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.
Oxnam (anc. Oxenham), a hamlet and a parish of SE Roxburghshire. The hamlet lies upon Oxnam Water, 4½ miles SE of Jedburgh, under which it has a post office.
The parish is bounded NE by the main body of Jedburgh, E by Hounam, SE and S by Northumberland, and SW by the Edgerston or detached section of Jedburgh and by Southdean. Its utmost length, from NNW to SSE, is 103/8 miles; its utmost breadth is 5½ miles; and its area is 33 square miles or 21,193 acres, of which 33¼ are water. Oxnam Water, rising at an altitude of 695 feet, runs 51/8 miles north-by-westward through the interior, then 6& furlongs along the Jedburgh boundary; and, after quitting this parish, it winds 37/8 miles north-by-westward through or along the borders of Jedburgh and Crailing, till, after a total course of 9¾ miles and a total descent of 455 feet, it falls into the Teviot at a point ½ mile NNE of Crailing village. From ¼ mile below its source, Kale Water (here Long Burn) runs 5¼ miles north-north-eastward, mainly across the south-eastern interior, but partly along the Edgerston and Hounam boundaries. The Coquet, a stream belonging almost wholly to England, flows along the Northumberland border for the first ¾ mile of its course; a tributary of Jed Water traces 3 miles of the south-western border; and the Jed itself, after receiving that tributary, runs 23/8 miles north-north-westward along the same boundary. The surface is hilly, sinking in the extreme N to 340 feet above sea. level, and rising southward thence to the rounded pastoral Cheviots. Chief elevations, from N to S, are Bloodylaws Hill (809 feet), Cunzierton (1100), Birkenside (763), Peg Law (932), Lawsuit Law (825), Dod Hill (977), Plenderleith (1l98), Hindhope Hill (1349), Brownhart Law (1664), Grindstone Law (1535), and Hungry Law (1643), of which the three last rise on or close to the English Border. Several of these heights command a magnificent view of Teviotdale and the Merse away to the German Ocean. The southern district, to the extent of one-third of all the area, is nearly filled with masses of the Cheviots, dome-like hills, smooth and green; the northern is much diversified in surface, including offshoots of the Cheviots, and abounding in ravines, picturesque defiles, and romantic dells; and the banks of Oxnam Water are beautifully undulated, and rise into various slopes of the adjoining heights. Limestone is found near the Jed, but cannot well be worked; and sandstone, hard, white, and thought to belong to the Carboniferous formation, abounds in the S, intersected by a thick dyke of trap. Transition rocks prevail throughout the N. The soil of the arable lands is loamy, clayey, or gravelly. Less than one-sixth of the entire area is in tillage; plantations cover some 600 acres; and the rest of the land is pastoral or waste. The Cheviot breed of sheep is in great favour, and has been brought to a condition of high excellence. A weak chalybeate spring near Fairloans enjoyed once some medicinal repute, but went eventually into neglect. The Roman Watling Street from Yorkshire to the Lothians, running 7¼ miles along the eastern and north-eastern boundary, remains throughout much of its length in good preservation; is still used as a drove road; and once was a favourite camping-ground of Border Gypsies. Other antiquities are a fairly entire Caledonian stone circle, remains of another stone circle, several circular camps, vestiges of Dolphiston and two other mediæval fortalices, and remains of a pre-Reformation chapel. The Rev. Thomas Boston, one of the founders of the Relief Church, was minister for some time prior to 1757. Four proprietors hold each an annual value of more, and three of less, than £500. Giving off a portion to Edgerston quoad sacra parish, Oxnam is in the presbytery of Jedburgh and the synod of Merse and Teviotdale; the living is worth £350. The parish church, built in 1738, and enlarged and restored in 1880, contains 280 sittings. A specimen of the old jougs is fixed outside the S wall. Oxnam public and Towford Duke of Roxburghe's school, with respective accommodation for 110 and 56 children, had (1883) an average attendance of 69 and 32, and grants of £66, 4s. 6d. and £40, 8s. Valuation (1864) £10, 526, 0s. 8d., (1884) £11,750, 19s. Pop. (1801) 688, (l831) 676, (1861) 627, (1871) 695, (1881) 683, of whom 638 were in the ecclesiastical parish.—Ord. Sur., sh. 17, 1864.
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
|---|---|
| Feature Description: | "a hamlet and a parish" (ADL Feature Type: "populated places") |
| Administrative units: | Oxnam ScoP Roxburghshire ScoCnty |
| Place names: | OXENHAM | OXNAM |
| Place: | Oxnam |
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