Jedburgh and the Jed Water
The Scottish Borders town of Jedburgh is situated on the A68, ten miles north of the Scotland-England border. Jedburgh is named from the Jed Water, a river that flows northward from the Cheviot borderlands to join the River Teviot two miles north of the town.
Jedburgh was Roxburghshire’s historic County Town, and like the long-gone burgh of Roxburgh from which it inherited that crown, it was an historic Royal Burgh. The ‘Jed’ of the Jed Water river-name comes from the Brythonic ‘gweden’ meaning ‘winding and twisting’.
In Scots the town of Jedburgh has often been called ‘Jeddart’ – pronounced ‘Jethart’. This name derives from ‘Jedward’ or ‘Jedworth’, old names for Jedburgh before it became a royal burgh. The local name for Jedburgh is recalled in the ‘Jethart Snails’ which are simple dark brown peppermint-flavoured toffees associated with the town.
Old spellings of Jedburgh include ‘Jeddeuurd’ in 1145; ‘Gedword’ in 1130; ‘Gedddewrde’ in 1100 and ‘Gedwearde’ as early as the 800s. Effectively, they all derive from ‘Jedworth’ with the second part of the name often spelt ‘ward’ though this actually derives from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘worth’ meaning ‘enclosure’. The foundation of Jedburgh Abbey here by David I and his establishment of a Royal Burgh – a royal approved trading town, brought about the present day name for the town, first recorded as ‘Jeddeburgh’ in 1160.
Once part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, Jedburgh had been the site of a church established by the Bishops of Lindisfarne around AD 830 but there was likely an earlier church as Northumbrian-style carved stones have been found dating back as early as the 700s, including the base of an Anglian cross that can be seen in the garden of Jedburgh’s Mary Queen of Scots Museum.
According to a Norman chronicler, Symeon of Durham, a Northumbrian noble called Eadwulf Rus (a son or grandson of the Northumbrian Earl Gospatric) was buried at Jedburgh church in the 1080s. Rus had been one of the murderers of Walcher, the Bishop of Durham at Gateshead in 1080. Later, Rus would himself be murdered. He was slain by a woman. However, Prior Turgot of Durham had the body of Rus removed from Jedburgh.
In later times, Jedburgh was one of the most troubled towns in the borders and was vulnerable to raids and raiders. Its inhabitants had to defend themselves and they developed a tough reputation. ‘Jeddart Staff’ came to be the name given to a long-handled axe, while ‘Jeddart Law’ or ‘Jeddart Justice’ referred to the policy of hanging captive men first, then putting them on trial afterwards.
Today, Jedburgh is a beautiful borders town with lots of lovely stone houses lining its streets, although the little market place is something of a road junction and does not have an expansive square like we find at Kelso. Set into the road at its centre is a small plaque that marks the site of the mercat cross (market cross).
The mercat cross site is the traditional starting point for the Jedburgh Hand Ba’ (hand ball) game that usually takes place on the first Thursday after Shrove Tuesday. The competitors in this rough ‘mob-football’ game are either on the ‘Uppies’ or ‘Doonies’ team depending on which end of the town they were born or which end they first entered Jedburgh. There are in fact two ba’ games; one involving the boys of the town, which starts first; followed a little later by the mens’ game. Not for the faint-hearted.
A similar ba’ game is still played at Duns in Berwickshire as part of the summer time Reivers’ Festival and the game was also once played in another Roxburghshire town, Hawick, again by ‘Uppies and Doonies’. Over in North East England, Alnwick in Northumberland and Sedgefield in County Durham still hold hand-ball games around Shrove Tuesday as once did the Durham town of Chester-le-Street.
These games are thought to date back to medieval times although the first record of the Jedburgh game is not until 1704. The games at Jedburgh and Duns are said to have been first played with the head of an Englishman rather than a leather ball. The game at Alnwick, was similarly said to have been played with the head of a Scot.
