INNERWICK by Revd Duncan Turner To write even a short historical essay on Innerwick deepens one's sympathy with the

Jews in Egypt. Historical straw in Innerwick is on short supply, and what there is, is somewhat fragmented and windblown. The truth is that most of the main currents in Scottish history either bypassed the Parish altogether, or, when in the vicinity, were so pressed by events that they swept past or though, leaving only the slightest of impacts. Designwise, Innerwick gives the impression of a cartographer's accident, or an attempt to fill a space otherwise unclaimed on the map. With a short northern frontage of just over two miles between the Dry Burn and Thornton Bum, the Parish is bounded on the west by Dunbar and Spott; on the south by Cranshaws, and on the east by Oldhamstocks and Cockburnspath. The southern and eastern boundaries are particularly irregular. The structure of the Parish consists of a narrow and very fertile coastal plain, a gentle slope of about a mile in depth rising towards the Lammermuir Hills, and then a great stretch of hill country intersected by many deep glens with small fast flowing streams. Particularly interesting is the Dry Bum. Three miles inland, near The Brunt, it is a bum of considerable size, but between Thurston and the White Bridge it diminishes in volume, and in even moderately dry weather its course, before it reaches the sea is no more than a stony stream bed. The disappearance of the water is probably due to faults in the underlying limestone.
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The name 'lnnerwick' leaves some room for discussion. Watson, in his 'Place Names in Scotland' writes: 'lnnerwick (Dunbar) ante 1173 was Ennyrwick. In 1250 it was Inverwicke. Probably old Norse eng-r-vik: a close narrow bay.' But on the same page he writes: Innerwick in Inverness (now Inverwick, Glenmoriston) is in 1670 Inveruick the confluence of the buck. From Gaelic Buc - bhuic.' General Stewart in his 'Sketches of the Highlands' 3rd edition, p 11, claims that among names of Gaelic origin in Lothian and Berwickshire is Innerwick. A slightly stronger case can, I think, be made for the Gaelic rather than the Norse derivation. There is no 'close, narrow bay' anywhere on the Innerwick coastline. No self-respecting Norseman would choose Thorntonloch Sands as a landing place when he had on one side the comparative shelter of the Cove, and on the other the more devious but more sheltered waters near the mouth of the Tyne. Moreover, roe deer are still a marked feature of the glens of the Parish. Only the other morning five of them were disporting themselves on the newly ploughed land before my window, and rarely a day passes when I do not see one or more. In the past, when there must have been much more scrup cover than there is today, there would certainly have been more of these dainty natives in the he area. I for one give my vote to the Celtic root of the name of the Parish.

There are two ways of approaching such an essay as this. One can dig deeply into such local records as are available, chiefly Kirk Session minutes. Discoveries from such sources are valuable, but unless they are carefully integrated into material from other sources, they tend to be episodic, and if in the 17th and 18th centuries often salacious, they fail to show the Parish as it really was, pan of the wide and complex tapestry of the national life. On the other hand, it is possible to take the fragmentary information that does crop up, often in unexpected historical reading, and to fit this into the known structure and life of the Parish as this can be seen in place names and other survivals, and to interpret the result in the light of the broad movements in national history. So far as Innerwick is concerned, this second approach seems to yield the better results. Innerwick itself lacks much witness of early human activity, though within ten miles, signs of such activity are abundant. To the south east and ten miles away stands one of the finest examples in the country of early masonry, Eden's Broch, probably a Celtic watching post during the Roman activities in wall building in Northumbria. Nearer at hand, the Romans had a post of some size on top of Doon Hill, and they may well have used as their site a still older earth fort. In Innerwick, on top of Black Castle Hill, there is shown on the O.S. map a 'Settlement', probably another earth fort of uncertain date. Beyond this no traces of early inhabitants survive in the Parish. Nevertheless, it is pretty safe to assume that its earliest people were of Celtic stock. From the departure of the Romans till the post-Conquest era, Innerwick must have been touched by many streams of human migration. Norsemen, landing or driven ashore, travellers and armies moving north or south, merchants by land and sea with an increasing number of Churchmen of varying sorts. Each in his way, though leaving no personal traces must have added his minute quota to the growth of the Parish. A single, almost forgotten place name just outside the Parish, at East Barns, leaves a delightful speculation. We know that after the Norse raids began, devout Churchmen lifted the remains of St Cuthbert from their resting place at Lindisfarne, and wandered through southern Scotland and northern England till a final resting place was found in Durham. In the area covered by this pilgrimage, the names 'Cuddy's Lane', 'Cuddy's Close', 'Cuddy's Hill' crop up with amazing frequency. Now 'Cuddy' is the old Scots usage for Cuthbert, (cp. Cuddy Heddricks in 'Old Mortality'), and at least one historian has tried to trace the exact course of the pilgrimage by aligning such names. There is, at East Barns, just outside Innerwick, a 'Cuddy's Lane'. Did the Saint, perhaps after a night halt at the cell commemorated by the name 'Chapel Point' near Skateraw, pursue his westward way in his stone sarcophagus, clutching the beautiful Lindisfarne Gospels, until he came to the Solway where he made his miraculous journey, unaccompanied, to the shores of Cumbria? It is a delightful thought! A little earlier, a pilgrim of a humbler sort did come to Innerwick, and settled near Skateraw on what came to be called Chapel Point where he built a cell. Another pilgrim settled at Pinkerton where another cell commemorated his stay.

