Town and civil parish in Scotland
Human settlement in Scotland
Coldstream
(
Scottish Gaelic
:
An Sruthan Fuar
) is a
town
and
civil parish
in the
Scottish Borders
area of
Scotland
.
[2]
A former
burgh
, Coldstream was where the
Coldstream Guards
, a
regiment
in the
British Army
, originated.
Description
[
edit
]
Coldstream lies on the north bank of the
River Tweed
in
Berwickshire
, while
Northumberland
in England lies to the south bank, with
Cornhill-on-Tweed
the nearest village. At the 2001 census, the town had a population of 1,813, which was estimated to have risen to 2,050 by 2006.
[3]
[4]
The parish, in 2001, had a population of 6,186.
[5]
History
[
edit
]
Coldstream is the location where
Edward I of England
invaded Scotland in 1296. In February 1316 during the
Wars of Scottish Independence
,
Sir James Douglas
defeated a numerically superior force of Gascon soldiery led by
Edmond de Caillou
at the
Skaithmuir
to the north of the town. In 1650
General
George Monck
founded the
Coldstream Guards
regiment (a part of the
Guards Division
,
Foot Guards
regiments
of the
British Army
). It is one of two regiments of the
Household Division
that can trace its lineage to the
New Model Army
. Monck led the regiment to London, helping to enable
the Restoration
of
King Charles II
.
[6]
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coldstream was a popular centre for
runaway marriages
, much like
Gretna Green
, as it lay on a major road (now the
A697
). A monument to
Charles Marjoribanks
(1794?1833), MP for
Berwickshire
, whose ancestral home was in nearby Lees, stands at the east end of the town, near the Coldstream Bridge.
Alec Douglas-Home
(1903?95), who served as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
from October 1963 to October 1964, is buried in the churchyard of the ruined Lennel parish church, just outside the village.
[7]
Notable buildings in the town include the marriage house, where weddings were conducted,
[8]
The Hirsel
, which is the family seat of the
Earls of Home
,
[9]
and
Coldstream Town Hall
, which is used as a library and registration office.
[10]
Each year, during the first week of August, Coldstream hosts a traditional "Civic Week" where it includes historical aspects of the town's history such as the Torchlight procession and horse-rides to the
Battle of Flodden
battlefield.
[11]
Coldstream Priory
[
edit
]
The Priory of St Mary was founded before 1166 by
Gospatric III, Earl of Lothian
. Never wealthy or powerful, the monastery nevertheless occurs frequently in the history of the border lands, being targeted several times by English forces. The monastery is the only one from the period where any charters survive thanks to the good sense of the prioress, having them copied. The house was used by both the English and Scots to gather information on each other, thanks to its location, the prioress treading a tightrope to ensure the survival of the monastery. It became a favourite of Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV, Margaret using it several times during the troubled times of the Regency.
After the Battle of Flodden, the prioress had all the bodies of the Scottish casualties (apart from
James IV
’s, which was taken to England) brought to the monastery for burial - an event commemorated annually even today, by a procession & service, involving cutting a sod of grass from the battle field and it being carried back to Coldstream; since the priory is completely lost today, the sod is symbolically ‘buried’ on the Tweed Green. The last prioress signed away her community and it ceased to exist as a legal entity in 1621, although no new novices had been permitted since the 1560 Reform Parliament. No reliable record of the number of nuns living in the house have survived.
[12]
Isabella Hoppringle
(1460?1538) was the prioress of Coldstream from 1505 until her death. She was succeeded by her relative, Janet Pringle, the last ‘real’ prioress of the house.
[13]
Bughtrig House
[
edit
]
In February 2020, the
Scottish Borders Council
announced plans to build a museum at the family home of Vice-Admiral
Bertram Home Ramsay
, who masterminded
Operation Dynamo
, the evacuation of
Dunkirk
. "A former garden store will be converted at Bughtrig House in Coldstream to create the museum in his honour,"
BBC News
reported.
[14]
The Ba Green
[
edit
]
The
border between Scotland and England
runs down the middle of the River Tweed, however between the villages of
Wark
and
Cornhill
the Scottish border comes south of the river to enclose a small riverside meadow of approximately 2 to 3 acres (or about a hectare). This piece of land is known as the Ba Green. It is said locally that every year the men of Coldstream would play the men of Wark (south of the river) at
ba
, and the winning side would claim the Ba Green for their country. As Coldstream grew to have a larger population than Wark, the men of Coldstream always defeated those of Wark at the game, and so the land became a permanent part of Scotland.
[15]
[16]
[17]
Media
[
edit
]
Local news and television programmes are provided by
BBC Scotland
and
ITV Border
. Television signal are received from the
Selkirk
TV transmitter.
[18]
BBC North East and Cumbria
and
ITV Tyne Tees
can also be received from the
Chatton
TV transmitter.
[19]
Local radio stations are
BBC Radio Scotland
on 93.5 FM,
BBC Radio Newcastle
can also be received on 96.0 FM and
Greatest Hits Radio Scottish Borders and North Northumberland
on 96.8 FM.
The Border Telegraph and
Southern Reporter
are the town's local newspapers.
[20]
[21]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
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