike and displayed at London Bridge, his right arm on the bridge at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, his left arm at Berwick, his right leg at Perth, and the left leg at Aberdeen.

Edward I may have believed that with Wallace’s capture and execution, he had at last broken the spirit of the Scots. He was wrong. By executing Wallace so barbarically, Edward had martyred a popular Scots military leader and fired the Scottish people’s determination to be free.

The first memorial in Scotland to be built in Wallace’s memory was at Bermersyde, Dryburgh. It was paid for by David Steuart Erskine, the 11th Earl of Buchan and unveiled in 1814.

It remains an impressive piece of public art: 21ft of red sandstone, on a 10ft plinth, placed on a commanding position overlooking Dryburgh Abbey and the Tweed Valley towards the Eildon Hills.

It is easily reached, travelling through St Boswells to a left turn about a mile down the road following the Wallace Statue signs. There is a small car park and then a short walk through woodlands to the statue.

A short drive away is Scott’s View, a magnificent vista of the Borders countryside and said to be the favourite view of Sir Walter Scott.

Filed Under: Border Towns, Historic Borders, Jedburgh, Out and about, People

Friends of Monteath Mausoleum turn back time

February 22, 2022 by dpike Leave a Comment

As imposing structures go, the Monteath Mausoleum ranks among the Scottish Borders best.

Its presence, just off the A68 past Lilliardsedge Holiday Park, deservedly puts it on nodding terms with the Eildon Hills to the north and its near neighbour to the east, the Peniel Heugh Waterloo Monument.

But size is no guarantor of fame and the Monteath Mausoleum is more likely to prompt the question “what’s that” from those in passing cars than it is a knowledgeable answer.

For the record this magnificent mausoleum was constructed for General Sir Thomas Monteath Douglas (1788 – 1868) an army officer in the Bengal Infantry. Born in Jamaica to a Scottish father and English mother, he rose progressively through the ranks, becoming increasingly senior as he distinguished himself in campaigns in India. In 1865 he was awarded the KCB for long service to the Empire.

In 1864, Thomas Monteath Douglas commissioned his mausoleum to be built on land overlooking the site of the battle of Ancrum Moor (1545) during Henry VIII’s ‘rough wooing’ campaigns. He died in 1868, and his resting place secured a solitary and commanding position over the surrounding landscape: one that future generations still look upon with awe.

The entrance is guarded by two life-sized stone lions, one awake and one, curiously, asleep. Inside the crypt two huge sculpted angels stand guard by the tomb. Above them, a star-studded, domed roof filters pale green light into the chamber.

After falling into serious decline and disrepair a group of local people, now officially the Friends of Monteath Mausoleum, decided to turn the clock back. They secured funding for a restoration programme in 2018 and work began in October of that year. By the Spring of 2019 the building had been fully restored with new glazed stars in the roof, new oak doors and the whole building made fully watertight. Volunteers then took over to tidy the site, restore the lawns and install new pathways to improve public access.

During the long lockdown, Friends of the Monteath Mausoleum have produced an Audio Guide for visitors to the monument which can be streamed live or downloaded onto mobile phones.

The spectacular Victorian mausoleum on Lilliards Edge near Ancrum has remained accessible for walkers and cyclists during lockdown, although the crypt is currently unavailable.

Photographs with thanks to Phil Wilkinson and Border Aerial Photography.

Filed Under: Border Towns, Jedburgh, Out and about

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