These were probably early missionaries of the Celtic Church, the greatest of whom, Aiden, may well have passed through the district before settling at Lindisfarne. The Parish Church in the Parish most probably grew from another seed. Around 1160 the lands of Innerwick were given by Ma1colm IV of Scots to Walter fitzAllan, who was at the same time confirmed permanently in his office of Steward of the Realm. The fitzAllans were a Breton, not a Norman family. A cadet member of the clan came from France, probably as a mercenary shortly after the conquest. He was given an appointment on the stormy Welsh Marches, where his knowledge of the Celtic Breton tongue would be particularly useful in keeping tags on the natives. In time, a cadet of this Breton Welsh family reached the English Court, and there met the young Prince David of Scotland, and a firm friendship grew, so much so that when David returned to Scotland, he took fitzAllan with him, and entrusted him with the Stewardship, then the highest office under the Crown. In time fitzAllan was given the Barony of Renfrew, again a frontier post, where he was confronted with the stormy clans of the West Highlands, and the no less stormy Norsemen on the coast. So well in this frontier situation, as in their fidelity in the Stewardship, did the fitzAllans acquit themselves, that the bond between them and the Royal House continued until the Steward's position was finally put on a permanent basis by a charter of 1160, and his new possessions included not only Renfrew and Innerwick, but considerable territories in the Borders. The duties of the steward kept him close to the King, and there is no evidence that he or his family ever resided for long at Innerwick, though his nominal seat in the Parish was most likely at Innerwick Castle. There are two castle sites at Innerwick, within a few hundred yards of each other, but on opposite sides of the Thornton Bum. On the south-east side, now a mere grassy mound, stands what was almost certainly an old 'motte and baillie' castle, that is, an artificial earth mound, which in its day would have carried a wooden palisaded building on top. The mound was largely man-made, the earth from the surrounding ditch being heaped up to form the mound itself. There is no indication of the date of this structure, but judging from its position in relation to the deep cutting of the bum, its strength would lie in repelling attacks from the northward and westward, so it may well have been erected in an effort to stem the southward flow of the Pictish forces in the times of the Anglo-Pictish struggles. When times and circumstances changed the dangers, and the threat to Scotland came from the English in the south, the later stone castle was built on the other side of the burn at a point where an even deeper gully offered the maximum protection. The style and workmanship suggest 14th century as the approximate time of building. The terrain suggests that this castle was never more than a strong-point or fortalice. It had no grand court into which the surrounding people could come for safety, nor indeed is there much suitable land for the collection of hovels which would be required for the men and materials of a large garrison. History records no major
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action, siege or battle round Innerwick Castle, though there is a tale of a short, sharp action when three men held it against a superior English force. This may well have been after Hereford's action at Pease Dene. The castle, along with the neighbouring castle at Dunglass, ultimately passed into the hands of the Homes. Most castles had, as a necessary member of the garrison, a priest, and usually within the castle or immediately adjacent there was a church or Chapel of some sort. Often, as a result of priestly nagging of some sort, the lord of the castle set aside a piece of land at some distance from the castle and settled the priest there so that he could have less insight into the lordly ongoings. On or around such priest's lands parish Churches often grew. This may well have happened at Innerwick, for shortly after the Steward took over the lordship, we hear of Innerwick Church being in existence, when it was put under the jurisdiction of Paisley Abbey, one of the Steward's many foundations. There is no evidence that the Church, which may well have stood on the site of the present building, ever attained any special fame, though there are indications that on one occasion there was a feud between the Vicar and the Paisley authorities, and Innerwick was put under the jurisdiction of Melrose for a time. The Old Manse at Innerwick had long been the dwelling of officiating clergy; indeed the founder of the parish church may well have had his home on this site when he was removed from the precincts of the castle. There are indication that James, the fifth Steward, had connections with Innerwick. On the death of Alexander Ill, James, as one of the country's senior statesmen, was appointed one of the Guardians of the realm with responsibility for the south of Scotland, and as such was deeply involved in the complex negotiations which ensued. The heir to the throne was the infant Margaret, Princess of Norway, but as there was no known precedent for a female ruler in Scotland, (especially in southern Scotland the Celtic tradition in the north was different), it was deemed wise that as soon as possible she should be betrothed, if not actually married, though she was only four years of age. Edward I of England opened discussions with the Scottish Guardians, but these came to nothing owing to the mysterious death of the child Queen during her voyage to Scotland. The negotiators had then to find a king, for which post there were thirteen claimants. Edward of England was chosen as arbitrator, and to facilitate his task, he moved with an army to the Tweed, making his headquarters at Berwick. The Scots headquarters were at Edinburgh, and during the years through which the talks dragged on, there must have been much Kissinger like movement between the two camps. There is evidence that once at least, secret talks were held at the Manor of Thurston, a likely proposition, as the Manor was then in the hands of James the Steward. It was situated nicely between the two camps, and as James was deeply concerned in upholding the claim of Robert Broce (senior) as against the elder Baliol, it is extremely likely that he would find the convenience and security of the Manor of Thurston suitable for his purpose. That there was a very ancient dwelling at Thurston is indicated by the existence even now of an enormous and very ancient yew tree in Thurston Gardens, whose
