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Walkerburn history

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Early history

There is evidence of settlers around the Walker Burn as far back as the Bronze Age because burnt mounds have been identified at Glenmead and on the Plora Burn to the south of the village. The remains of an Iron Age Hill Fort can be seen on Bold Rig and it is easy to see why this spot was picked for a defensive position. Vestiges of Roman camps exist near Lyne Church, west of Peebles, and at Innerleithen.

Middle Ages to Great War

All through the Middle Ages the production of cloth was a cottage industry in the Tweed valley. The crofter-weaver ran his own sheep, usually on common land, the whole community helped with shearing, the women carded and span the wool and the weaver himself warped and mounted his web and wove it in his handloom. The cloth was afterwards washed and ‘waulked’ or milled and beaten in a burn. Such dyes as were used came from local plants but for the most part the wool was undyed. Along the banks of the Tweed, especially where burns ran down the hillsides, small groups of these crofter-weavers would be established and it may be that the name ‘Walker Burn’ simply referred to the burn where weavers ‘waulked’ the wool. The Ballantyne family first appears as landowners and yeoman farmers of Bellenden Farm on the upper Ale Water with the name spelt Bellendaine, then Ballantin and eventually Ballantyne. Later, in 1666, a small colony of weavers in the village of Galashiels had as a member one William Ballantin and in 1672 the birth of his son Walter is the first entry in the baptism record of Galashiels Parish Church. Eventually, a descendant of William and Walter, Henry Ballantyne (1802-1865) rose to prominence as one of the most skillful developers of Tweed cloth. In 1846/7, looking around for a site for a new mill, Henry saw the possibilities of the site where the Walker Burn ran into the Tweed. He entered into negotiations with Thomas Horsburgh to buy a site around the Walker Burn on which to establish a mill to take advantage of a bend on the nearby River Tweed which would make it easy to build a mill lade taking water into the mill controlled by two sluice gates. The only buildings in the area on that side of the Tweed were Caberston farm and steading and 4 farm cottages. On the south side of the Tweed, West Bold Farm was much older and in other ownership – there was no bridge at this point. Work began on the mill and Frederick Thomas Pilkington was retained to design and build villas for the Ballantyne family and 115 houses for mill workers who initially came mainly from Galashiels, walking to and from work – and the working day was typically 14 hours. The blocks of flats at Plora Terrace were the first workers’ home to be built. In 1854 the village was christened Walkerburn after the Waulker Burn which runs from the hills above Priesthope into the Tweed. The first child was born in the new village in 1856 and the first shops opened in 1858. Gradually, more and more workers’ houses were built and by 1861 there were enough children to support an elementary school. The arrival of the railway and the opening of a Post Office in 1866 put Walkerburn firmly on the Peeblesshire map as an expanding, energetic mill village. The railway closed in 1962 but the Post Office is still in the original building. The Parish Church, built in 1875, was followed by a Methodist Chapel and then a Congregational Church in 1890, both now private houses. The Church of Scotland was built in 1883 and the Rugby Club founded in 1884, as the 25th member of the Scottish Rugby Union. And in 1877 the Good Templar Movement built the Public Hall which subsequently passed into community ownership in 1908. The Hall is now maintained as a charitable trust. A French style ‘pissoir’ was installed as a public toilet on the A72 beside the bridge over the Walker Burn. It is no longer in use. By 1878, when the first gas street lamps were installed, the population of the village was 1028, growing to 1500 by the turn of the century, and in 1882 the village got its own police station at the foot of Hall Street, which remained in use until a new police house was built opposite the mill gates. Both it and the original police station remain in use, though not by the police. In December 1883 there was the first meeting of the Walkerburn Co-operative Society, which played an active role in village retailing until it merged with the Innerleithen Society in 1966 and then with the Borders Society in 1969. There is still a co-operative store in Innerleithen but the Walkerburn store closed in 1987. Until the 1960s, in addition to the Post Office, Walkerburn had a grocery store, a butcher, baker and greengrocer, a chemist, a jeweler, a tailor, a haberdasher, a general clothes shop and a knitwear and dressmaking shop, two fish and chip shops, two hairdressers, a library, a boot repair shop, several sweetie shops, and numerous small shops run in people’s front rooms. The first foot bridge was built across the Tweed, where the bridge is today, in 1867. Until that time, passengers for the new station had to be ferried across for a year. This was replaced by a girder bridge in 1914. This new bridge was something of a revolution in Walkerburn as it carried not only foot passengers but also vehicles. So a journey with a horse and cart or motor vehicle did not have to go via Innerleithen (where there was a bridge) or over the Bold Ford, which was sometimes impassable due to flooding of the Tweed. In 1904 David Ballantyne built the Henry Ballantyne Memorial Institute in memory of his father. The Institute was built in red Dumfriesshire sandstone, next to the Tweed Bridge, to provide education and entertainment for mill workers and their families. The Institute was endowed with £32,000 and its management handed over to a committee of local men. It remained in the trust of the Ballantyne family until 2000 when it was donated to the village. Known to villagers as the ‘HB Club’,it is still in existence providing a bar and entertainment for the community. By the outbreak of The Great War, the population of the village had risen to 1279 and two Ballantyne mills were in operation. Scotch Tweed had established itself worldwide.

1914-1918, The Great War, Tartan, Khaki and Flannel

Walkerburn had the highest casualty rate as a percentage of its population of any settlement in Scotland. Young men joined the Army, the old men and women ran the mill producing 10,000 yards of tartan per week plus khaki flannel for the Army. In 1920 the War Memorial was built by public subscription. A full sized figure was planned but lack of funds led to a cut down figure being sculpted. In August 1998 the statue was stolen, perhaps to order, and another fund raising effort was made to replace it.

1920-1921, The Hydro Electric Scheme

Initially the mill lade produced enough power for the mills but as production expanded more cheap energy was needed. The revolutionary solution was to build a huge reservoir in the hills and to use the surplus power to pump water from the Tweed up to the reservoir. The next stage was to bring the water back down to drive a turbine to produce more power.

1920s and 1930s, The Boom and Bust Years, Charleston and Jitterbug

The school leaving age was raised to 14 – no more children going to work in the Mill at 11, or even younger. The Depression hit the wool trade and there were bleak years when only one loom ran. There was a cinema in the Public Hall where silent films were shown to the tinkling of a piano.

1939-1945, Another War, More Tartan

Twelve Walkerburn men lost their lives in the service of their country in World War 2. Soldiers were billeted in the old wool store in Park Avenue (the new houses) and with families. Officers lived in Stoneyhill throughout the war, the soldiers’ canteen was run by the ladies of the village.

1950s, You’ve never had it so good…

Walkerburn Mill employed some of the large numbers of Poles, Ukrainians and other Eastern European displaced persons who came to work here in the 1940s. Another type of ‘refugee’ arrived – people displaced from Glasgow as the slums were cleared. The culture shock of moving to a mill village from the big city was too much for some but many stayed.

1960s and 1970s, The Slow Decline

By 1961, when the railway closed, the population had dropped to 863. Ballantyne’s amalgamated into Scottish Worsteds & Woollens in 1968. In 1980, the remaining mill was bought by Dawson International. In 1988 Dawson pulled out and the last mill closed in Walkerburn.

Into the 21st Century

With help from the European Union, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Borders Council, villagers formed the WAVE Group to look at future regeneration. The Pathway Group re-built Alexandra Park with new equipment in the swing park, a wildlife hedge, tree planting and walkways. The Public Hall was renovated and extended just in time to provide a home for a village Healthy Living initiative.

  

Walkerburn map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to Walkerburn Map

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