2013 ELA&FN Soc Transactions Vol XXIX
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TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY VOL. XXIX 2013 TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY TWENTY-NINTH VOLUME 2013 ISSN 0140 1637 HADDINGTON PRINTED BY Creative COLOUR BUREAU, GLASGOW FOR MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY i THE EDITOR OF THE TRANSACTIONS Chris Tabraham The Garden Flat 18 Fidra Road NORTH BERWICK EH39 4NG ([email protected]) welcomes contributions for the next Transactions (VOL XXX) Front cover illustration: Fenton Tower from the south-west.The year 2012 marked the 10th anniversary of the restoration of the sixteenth-century tower house. (Courtesy of Fenton Tower) Back cover illustration: Living history in Prestonpans: re-enacting the moment in September 1745 when the Jacobite army, led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, emerged from the Riggonhead defile in the early morning mist to surprise the ‘Redcoat’ army. (Courtesy of Prestoungrange Arts Festival) Further information about the Society can be found on the website: http://eastlothianantiquarians.org.uk/site/ ii CONTENTS OBITUARY: NORMAN CARTWRIGHT by STEPHEN BUNYAN 1 ‘AMIDST THE IVY THOU PERCEIV’ST A RUIN’: EXAMINING THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF ST ANDREW’S KIRK, GULLANE by DIANA SPROAT 5 LOST IN THE LANDSCAPE: THE MEDIEVAL VILLAGE OF BARO by STEPHANIE LEITH 23 ANATOMY OF A JACOBEAN TOWER HOUSE: SURVEY AND EXCAVATION AT FENTON TOWER by MICHAEL CRESSEY, DEREK ALEXANDER, KEVIN HICKS & IAN SUDDABY 33 A COUNTY SET: THE HEPBURNS OF EAST LOTHIAN: A BRIEF OVERVIEW by DAVID K AFFLECK 59 ‘THE MOST SKILFUL AND SUCCESSFUL AGRICULTURISTS’: THE RENNIES AT PHANTASSIE by WILLIAM & JOY DODD 67 POTS AT THE PANS II: BELFIELD’S POTTERY, CUTTLE, PRESTONPANS by GEORGE R HAGGARTY 103 HISTORY IN THE MAKING: COMMUNITY SELF-ESTEEM IN POST-INDUSTRIAL PRESTONPANS by ARRAN JOHNSTON & GORDON PRESTOUNGRANGE 127 APPENDICES 145 Contents of the Transactions: Vol I (1924) – Vol XXVIII (2010) compiled by JOY DODD Annual Reports of the Council of the Society INDEX 160 iii Figure 1: Norman Cartwright (Courtesy of Shena Jamieson) iv OBITUARY: NORMAN CARTWRIGHT Born 19 December 1912 – Died 10 May 2004 by STEPHEN BUNYAN President East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society Norman was born and educated in Birkenhead. He served an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer and this was to be a life-long career. He came to Scotland in 1956, and settled at Bolton in 1964. He soon became involved in East Lothian life and was involved in setting up the Lamp of Lothian Collegiate Trust in 1967. He was particularly interested in industrial archaeology, and joined excavations in the Hebrides (Benbecula and Rum) and Orkney (Skara Brae and Westray) as a safety officer. Norman became a member of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society in 1964, and served as our honorary secretary from 1972 to 1982, then as a vice president from 1983 to 1988. He devoted a huge amount of time to the affairs of the society. He moved the society’s property from Colstoun and established the society’s room in Haddington House. Norman was closely associated with various archaeological projects in East Lothian, and he encouraged other members to take an interest too. He involved pupils from Dunbar Grammar School in three projects at Whitekirk, two under his own direction - looking for the ‘Holy Well’ and clearing the ‘Tithe Barn’ of pigeon-droppings! He also involved them in two ‘digs’ then being undertaken by the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland - at the Iron-Age site on New Mains farm in 1970, and the medieval pottery kiln site at Colstoun in 1971. Being involved in these NMAS-led excavations was a great experience, much appreciated by the pupils involved. By far the most ambitious project he involved the Dunbar pupils in was his valiant attempt to dismantle and remove the wooden drum threshing mill and horse-gin from the Meikle Mill at Beltondod in 1977. Norman wrote various articles for the Transactions, including the one on the Meikle Mill at Beltondod in volume 11 (1968). He also took a great interest in the ‘Bolton Hearse’ (fig 2), donated to the Royal Scottish Museum (now National Museums Scotland), which ensured local interest in it continued; his notice about it is reproduced at the end of this obituary. Norman was also responsible for the preservation of the ‘Bolton Mort-safe’, which can now be seen in the porch of Bolton Church. In 1981 Norman was successful in securing the involvement of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Sir Robert McAlpine and Sons Ltd in a project to re-site the Rennie Memorial, outside East Linton. The memorial had originally 1 OBITUARY: NORMAN CARTWRIGHT been erected in 1936 beside the then A1 trunk road, but the location was proving