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appearance suggests that it has survived from the days when yew bows formed an army's main light armament. No major stream of history seems to have swept through Innerwick until the Reformation. No doubt then as now the bulk of the people lived off the land. Cultivation would be mainly on the lower ground where the light soil would be relatively free of bog, and the dwellers would have the advantage of coastwise fishing. As in most of southern Scotland, the dwellings, apart from the castle, the manor and the church would consist of low stone or turf walled houses, roofed with branches, thatch or turf. Even in the town of Dunbar buildings were largely of this sort. When an English invasion threatened in the reign of Robert I1, a French force was brought in to reinforce the Scottish army. Edinburgh and Leith could not accommodate all the visitors, some of whom were billeted 'from Dunfermline to Dunbar'. The Dunbar landladies were not very welcoming, though they were told that the incomers were their protection from the English, and their comment was 'though th Englysshe brinne (bum) our houses, we care lyttle therefor; we shall make them again chepe enough. We axe but three days to make them again if we get four or five stakes and bowes to cover them.' It has been suggested that the Brunt Farm got its name from this not uncommon houseburning. This is unlikely. The name 'Brunt' will indeed date from these early days, but for a different reason. The agriculture tended to centre on the best possible land, and in the case of Innerwick, this would be on the low ground and the lower hill slopes. It was a general custom that the poorer agricultural workers, those bordering on serfdom, had, as a perquisite, the right to certain hill lands to make what they could from them. The usual practice was for those workers, or most often their womenfolk, to go to the uplands, and there to cut the growth of weeds, scrub and coarse grass, and when it had dried, to bum it, so that its ash would form a poor sort of fertiliser, after which a grain crop of sorts would be sown, and perhaps harvested. The cycle of clearing, burning and tilling often took three years or more, and the land given over to the process was known as the Brunt Land. The name is common for upland farms in several parts of Scotland. As the passing years brought peace, tenuous at first, but slowly growing in stability, Innerwick began to reach out into the new, expanding world. One enterprise is especially interesting. The records of the Northern Lights Commissioners show that 'a lighthouse had been operating in the Isle of May since 1635, in which year Charles I granted a patent to James Maxwell of Innerwick and John Cunningham of Barns to erect a beacon on that island, and to collect dues from Shipping for its maintenance'. The light was a crude affair, and consisted of a stone structure in which there burned a coal fire to serve as the illuminant. The coals were hoisted to the fire by means of a box and pulley, and three men were employed the whole year round attending to the fire which consumed 400 tons of coal a year.
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Almost at the same time another enterprise took shape, showing at once the advances being made in knowledge and the beginning of modem agricultural techniques. In 1633 Charles I granted a charter to John Cant, confirming to him several lands near Innetwick with the privilege of burning limestone. One of those 'lands' became the Doocote Farm, the steading of which lay near the present White Bridge, and whose 'Doocote' gave its name to the present road approach to the village. Descendants of these Cants are at present alive in Edinburgh and the Borders. Innerwick shared in the development of the Scottish inshore fisheries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the sea, right up to the rocks, literally teemed with herring, and only a little further off-shore cod and haddock were there for the taking. Settlements at Skateraw and Thorntonloch cashed in on this bonanza. Most of the fish would be salted, and, apart from what was required for local custom, the surplus would find a ready market in the growing industrial communities round the upper Forth estuary. Salt herring would also find a ready sale among the increasing pastoral settlements in the inland valleys of the Lammermuirs and Borders. At the appropriate season, when the land work allowed, every inland inhabitant who could make the journey used to travel, some on foot, some on horseback, with strings of pack horses to the nearest fishing hamlet to buy their annual quota of salt fish, which, with the increasingly grown potato, was becoming the staple diet of a large part of the rural community. Incidentally, in the eighteenth century, these expeditions had another function, for people were coming to believe that wading and even bathing in the sea was beneficial for health, and the 'fish-trains' often brought elderly and infirm folk from far inland for their annual dip, taken while their fitter brethren bickered with the fishermen over the price of herring. These fishing communities also served as the transport arteries of the parish, as the older roads, such as they were, wended their tortuous way among the foothills, taking what shelter they could from the sea winds. Coastwise trade grew steadily, between the fishing villages themselves, and the busier centres of the national1ife. It was easier to travel by sea from Innerwick to Leith or Berwick than to make the tedious overland journey on foot or horseback. Indeed, coast roads came slowly until well into the nineteenth century, and the steam packet boat plodding up and down the coast and stopping off-shore at every settlement was the favourite mode of transport. The wheel, however, was coming into its own. Between 1796 and 1810 no less than 350 Local Acts were passed to provide new turnpikes in Scotland. What we know as . the Al took shape bit by bit from this process. A curious survival from the construction of this turnpike is found on Innerwick Farm, where, at a point defended and make secure by the gorge of the Braidwood Bum are to be found the Bastille Field and the Bastille Rock. Here French prisoners of war were brought during the wars with France to provide cheap labour on the turnpike roadworks, and were billeted in an encampment on the Bastille field, where sentries
