A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Hutton, a Border village and parish of SE Berwickshire. The village stands ¾ mile S of Whitadder Water, 4½ miles NNW of Velvethall station in Northumberland, and 7 W of Berwick-upon-Tweed, under which it has a post office. It is supposed to have been the camping-place of the army of Edward I. in 1296, on the day before the capture of Berwick.
The parish contains also the village of Paxton, and comprehends the ancient parishes of Hutton and Fishwick, united in 1614. It is bounded N by Chirnside and Foulden, E by Mordington and the Liberties of Berwick, SE and S by Northumberland, SW by Ladykirk, and W by Whitsome and Edrom. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 4 miles; its utmost breadth, from N to S, is 3¼ miles; and its area is 5645½ acres, of which 129¾ are water. Whitadder Water winds 7 miles along all the northern and most of the eastern boundary; and the Tweed sweeps 4 miles north-eastward along all the Northumberland border, midway being spanned by the Union Bridge, which, constructed in 1820 at a cost of £7500 after designs by Captain Sir Samuel Brown, R.N., is a suspension bridge for carriages, the first of its kind in Britain. With a carriage-way 27 feet above the surface of the stream, it measures 368 feet in length and 18 in width. The surface of the parish, for the most part looking almost a dead level, declines along the Tweed to 96 feet, and attains a summit altitude de of 244 feet at a point 5 furlongs SW of Hutton village. The ground adjacent to the Whitadder and the Tweed contrasts, in scenic character, with the prevailing tameness of the interior, and, being well wooded, is charmingly picturesque. Sandstone is a prevailing g rock, and can be found, at comparatively little depth from the surface, in almost every part, whilst a stratum of gypsum occurs on Hutton Hall estate. The soil on the lands along the rivers is mostly a rich deep loam, incumbent upon sandstone; but on part of the central lands is thin, wet, and cold, overlying a strong tenacious clay. Some 65 acres are pastoral, about 260 are under wood, and all the rest of the land is regularly in tillage. Andrew Foreman, Archbishop of St Andrews from 1514 to 1522, was a native of Hutton; the Rev. Philip Ridpath, editor of the Border History (1776), was minister of it; and George Home of Wedderburn, one of the Edinburgh literati towards the close of last century, was long a resident. Hutton Hall, on the right bank of Whitadder Water, 1½ mile NW of Hutton village, crowns the brink of an eminence, and comprises a very ancient peel-tower, with a long mansion attached, of patch-work structure and various dates. Its oldest part, a remarkable specimen of a Border stronghold, was the seat of one of the ' Seven Spears of Wedderburn ' mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his Lay of the Last Minstrel. The estate of Hutton Hall (630 acres, valued at £1588 per annum) was purchased in 1876 for £50,000 by Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks of Guisachan, who in 1881 was raised to the peerage as Baron Tweedmouth. Mansions, noticed separately, are Meadow House, Paxton House, Spital House, and Tweedhill House; and 7 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 1 of between £100 and £500, 3 of from £50 to £100, and 5 of from £20 to £50. Hutton is in the presbytery of Chirnside and synod of Merse and Teviotdale; the living is worth £355. The parish church is a modern Norman structure of 1765, with a massive square tower and 700 sittings. Hutton public, Paxton girls' and infants', and Paxton schools, with respective accommodation for 80, 48, and 95 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 59, 28, and 48, and grants of £52, 14s. 6d., £22, 10s., and £43, 13s. Valuation (1865) £10,627, (1882) £12,630, 13s. Pop. (1801) 955, (1821) 1118, (1861) 1067, (1871) 1077, (1881) 962.—Ord. Sur., shs. 26, 34, 1864.
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
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| Feature Description: | "a Border village and parish" (ADL Feature Type: "populated places") |
| Administrative units: | Hutton ScoP Berwickshire ScoCnty |
| Place: | Hutton |
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