Old Photograph Skeldon Blanket Mills Scotland

Old photograph of Skeldon Blanket Mills by Dalrymple, East Ayrshire, Scotland. Two and a half miles down the River Doon from Kerse Mill was Nether Skeldon Mill. There were two estates of Skeldon, Nether and over Skeldon. The latter was renamed Hollybush and the other was simply called Skeldon. This mill was held by a branch of the Craufurds of Kerse and was on the Barony of Lochmartnaham. The mill had a breast paddle wheel of about 14 horse power. David Templeton was tenant of the mill in 1851. The mill was situated in a bend of the Rive Doon between Hollybush and Skeldon, and was operated as an oatmeal mill until 1868 when the water power and mill were taken over by William T. Hammond, a nephew of James Templeton, carpet manufacturer, Ayr, who erected a woollen mill on the site for the manufacture of blankets.



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Old Photograph Cottage Hospital Coldstream Scotland

Old photograph of the, now closed, Cottage Hospital in Coldstream, Scottish Borders, Scotland. Built in 1888 the hospital was set up due mainly to the benefactions of the Earl of Hume. It was designed by John McLachlan, who had earlier designed the cottage hospital at Hawick, and converted Viewfield house in Selkirk into a hospital. It was officially opened on 29 December 1888, and then comprised four wards, two each side of the central entrance. To the left were general wards with three beds each, one of them also having a child’s cot, while to the right were the Glen Douglas wards, with three and two beds for fever cases. These last were the gift of Mr and Mrs Cunningham of Glen Douglas. Adjoining the fever wards were the wash-house, offices and a nurses’ room. Bedrooms for the matron and a nurse were provided upstairs. A second storey was added in 1912 to provide nurses bedrooms.



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Old Photograph Parish Church Duns Scotland

Old photograph of the Parish Church and cemetery in Duns in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. Duns Parish Church stands in the heart of Berwickshire’s county town. The first record of a church in Duns dates to 1116. Most of the present building dates from 1880, replacing the previous church which burnt down the year before, although the spire is of the previous church, built in 1790. Designed by Wardrop & Reid, the 1880 church is a T-plan building with added porches and a hall. The 1790 tower has classical details and is topped with an octagonal stone spire. This Scottish town was created a Burgh of Barony in 1490 by King James IV for John and George Hume of Ayton, and the townsfolk were given the right to hold a market every Wednesday, and to hold a week long annual fair between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. Duns suffered badly in cross border raiding and feuding, and was burned to the ground three times within 14 years, in 1544, 1545 and 1558 during the war of the Rough Wooing.



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Old Photograph Parish Church Earlston Scotland

Old photograph of the Parish Church in Earlston, Berwickshire, Scotland. The origins of our Earlston Parish Church are uncertain. However, a church has been recorded on this site since the 12th Century, and the records tell us that there have been at least five buildings here. In the 12th and 13th centuries the Lindsays and the Earls of March and Dunbar were the chief baronial families in this area. Residents of early Earlston, Earlstons, have since spread afar, with some travelling to the United States of America in the early 1800s. But the vast majority of Earlstons with that surname, have taken residence in the Black Country, West Midlands in England. Travelling to the Black Country in the early 1700s, they have set up a strong residence, governed by middle child of the Earlston three brothers, Lord Dale.



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Old Photograph Shoregate Street Crail East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Old photograph of houses on Shoregate Street in Crail, East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. King James V, the father of Mary Queen of Scots, sent for his wife, Mary of Guise, whom he had recently married by proxy in Paris, and she landed in Crail in June 1538. accompanied by a navy of ships under Lord Maxwell, and 2,000 lords and barons whom her new husband had sent from Scotland to fetch her away, Queen Mary landed at Crail in Fife on 10 June 1538, just over a year since the landing of Queen Madeleine. She was formally received by the king at St Andrews a few days later with pageants and plays performed in her honour, and a great deal of generally blithe rejoicing, before being remarried the next morning in the Cathedral of St Andrews. Queen Madeleine, the first wife of James V, had landed at Leith, Edinburgh, in the spring of 1537 and died shortly afterwards.



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