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posted on the Bastille Rock could guard the folk of Innerwick against any incursion against their possessions or virtues by the dangerous French. But these roads were as primitive as the vehicles that used them, lumbering with a speed of two miles and hour, and coaches at ten miles an hour. Improvements on the roads fell behind in the middle of the century with the coming of the railways. Innerwick got two reasonably convenient stations, that near Crowhill and that at Oxwellmains. Old times had gone, and the coastwise smack, the pack and saddle horses with the coach and lumbering wagon were on the way out. Amidst this accelerating change, agriculture was speeding up and modifying the whole of rural life. The small old holdings were disappearing, giving way to large and highly organised farms, well staffed, and with steadings and ferm touns that were villages in themselves. New races of farmers and of farm workers were coming into being. Few who saw this expansion in the early 19th century dreamed that populationwise at least all would be changed in less than two hundred years, and that farms and fields larger still would be worked by two or three men backed by machinery as complex and expensive as that required by any industry in the land, and that not a single work-horse would remain in the parish. Changes too took place in the ownership of land in the Parish. By the 19th century, much of the eastern part of the Parish had become part of the Biel Estate, though the western end remained with Thurston. Innerwick Castle had long been in ruins, but the 'Manor' of Thurston survived. How many mansion houses have stood on the Thurston site is hard to say, but about 1880 an old Mansion House was demolished and a new Victorian structure erected. Around it was laid out policies regarded as among the most beautiful in the south of Scotland. The new Thurston House had a comparatively short life, for social and economic circumstances brought on by two World Wars threw it on the market in 1948, and, since it failed to find a buyer, it was demolished, and its stones removed to be incorporated in the Abbey then being built at Nunraw. Only the multiplicity of lodges and cottages with innumerable outbuildings remain to show how highly organised the old estate had been. The very drives, avenues and paths have recently been fenced off, perhaps to hide their dereliction. One curious monument of the grand days remains: a solitary forty foot high chimney behind the former kennels. Some say that it was once part of a 'vinegar' factory, but it was in fact part of primitive gas-works used for supplying light to the numerous buildings on the estate. Perhaps we should have said that two monuments remain, for not far from the chimney, hidden now by undergrowth and scrub, is the site of the old 'ice-pit', which used in winter time to be filled with ice, to cool the laird's wine in the ensuing summer. Amid all these changes the Parish Church stood on the hill, sometimes blessing, sometimes frowning. The Reformation, which in Scotland became a national fait accompli in 1560, arrived almost as soon at Dunbar, and thence spread to the surrounding parishes. Innerwick is reported as having a Minister of the Reformed Faith in 1570, Michael Boncle, and from this day to the 1970's, twenty four men have
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occupied the pulpit. Four of these were dismissed or deprived of their living, one left for reasons unknown, and eleven died in harness. Only eight either sought or were able to get other charges, so the inference is that Church life must have been reasonably peaceful. Six of the ministers served twenty years or more. Two who were dismissed or deprived offended either against the conventions of the Church or of society. Good pastors and even preachers as many of these ministers may have been, none of them has left outstanding traces of scholarship or indeed of ecclesiastical achievement, except perhaps he who on his death left an elaborate account of conversations he had in the Parish with the ghost of a long departed Laird of Coul. The Parish Church has almost certainly occupied its present site since it was founded by the Steward in the 12th century. No trace of an ancient building now exists, but it was probably, like many of its kind, a long low stone building, with, at least at first, a thatched or wattled roof, later replaced by slate. It is unlikely that major changes were made at the Reformation, unless, perhaps the pulpit was given a more prominent place, but when the increasing economic prosperity of the late eighteenth century prompted the rebuilding of many churches, Innerwick fell into line, and in 1784 the present building was erected. The stones of the older church may well have been incorporated in the new. Originally the present church was of the traditional Scots pattern with two galleries, or lofts, one at either end. One was earmarked for the lairds of Thurston, the other for the lairds of Biel, in view of their superiority at the eastern end of the parish. The pulpit, with the communion table immediately beneath it was in the middle of the north wall, symbolising the Scottish emphasis on the equal place of the Word and Sacraments in worship, in contrast to the Angle-Catholic tradition of the Eucharist as the central point, symbolised by the altar standing alone at the east end of the church, with the pulpit in a less prominent position, often at the side. In the middle of the nineteenth century, considerable renovations-were made. The Biel gallery was removed, the communion table was shifted to the east end of the church, the pulpit was resited, and the pews rearranged so that the congregation faced the east. Further improvements were carried out in 1963 when electric central heating replaced the old solid fuel system. In the interval, various additions had been made to the church furnishing. A small pipe organ was installed in 1910; a beautifully carved screen was erected behind the table, and a new and handsome pulpit and matching font were introduced. In 1965 two modem stained glass windows, one on each side of the church were put in, in memory of Revd T W G Sutherland who had ministered in the parish from 1906 to 1939. Altogether, the church is a pleasant specimen of its type, which, it is hoped will be improved in the near future by the erection of a more seemly entrance porch at the west end in place of the present somewhat ersatz structure. Innerwick Church possesses fairly full records covering the post Reformation period, but like most of their kind, their contribution to the history of the parish is fragmentary. Interesting details emerge, but in the mass of detail, the development of the whole tends to be lost.
