Edrom is a parish and small village in the pre-1975 ancient county of

Berwickshire Berwickshire (; ) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. The county takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, its original county town, which was part of Scotland at the ...

, now an administrative area of the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

region of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The rural parish of Edrom is in east central Berwickshire being bounded on the north by the parishes of Bunkle and Preston and

Chirnside Chirnside is a hillside village in Berwickshire, Scotland, west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and east of Duns, Scottish Borders, Duns. Church The parish church at Chirnside dates from the 12th century. It was substantially rebuilt in 1878 and ...

, on the east by the Parishes of Chirnside, Hutton and Whitsome and Hilton, on the south by the parishes of Whitsome and Hilton, Swinton and Fogo and on the west by the parishes of Langton and Duns. It includes the nearby village of Allanton.

Locality

Edrom lies three miles north-east of Duns, and close to the Whiteadder Water. Nearby are Allanbank, Allanton, the

Blackadder Water Blackadder Water () is a river in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, forming part of the River Tweed system. It reached 2.84m at Mouthbridge, which was its highest level ever recorded on Tuesday 22 October 2002 at 2:45pm. Ety ...

, Blanerne Castle,

, Chirnsidebridge, Foulden, Gavinton, Hutton, Kimmerghame House, Manderston House, Preston, Wedderburn Castle, and the former Kelloe House.

Village

The village contains several notable buildings, including the Manse, 1881, and the former school, early 19th century. The schoolroom, now the Village Hall, is very likely the Sewing School erected in 1866. Edrom Newton Farm, with a neo-Jacobean steading, is a late 18th or early 19th century farm house built by Richard Miller of Manderston; it is notable for its pavilions with Venetian windows. Edrom Farm Cottages are a stylish group of neo-Jacobean cottages, 1876, just to the east of the steading. Two bridges, Kelloe Bridge and Todheugh Bridge, cross the

and the Whiteadder Water respectively.

Parish Church

A parish church was granted to Durham Cathedral in the early 12th century. The Logan Aisle, to the west of the church, contains what is described as the finest piece of Romanesque architectural sculpture in Scotland - the reset doorway from the main church. This dates from the 12th century, and is now somewhat worn.

Edrom House

Thought to date from circa 1740, and a somewhat dated design for that time, Edrom House is a simple classical rectangular piend-roofed house. A design introduced by

Sir William Bruce Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet (c. 1630 – 1710), was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the effective founder of classical architecture in Scotland," as Howard Colvin observes.Colvin, p.172–176 As a key figure in introducing the Pa ...

in the 17th century. Edrom House was the home of the International Cello Centre, a residential school for musicians of varying ages and backgrounds run by John Gwilt, Jane and Christopher Cowan, where

Steven Isserlis Steven John Isserlis (born 19 December 1958) is a British cellist. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He is also noted for his div ...

and Steven Doane trained in the 1970s. The school is no longer based at Edrom and is now called The Edrom Casals Centre.

Berwickshire Railway

Edrom had a railway station on the North British Railway's Berwickshire Railway (opened 1863). The railway line ran from Reston to Earlston, joining the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

to the

Waverley Line The Waverley Route was a railway line that ran south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle railway station, Carlisle. The line was built by the North British Railway; the stretch from Edinburgh to Hawick open ...

. A five span rounded arch railway bridge was built over the Whiteadder Water, in the hamlet of Chirnsidebridge, in 1863 to carry the railway. Edrom Railway Station was closed to passenger traffic 10 September 1951. Freight continued until 19 July 1965. The station had a single platform. The station building, platform and goods shed remain intact.

Body Snatching

Edrom was notable as the site of

Body snatching Body snatching is the illicit removal of corpses from graves, morgues, and other burial sites. Body snatching is distinct from the act of grave robbery as grave robbing does not explicitly involve the removal of the corpse, but rather theft from t ...

which resulted in a riot in Duns.

Notable people

* George Buchan of Kelloe (1775–1856), Church of Scotland elder. Secretary to the Governor of

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

. * Alexander Christison (1751–1820), began his career as schoolmaster of Edrom. * Robert Fortune (1812–1880), botanist and plant hunter, was born in Edrom.

References

Bibliography

* ''Borders and Berwick'' by Charles Alexander Strang, The Rutland Press, 1994, * ''The Buildings of Scotland - Borders'', by Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett, Yale University Press, 2006, * Knight Frank (2002) Edrom House, Duns, Berwickshire: Sale particulars, Lauder. Held at RCAHMS * National Library of Scotland, ''Memorials of a Border Family'', history of the Logan Home family

External links

RCAHMS record for Edrom ParishRCAHMS record for Edrom Parish Church, ManseRCAHMS record for Edrom HouseFORESTRY COMMISSION: Response to Consultation on Forestry Provision in the Scottish Climate Change Bill, from Edrom, Allanton and Whitsome Community CouncilGEOGRAPH image of Edrom Norman Arch
{{authority control Berwickshire Villages in the Scottish Borders Parishes in Berwickshire