increasingly unsatisfactory because the increased volume of traffic was making public access difficult. Thanks to Norman’s efforts, the memorial was moved to a more appropriate location, set into the boundary wall of Phantassie House, where it still stands. The importance of Norman’s initiative was demonstrated in the society’s anniversary celebrations to commemorate the 250th anniversary of John Rennie’s birth (7 June 1761), which were held in June 2011. The society re-dedicated the refurbished memorial on 4 June, and Professor Roland Paxton, MBE, FICE, FRSE, gave a lecture entitled ‘John Rennie’s improvement of Scotland’s infrastructure: 1779-1821’ in the church at Prestonkirk on 7 June. A fuller notice of the society’s anniversary celebrations may be found on pages 99-101 As well as serving the society well, Norman was also chairman of the Haddington Literary Club and the Bolton Community Association. We are delighted that his daughter, Shena, has become a member of the council of the society. Figure 2: The Bolton Hearse with the Bolton Mort-safe in the left foreground (Private Collection) 2 OBITUARY: NORMAN CARTWRIGHT THE BOLTON HEARSE Bolton Kirk Session records of April 1783 register a resolution that the heritors should purchase ‘a new fashionable hearse out of the funds belonging to the poor’. This hearse was purchased by November 1783 and in that same year it is said to have brought the body of the 10th Lord Blantyre from Bath, in Somerset, back home. Robert Burns’ mother, his brother Gilbert and sister Annabella, were all conveyed to their last resting place in Bolton Kirkyard in this hearse. It was in use in the parish of Bolton until 1844 but remained in the Hearse House until it was donated to the Royal Scottish Museum in 1932. The coachwork of the hearse is a composite structure, the hearse body being fitted on to an under-carriage which is probably that of a family coach of the mid-seventeenth century (or earlier?). Originally the under- carriage had a post at each corner from which the coach body was slung by leather straps. The maker or fitter of the hearse body cut away the two front posts and substituted curved wooden ones, carved so as to resemble laminated iron springs, but springing was still achieved as in the original leather straps. The style of the roof was probably influenced by the contemporary Chinese-Chippendale taste in furnishings. Its sides are decorated to include ‘Memento Mori’ a skull – ‘remember that you must die’ – and ‘Hora Fugit’ an hour glass – ‘the hour flies’. The workmanship of the hearse body is distinctly inferior to that of the earlier under-carriage with its straked iron tyres (ie. made in pieces), but it is believed to be the oldest surviving road vehicle in Scotland. J N Cartwright 1974 3 Figure 1: St Andrew’s Kirk from the north-east. 4 ‘AMIDST THE IVY THOU PERCEIV’ST A RUIN’: EXAMINING THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF ST ANDREW’S KIRK, GULLANE by DIANA SPROAT ‘Amidst the ivy thou perceiv’st a ruin, Long since it was the parish church of Gullane. Its palmy days have long since passed away - The days when arrant Popery had full sway; The blessed Reformation brought more light, God’s people then assembled with delight. The population small, and not o’er wealthy they, This ruin which you see fell to decay.’ (W T Hogg, Gullane: A Poem (Edinburgh, 1875) ABSTRACT The old Norman church in Gullane (fig 1) was an ivy-covered ruin until a decade or so ago, the heavy vegetation threatening to pull down what remained of the stone building that has stood on the site since the twelfth century. However, residents of the village and locality, interested in discovering the true story behind their kirk, slowly began to remove the ivy in the late 1980s to expose the walls and the secrets they held, as without detailed intervention, conservation and preservation measures, the building would eventually have declined, its secrets lost forever. It was only when the Gullane and Dirleton History Society, formed in 1995, started to think seriously about raising funds to preserve the ruin that a concerted scheme developed. In 2009 the Society secured a grant from Historic Scotland for half the cost of the works, with East Lothian Council providing ‘in kind’ management assistance. A further £10,000 was raised by the local community, with the balance coming from two more Council funds, the local Community Council and the Tyne Esk Leader fund. This article explores the first element of that work - the recording, research and analysis of the fabric - which enabled a fuller understanding of the history of the building from its twelfth- century origins to the present day to be made. The study subsequently helped inform the conservation programme for the ancient kirk and its interpretation to visitors, including a fine guidebook written by Bill Nimmo for the Gullane and Dirleton History Society, published in 2012.