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The church possesses some good plain communion plate, though it is of no outstanding value. Perhaps the most interesting survival is the Morte Bell which for a long time headed the funeral processions in the parish. The building which long served as manse of the parish stands to the east of the church at considerably lower level, surrounded by a spacious garden containing many old trees. The original glebe land lay to the north of the manse, but was disposed of some years ago to provide facilities for the development of the new part of the village. The manse itself is a composite building, having, like Topsy Just growed' according to the needs and resources of the heritors. In the basement there are signs of some very old building, and it has been said that this may mark the residence of the original parson, probably a monk from Paisley, who was entrusted at once with the spiritual guidance of the parish, and the ingathering of the revenue of behalf of his Paisley superiors. This old manse served the parish until 1961. Then, when Innerwick Parish was united with its western neighbour, Spott, the Innerwick and Spott manses were both sold, and a new modem manse was erected opposite the Thurston kennels. The currents of national church life touched Innerwick in the passing. In the early 18th century dissent was beginning to raise its head throughout the country, and a Dissenting congregation grew in Haddington which reached fame somewhat later under the ministry of the famous Dr John Brown. It is known that the great doctor, not content with his Haddington labours, carried on an itinerant ministry throughout much of the country, touching on Spott among other places. In 1710 and again in 1741 we find traces of dissenting 'sermon' in Dunbar, but it was at East Barns, just beyond the Innerwick boundary that the first Secession Church of the district was erected. The Secession movement was at once a survival of part of the old Covenanting suspicion of the State-Church connection, and at the same time a protest against prevailing 'Moderatism' in the church, and as such was strongly evangelical. Founded in 1758, the East Barns congregation was at first under the jurisdiction of the parent Secession congregation in Haddington, but was granted independence in 1763. A church and manse were soon erected, the former being sold and later demolished after the congregation united with the Secession congregation in Dunbar in the early 19th century. The East Barns manse survived as a private dwelling until its demolition by the Portland Cement Company in 1968. The Secession congregation at East Barns drew its membership from a wide area. In addition to members from East Barns and Innerwick, it had members from Spott, Oldhamstocks, Dunbar and Old Cambus. The late Mr T Henderson told of how in his father's time an elder came to East Barns every Sunday on foot from Chirnside, no mean pedestrian feat.

