From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kelso, Scottish Borders
Kelso, Scottish Borders
Coordinates: 55°35′55″N 2°26′01″W / 55.59851°N List of places: UK • Scotland •
2.43357°W / 55.59851; -2.43357
Kelso Kelso (Scottish Gaelic: Cealsaidh,[1] Scots: Kelsae)[2] is a
Scottish Gaelic: Cealsaidh
Gaelic: market town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders area
Scots: Kelsae
Scots: of Scotland. It lies where the rivers Tweed and Teviot
have their confluence. The parish has a population of
6,385;[3] it is regarded as one of the most charming and
quaint towns in the area with its cobbled streets, elegant
Georgian buildings and French style cobbled market
square.
Kelso’s other main tourist draws are the ruined Kelso
Abbey and Floors Castle, a William Adam designed house
Kelso seen from the Cobby Tweedside meadow completed in 1726. The bridge at Kelso was designed by
John Rennie who later built London Bridge.
History
The town of Kelso came into being as a direct result of
the creation of Kelso Abbey in 1128. The town’s name
stems from the fact that the earliest settlement stood on
a chalky outcrop, and the town was known as Calkou (or
perhaps Calchfynydd) in those early days.
Kelso
Kelso shown within the Scottish Borders
Population 6,385 (2001)
OS grid reference NT7268233961
- Edinburgh 44 mi (71 km)
- London 350 mi (560 km)
Parish Kelso
Council area Scottish Borders Kelso Square
Lieutenancy area Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale
Country Scotland Standing on the opposite bank of the river Tweed
Sovereign state United Kingdom from the now-vanished royal burgh of Roxburgh, Kelso
and its sister hamlet of Wester Kelso were linked to the
Post town KELSO
burgh by a ferry at Wester Kelso. A small hamlet existed
Postcode district TD5
before the completion of the Abbey in 1128 but the set-
Dialling code 01573
tlement started to flourish with the arrival of the monks.
Police Lothian and Borders Many were skilled craftsmen, and they helped the local
Fire Lothian and Borders population as the village expanded. The Abbey controlled
Ambulance Scottish much of life in Kelso-area burgh of barony, called Holy-
EU Parliament Scotland dean, until the Reformation in the 16th century. After
UK Parliament Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk that, the power and wealth of the Abbey declined. The
Scottish Parliament Roxburgh and Berwickshire Kerr family of Cessford took over the barony and many of
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kelso, Scottish Borders
the Abbey’s properties around the town. By the 17th cen- and Welsh side, however this is the longest unbroken fix-
tury, they virtually owned Kelso. ture.
In Roxburgh Street, outside the Haldanes supermar- Every year in July, the town celebrates the border tra-
ket, is the outline of a horseshoe petrosomatoglyph dition of Common Riding, known as Kelso Civic Week.
where the horse of Charles Edward Stuart cast a shoe as The festival lasts a full week and is headed by the Kelsae
he was riding it through the town on his way to Carlisle Laddie with his Right and Left Hand Men. The Laddie and
in 1745. He is also said to have planted a white rosebush his followers visit neighbouring villages on horseback
in his host’s garden, descendants of which are still said to with the climax being the Yetholm Ride on the Saturday.
flourish in the neighbourhood.[4] There are many competitions and social events every
day. There have been many songs written about Kelso
Community (or Kelsae), (most notably "Kelsae Bonnie Kelsae") but
the most recent one is "Yetholm Day", composed by Gary
Kelso High School provides secondary education to the Cleghorn, a young follower of Civic Week for many years.
town, and primary education is provided by Edenside Pri- The song tells the story of the Kelsae Laddie and his fol-
mary and Broomlands Primary schools. lowers on the Saturday ride-out to Kirk Yetholm and
The town has much sport and recreation, the River Town Yetholm. Every September, Kelso hosts its annual
Tweed at Kelso is renowned for its salmon fishing, there fair every first weekend of September, the weekend in-
are two eighteen-hole golf courses as well as a National cludes Drinking, dancing, Street Entertainers, Live Music,
Hunt (jumping) horse racing track, the course is known Stalls , Free Music concert.The Fair attracts around over
as "Britain’s Friendliest Racecourse", racing first took the whole weekend around 10,000 people to the town.
place in Kelso in 1822. As a fund-raiser for Kelso Civic Week, Gary Cleghorn
In 2005 the town hosted the ’World Meeting of 2CV has involved Ex Laddies and locals to sing some of the old
Friends’ in the grounds of nearby Floors Castle. Over Kelso songs, plus some new songs by local artists, on a CD,
7,000 people took over the town and are said to have "Songs of Kelso", which is sold in the town by local shops
brought in more than 2 million pounds to the local econ- and public houses.
omy.
