Denholm Village is situated in the Scottish Borders some 50 miles south of Edinburgh,
and is 16 miles from the Scotland/England border at Carter Bar.
Hawick is the nearest large town which is 5 miles to the west.
Denholm, today, is a quiet
village with two pubs, a Post
Office, a Butcher, a general
store, a hairdresser and two
garages. It also has a Bistro
and Art/Antique Gallery.
The village of Denholm is situated in a beautiful part of Teviotdale in the
Scottish Borders, about halfway between the towns of Hawick and
Jedburgh. It lies in gentle rolling countryside between Ruberslaw and the
Minto Hills, volcanic outcrops which thrust up through the underlying Old
Red Sandstone.
The original settlement of 'Denum' was sited 'at the valleys' where the broad
valley of the River Teviot meets the narrow glen of the Dean Burn. The early
hamlet was plundered and burnt during English raids of the 16th century. The
village we see today dates from the 17th century when it was laid out around
the Green.
Denholm is a Conservation Area listed as 'a planned village as opposed to the
traditional unplanned or organic form of village usually found in
Roxburghshire."
The village is built around the Green, which in days gone by was let for
grazing to the butchers or smallholders. In the middle of the Green stands
Leyden's Monument which was erected in 1861. The Green has always been
at the heart of village life. Weekly and half-weekly fairs used to be held here.
Part of the base of an old mercat cross can still be seen inside the railings
surrounding the monument. The cross itself was removed and the base
hollowed out sometime in the 19th century to make a water trough for cattle!
The earliest surviving record of the village is found in the ragmans rolls signed
by a certain Guy of Denum at Berwick in 1296. In this document many
Scottish lords swore fealty (faithful adherence) to Edward 1st of England after
his campaign north of the Border.
16th Century Border Raids
The village suffered its share of feuds and raids which devastated the Borders
before the union of the crowns in 1603. In 1524 lord Dacre boasted that he
had harried the whole of the Border lands and left not a single habitable place.
In1533-35 Denholm and Cavers were burnt by Lord Dacre and Sir Kerstial
Dacre.
The Feuing of the Village in the 17th Century
In 1664 Sir Archibald feud 8 3/4 acres of land for houses and gardens. That is
to say he granted a perpetual lease at a fixed rent. This land lay in plots
around the green. More was feud in the 18th century down the canongate.
Denholm is now a Conservation Area listed as "a planned village" as opposed
to the traditional unplanned or organic form of village usually found in
Roxburghshire."
Some interesting, historical, quick facts about
Denholm..
Denholm had its own nine hole golf course opened in 1907 (up the
Loaning).
It did not survive the 1st World War.
The railings on Main Street were requisitioned during the 2nd World War
and during the 1950's and 60's the walls around the Green were gradually
lowered and the flat coping stones laid on the round as a boundary.
A man was killed on the spikes of the iron railings opposite the Cross
Keys
whilst participating in the Denholm Ba'.
In 1959 the villagers were alarmed by a Council proposal to build a road right
across the Green from east to west so that through traffic could avoid the bad
corners at both ends of the Main Street. The plan, however, came to nothing
and the Green was left intact.
In the middle of the 19th century there were five public houses in the
village.
In 1802 the 'Auld Schule' was built on the Green where the monument is
today.
It remained there for 56 years.
In the 18th century it was quite common to cross the river on stilts
(there was no bridge) and most households had at least one pair.
In the summer of 1849 there was an outbreak of cholera in the village.
There was a total of 59 cases of which 29 were fatal.
There used to be a chip shop next to The Auld Bakery.
In the late 19th century the local fire brigade were based in the Wynd and
they would give the Leyden Monument an annual wash.
In November 1898 an article entitled 'Denholm as a Holiday Resort'
appeared in the "Border Magazine".
Above: The old coffee shop in the Dean
They used to call it 'Dirty Denholm'. The green was cluttered with middens,
pigstys, henhouses, heaps of firewood, turfstacks, sawpits, large puddles
and muddy holes beloved by the geese!