These Secession churches were on the whole the outcome of local and fragmentary movements. The Disruption which divided the national church in 1843 was indeed a national upsurge. The roots of the Disruption went back to the Reformation itself, for the founders of the Reformed Church in Scotland had claimed from the outset the right of each congregation to have a say in the appointment of the minister who should have spiritual charge over it. This claim, however, had never been fully established. The Roman Church, in gratitude to those who had so benevolently endowed it with land and money had conferred on such benefactors the right to nominate, and often to appoint the clergy to the churches they had founded. When, after 1560, the Scottish aristocracy seized as their own the land which their forbears had given to the church, they claimed also the right to appoint ministers to parish churches. The point of the claim was twofold. First, by appointing a minister to some sort of living, the minister was held to be in large measure indebted to his superior, and consequently the less likely to raise objections to that superior's grabbing church lands and revenues. Secondly, in the politically disturbed times that followed for a century and a half, this system of patronage enabled the ruling classes to exert some measure of control over the ministers and through them over the often unruly common people. This system was never wholly acceptable either to the Scottish people or to the clergy, the more so after Cromwell's invasion, when the republican sentiments of the troopers infected many of the Church leaders. Patronage was a prominent plank in the Secession platform, but it proved a rallying ground even more so among many who were otherwise loyal to the national Church. By 1840 the anti-patronage movement had become so strong that steps were in hand to change the national law so that the system could be modified if not at once abolished. Unfortunately the radical upsurge of the thirties and forties bit deeply into the Scottish Church, and in 1843, the extremists, in spite of all the Moderates could do, walked out of the Established Church and founded the so called Free Church of Scotland. Innerwick did not escape. In the words of The Annals of the Disruption, 'The first Free Church service in Innerwick was held in 11th June in the Manse. the congregation, amounting to about the usual number, filled the rooms and staircase, while the Minister, Mr Forman, stood in the lobby. When, at the close, he intimated that in the course of a week he would remove with his family to the town of Dunbar, and that he was as yet uncertain where a place would be found to address them next Lord's Day, there were many of his hearers whose stifled sobs and watery eyes expressively testified the intensity of their feelings'. Three years later, in 1846, first a Church and then a Manse were erected on a piece of ground near Skateraw. The buildings were held by the Free Church on what was known in Scotland as a 'kindly tenancy'. The ground was given by the proprietor at a nominal rent, and the proprietor often provided most of the building materials, on condition that should the building ever cease to be used for religious purposes, it 10

would revert absolutely to the superior. This, in fact, happened to the Innerwick Free Church in 1938. Innerwick Free Kirk, though for much of its life extremely vigorous, was faced with constant financial problems. With its revolt against patronage, the Free Church combined a much less comprehensible revolt against all theories of endowment (sour grapes because of its inability to share in the endowments of its Established parent?). This caused little hardship in the industrial regions where indeed the Free church waxed wealthy on the waves of mid century industrial and commercial prosperity, but in rural areas, Innerwick among many, where the feudal system survived, economic viability was impossible for a congregation composed largely of agricultural workers and aritsans. With the approach of the Great Depression in 1928, Innerwick United Free Church, as it had then become, was joined with its sister church in Cockburnspath, thereby making one minister serve two congregations. But even this experience was not enough, and in 1937 the union was dissolved and the Cockburnspath congregation joined with the 'Established' Church in that Parish, and the Innerwick congregation rejoined its parish parent. The Free Kirk buildings in Innerwick, now churchwise redundant, reverted to the proprietors of Skateraw farm. The church, then used as a potato store, was gutted by fire in 1968, and the Manse is at the moment derelict.
As was the case in almost every parish in Scotland, education in Innerwick was in the

hands of the Parish Church from 1560 ti111872. The Kirk Session was responsible for appointing the school-master, and for finding money for his salary. When the Session was strong and efficient, and when the minister was interested in education, schools prospered, but with a weak session and a careless minister, the opposite was the case. Innerwick School must have been a relatively peaceful place, for it finds small mention in parish records, nor is there evidence that it produced distinguished pupils. Like many of its kind, it satisfied, more or less, the demands society made upon it. The Parish School was long housed in the building which stands just outside the main entrance to the Churchyard. Now a two storied building, it has obviously been considerably enlarged as outline of its low original gables show. In the middle of the nineteenth century another school was established at the eastern end of the village. This building, apparently built for the purpose, was converted into a dwelling a few years ago. It is not clear how this second school came into existence in so small a village. It may have been built by the Biel estate for the benefit of its workers, (it is sometimes referred to as the Biel School) but it was more probably a Free Church School. It was certainly used to a large extent by Free Church children. The late Mr Tom Henderson walked from East Barns to attend this school, and he used to recount how on a morning in 1888, the sky suddenly grew dark and the teacher and pupils crowded to the windows overlooking the sea to watch a great storm sweeping towards the land. (This was the storm that wrought terrible havoc with the Eyemouth fishing fleet.) Before the gale ran a tiny schooner, and it looked as if nothing could save her crew. So skilfully, however, was she handled that she struck on some flat rocks near Chapel Point, bow first, and the excited schoolchildren could 11

make out her four man crew clambering along the bowsprit and leaping to safety on the rocks below. The two schools flourished till 1874, when the New School, as it was called was built under the Scottish Education Act. The heritors, who under the Act had to find a site for the school, chose the low lying ground opposite Temple Mains farm, probably because it was the most valueless piece of land in the village. The New School was ready for occupation in 1874, and Mr Henderson used to tell of the opening ceremony. Two 'crocodiles' formed, one at the Parish and one at the Biel School, and moved towards the new building. At the gate they merged into one, and the children entered the building in couples; a child from each school pairing with one from the other. At the door they were greeted by the top hatted minister, Rev John Buchanan. This New School served the parish well till it was replaced by a still newer school in 1969. This was a much larger building, built on former glebe land, and it serves not only Innerwick, but East Barns and Oldhamstocks as well. With its up to date class rooms, assembly hall and kitchen facilities it has brought a new outlook to primary education in the parish. A complex system of transportation carries secondary pupils from Innerwick to Dunbar Grammar School. The original 'New School' continues to flourish. With considerable interior modifications it has become an Educational Outdoor Centre, and school groups from all over the Lothian Region and beyond have made use of the facilities it provides. Until well into the nineteenth century 'recreation' was a word that had small place in the Scottish vocabulary. Work was hard and long and money was scarce. Visits to neighbouring towns or villages were usually linked with feeing markets or some rare local or national occasion, and of course with funerals. For men at least, such visits usually involved fairly heavy drinking. Most villages, even when they had no officially licensed pub, had some howff where from time to time men congregated, and drink could be had, either carried in or home brewed. There are stories of three ale houses in Innerwick Parish, and one, where the Crowhill road joins the coast road, flourished until comparatively modem times. Throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Kirk Session and even Presbytery records are well filled with descriptions of this side of life, as well as those other recreations which took place in hedgerows and in other sylvan solitudes. About the middle of the nineteenth century changes took place. Working men sought a meeting place where they could discuss the changes which were taking place in the world as well as their own problems, while the upper classes felt an urge to do something to enlighten the poor. About this time the proprietors of the Biel Estate carried out alterations to the building now known as Innerwick House, and the large north facing room was added as a 'Reading Room', in which magazines, newspapers and a few books were provided. I have not been able to discover how long this venture lasted.