According to a letter dated October 17, 1788, ’The
workmen now employed in digging the foundations of
People
some religious houses which stood upon St. James’ Green, Sir Walter Scott attended Kelso Grammar School in 1783
where the great annual fair of that name is now held in and he said of the town, "it is the most beautiful if not the
the neighbourhood of this town, have dug up two sone most romantic village in Scotland". Another attraction is
[sic] coffins of which the bones were entire, several the Cobby Riverside Walk which goes from the town cen-
pieces of painted glass, a silver coin of Robert II, and oth- tre to Floors Castle along the banks of the Tweed pass-
er antique relics’.[5] ing the point where it is joined by the River Teviot. Kel-
The town’s rugby union team (Kelso RFC) are highly so has two bridges that span the River Tweed, "Rennie’s
respected,[citation needed] and their annual rugby sevens Bridge" was completed in 1803 to replace an earlier one
tournament takes place in early August. Famous former washed away in the floods of 1797, it was built by John
players include John Jeffrey, Roger Baird, Andrew Ker Rennie of Haddington, who later went on to build Water-
and Adam Roxburgh, all of whom featured in 7’s teams loo Bridge in London, his bridge in Kelso is a smaller and
that dominated the Borders circuit in the 1980s, includ- earlier version of Waterloo Bridge. The bridge was the
ing several wins in the blue ribbon event at Melrose. Kel- cause of local rioting in 1854 when the Kelso population
so RFC also hold an annual rugby fixture; this fixture objected to paying tolls even when the cost of construc-
is the oldest unbroken fixture between a Scottish and tion had been covered, the Riot Act was read, three years
Welsh side; the opposition is famous for being the birth- later tolls were abolished. Hunter’s Bridge, a kilometre
place of the Film Actor Richard Burton and Vocalist Ivor downstream, is a modern construction built to take much
Emannuel is is small village nesttled in the beautiful of the heavy traffic that has damaged Rennie’s bridge by
South Wales Valleys called Pontrhydyfen. The fixture diverting vehicles around the town.
was founded some 47 years ago by Ian Henderson, a local Famous people from Kelso have included civil engi-
Kelso businessman and Tom Owen fixture Secretary of neer Sir James Brunlees (1816–1892) who constructed
Pontrhydyfen RFC. The two teams currently play for the many railways in the United Kingdom as well as design-
DT Owen Cup; the two clubs alternate the fixture, one ing the docks at Avonmouth and Whitehaven. Sir William
year they play in Kelso (the first fixture venue) and the Fairbairn (1789–1874) was another engineer who built
following year in Pontrhydyfen. This fixture has nur- the first iron hulled steamship the Lord Dundas and con-
tured generations of friendships and the 50th anniver- structed over 1000 bridges using the tubular steel
sary of this fixture will be held in 2013; this is unique, method which he pioneered. Thomas Pringle the writer,
some claim to have the longest fixture between a Scottish poet and abolitionist, was born at nearby Blakelaw, a
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kelso, Scottish Borders
500-acre (2.0 km2) farmstead four miles (6 km) to the
south of the town where his father was the tenant.
See Also
• Kelso High School
Floors Castle
Main article: Floors Castle
References
Floors castle is a large stately home just outside Kelso. It [1] Mac an Tàilleir, Iain (2003) Placenames. (pdf)
is a popular visitor attraction in the Scottish Borders. Ad- Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
jacent to the house there is a fabulous walled garden with [2] Scots Language Centre: Scottish Place Names in
a cafe, a small garden centre and the Star Plantation. Scots
[3] General Register Office for Scotland: Census 2001:
Civil parish: Kelso Retrieved 23 March 2011
Twins [4] Westwood, Jennifer (1985), Albion. A guide to
Kelso is twinned with two cities abroad: Legendary Britain. Pub. Grafton Books. London. ISBN
• - Kelso, Washington, United States 0-246-11789-3. P. 378.
• - Orchies, France. [5] Coin Hoard Article
Panorama External links
• Kelso Scottish Borders
• Kelso Songs
• Photos of Kelso
Kelso is unique in Scotland for having a cobbled square fed by • Coin Hoard Article
four cobbled streets
• Media related to Kelso at Wikimedia Commons
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kelso,_Scottish_Borders&oldid=461811191"
Categories:
• Towns in the Scottish Borders
• Populated places on the River Tweed
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