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In 1909, Thurston Estate was responsible for the erection of the present Village Hall, and at the end of the First World War the smaller building behind it, known as 'The Library' was erected. In the course of the years modifications of lighting, heating and other amenities were carried out. The maintenance and control of these buildings is now in the hands of Innerwick Welfare Association. Apart from agriculture, the earliest industrial venture in the parish would be the operation of grain mills. Under the feudal system mills were valuable assets to every estate, where all tenants were compelled to patronise the superior's mill, which was usually let to the miller for a substantial rent. There were at one time three mills on the Thornton Burn and at least one on the Thurston Bum to serve the other end of the parish. Little trace of the Thurston Mill remains, but two of those around Thornton can still be seen. One of them is incorporated in a small-holding, but that near Crowhill has had a varied career. When its milling days were over, it served for a time as a laundry, giving employment to a number of local women. It then became a knitwear factory, again providing valuable employment. Its next incarnation was as a craft centre whose products went far and wide. Now it has become an attractive dwelling. Early in the nineteenth century a small iron foundry existed in Innerwick, some of whose enduring products still exist, often in forgotten corners of farm steadings, Alexander Sommerville tells how his brother trained as a cooper in the Parish. This would almost certainly have been at one of the fishing hamlets at Skateraw or Thomtonloch.
,;

There were at least two smithies in the parish; one in the village opposite the Biel School, and the other at the east end of the row of cottages still known as Smiddy Row. The last of these Particular smiddies closed down within the last decade, when its activities were transferred to what were formerly the stables and offices of the Thurston estate, and there a considerable business, not only in blacksmithing, but in agricultural and light engineering is carried on. Such industries as have been mentioned depend on local needs, local labour and local investment. In the nineteen sixties came the first large intrusion of national enterprise with the establishment, just beyond the parish bounds, of the factory of the Associated Portland Cement Company. The Oxwellmains factory was, of course, continuing the exploitation of the rich limestone deposits worked at least from he middle of the seventeenth century. Though the factory is outwith the bounds of the parish of Innerwick, it has nevertheless had several repercussions on parish life. In the first place it caused some displacement of population. Men who had spent years in agriculture and in the railway service were attracted by the higher wages that prevailed in the factory, and soon learned to adapt to shift working and industrial conditions. An additional attraction was that these wages enabled factory workers to move from tied agricultural houses to Council dwellings, a change which, in spite of the rents, gave a feeling of independence. The factory has provided some openings for younger men in skilled work.

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Agriculture, nevertheless, remains the staple industry of the parish, and has been marked in recent years by growing flexibility in all departments of husbandry. Modern mechanisation in all branches has led to a marked decrease in manpower, but it would seem that here something of a balance has at last been struck. A marked feature of agriculture in recent years has been the number of workers' dwellings that have been brought to a very high standard of comfort and efficiency, which in turn, backed by higher wages, has brought about a great improvement in the living standards of the workers. Two new farmhouses have been built in the parish, one at Woodhall, and the other at Aikengall which may point towards another change in the face of the countryside. Hitherto our farm houses have been large, often foursquare buildings, worthy descendants of their ancestors, the fortified dwellings of the late middle ages. The new farm houses that have arisen are built on modem lines, closely akin to those advertised as modem executive homes, which of course they are. The movement for Land Settlement at the end of the First World War touched Innerwick when two large farms at the east end of the Parish were taken over by the Government and divided up into twenty Smallholdings. Each holding had a small, and at the time, up to date house erected on it, round which farm buildings grew. The holdings flourished with varying fortunes till after the Second World War, when economic pressures rendered them non-viable, and since then they have been gradually brought together into larger units, until it appears that the original pattern of one or two large farms may reappear. The houses, in their turn, are becoming private dwellings. A few bungalows have appeared in the parish since the end of the First World War, but development of this sort is considerably handicapped by the lack, almost total, of land zoned for private building. In the same post-war period, a row of old cottages on the south side of the village has been demolished, and forty-eight council houses have been built. Here again, lack of zoned building ground limits the prospect of expansion. Two other buildings deserve a word. Recently renovated, one, rejoicing in the name of 'The Nick! has had a varied career, and, with the exception of the old Manse, is probably the oldest inhabited house in the village. At one time it was the dwelling of the minister's man. Then it housed the village policeman and his cells. The other, 'The House with the Clock', officially 'Tyme Cottage', was built at the crossroads as a village Post Office by the Thurston Estate, but at the break up of the Estate in 1948 it became privately owned. It has a picturesque sundial on its southern wall, which unfortunately gets little sunshine in the winter months, and a clock above the door which its various owners have zealously kept in order. The future of Innerwick is hard to read in these changing times, but two major changes hang over it. The first is a proposed re-alignment of the Al road to facilitate the removal of more limestone for cement making. If this is carried out, the Al will 14

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leave its present line near Skateraw, and, passing close to the ruined Free Kirk, will cross the Dry Burn at the White Bridge, before proceeding (in the Parish of Dunbar) to rejoin the Al again just west of Broxburn. This diversion will bring main line buses to within a mile of Innerwick village instead of nearly three miles as at present, which may have some repercussions on population movements. The second proposed development is more sweeping, for it is suggested that an enormous nuclear power station or stations should be erected at Tomess. For the execution of this project, it has been suggested that a 'Works Village' may be built in what was formerly the garden and grounds of Thurston house to provide accommodation for up to two thousand construction personnel. Our task at the moment is not to discuss the merits or demerits of such changes, but simply to put them on record. No doubt some will condemn, some criticise and some welcome them as Innerwick folk have no doubt done to every change that has come to the parish since the first timid wanderers came to its bounds in the dark ages of the past, and if these changes or others like them do come, no doubt they will be assimilated as Pict, Roman and Norseman have been assimilated, and they will become part of life as have the railway, the motor car and the combine harvester, all of which in the time brought doubt and dread. INNERWICK MERCHANTS AND SHOPS EARLY IN THIS CENTURY Information given to me by Mrs J S Torry, 19th May 1977 The business of J S Torry has been in existence for well over a hundred years. It was founded by a grand-aunt of the present owner. There was another merchant's business in what is now known as Birrells's House. It was last operated as a shop by a family named Goodall. The counter, of solid mahogany was removed in 1975 by the then tenant, and was incorporated in the reconstruction work in Spott Community Centre. In Innerwick there was another shop opposite Innerwick House, (close to the old Smiddy), in what was little more than a closet in a cottage whose ruins can still be traced. This shop sold mainly wool and sewing materials, and had a busy existence. The grandfather of George Foggo, coal merchant, Dunbar, had a small shop for the sale of cycle accessories at the east end of the village. The original Post Office was probably in what is now Torry's shop. It then moved to one of the cottages belonging to Innerwick Farm, before being transferred to the specially constructed building with the clock and sundial opposite Templemains Farm steading. In addition to postal facilities, copies of the Edinburgh Evening Newspapers were stocked by the Postmistress, Miss Ford *. There was no post office in the village for a number of years, but about 1968 a post office was re-established in a wooden building in the garden of a council house in Kirkbrae.

* The last of the Ford family, Mrs Purves, died in N Berwick in 1970.

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INNERWICK - DEPOSED MINISTERS Three Innerwick ministers were removed from the charge between 1654 and 1689. While details are hard to come by, it is most likely that they were discharged on politic rather than spiritual grounds. That was a time when the Church as well as the nation was intensely divided into Royalist, republican and theocratic sects, which themselves subdivided into a host of others. Royalist parishes and presbyteries dismissed republicans, and republicans dismissed all the others. It has been estimated that not less than a third of the ministers in Lowland Scotland were dismissed by one or another of the 'ruling parties' in this period. The Parties called themselves by high sounding names which, indeed they often changed - Engagers, Resolutioners and Protestors, not to mention the West Country Whigs or Whigamores, but they all fit somewhere into the three categories mentioned above. The fourth dismissal, of Rev. Robert Gray in 1906 was for conduct unbecoming of a minister, in other words, for a not unsecret addiction to John Barleycom! In my early days I spoke to several people who remembered Mr Gray, or who had heard at first hand from those who knew him. I gathered that he was quite popular in the parish, though as some older men put it, Just a wee bit foolish wi' the bottle'. Mr Gray emigrated to Canada, and from what I have been able to gather, made quite a success of his ministry there, not an easy task as the Presbyterian Church in Canada was no less strict that its Scottish counterpart. Richard Ogil, Minister at Innerwick 1592 to 1608 was summoned before the Privy Council on 30th October 1600 to answer 'som impertinant applications maid in his sermons'.

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