Jedburgh’s mercat cross was removed in the nineteenth century and should not be confused with the ornate Jubilee Fountain of red stone built in 1899, that stands nearby. It was made to celebrate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee.
Close to this is another plaque set in the ground, within this small, pedestrianised island of the market place. This plaque marks the site of a defensive tower called Kirkwynd Tower that guarded Jedburgh Abbey. The tower was demolished in 1791.
On its west side, Jedburgh market place is joined by Exchange Street, which climbs out from the market place and is joined respectively on its south and north flanks by slightly narrower streets called Burn Wynd and ‘the Friars’ (Friargate). The Friars is a long street that leads north to Greyfriars Garden, the site of a Franciscan friary, of which scant remnants can be seen. Jedburgh Friary was established in the fifteenth century by Sir Andrew Ker of Ferniehirst.
Returning to Exchange Street, number 3-5 is a particularly smart building with two arched doorways. It was formerly a bank, designed by David Rhind in 1868. Nearby, number 11 Exchange Street is called Port House (a name ornately inscribed in the stone work). It was built in 1900 with cast iron features, for the Jedburgh Co-operative store by James Pearson Alison. It is named from an old port or gateway in Jedburgh that once stood in Burn Wynd.
Beyond ‘the Friars’, Exchange Street becomes Lanton Road. This road climbs steeply to become Tudhope Loaning, an old road that makes its way across Lanton Moor to the village of Lanton above the Teviot valley some two miles west of Jedburgh.
Back in Jedburgh’s centre, Jedburgh ‘High Street’ leads north from the market place and has pleasant stone buildings hosting locally-run shops with frontages subtly in keeping with the street.
A little further along, on its west side, is a street called Jewellers Wynd and on the east, a narrow street called Smiths Wynd, with no entry to traffic. This leads to a lovely sixteenth century tower house (a ‘bastle’) that is now a museum dedicated to Mary Queen of Scots.
Mary Queen of Scots visited Jedburgh in October 1566 to open the assizes here. During her stay she heard news that her lover, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell had become injured in a skirmish and she paid a visit to him as he lay injured at Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale. During her treacherous journey returning across the hills to Jedburgh her horse got stuck in a deep bog – a spot that later came to be known as Queens Mire. Mary had to dismount and guide her horse through the bog. She became ill and ended up staying in Jedburgh for a month.
The house in Jedburgh where the queen stayed had been rebuilt by the Kers of Ferniehirst on the site of an earlier bastle house destroyed by the Earl of Surrey in 1523. The present fortified house, known as Mary Queen of Scots House, now serves as the museum.
Like Ferniehirst Castle to the south of Jedburgh, it is noted for its ‘left-handed’ spiral staircase. Border families of the name Ker(r) and Carr were apparently noted for being left-handed and the staircase was supposedly designed to enable occupants to effectively defend the house by sword.
Both James Boswell and Mary’s husband, Lord Darnley are thought to have visited the queen at Jedburgh, though Darnley was not welcomed. Only a few months later in February 1567, Darnley was murdered at Edinburgh at the hands of Hepburn.
The museum tells the story of the queen’s fascinating life, featuring paintings, objects and textiles associated with her. Of particular interest is a death mask of Mary. The imprint of her face is a perfect, if rather eerie way to see what she looked like in person.
In the lands on the north eastern side of Jedburgh along the Tower Burn is an area called Hartrigge that was once the site of a house called Hartrigge House. Demolished in the 1950s, it dated from the 1850s and was the site of an earlier house. It was once the home of a Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, John, the 1st Baron Campbell (1779-1861).
Returning to Jedburgh’s town centre, joining the west side of the market place is Canongate, which descends out of the town to join the neighbouring A68. A pedestrian underpass heads underneath the A68 to reach the old Canongate Bridge across the Jed Water. Situated alongside a ford, the bridge is of sixteenth century origin and is thought to have been built with stones from Jedburgh Friary.
The A68 itself crosses the Jed slightly further north, near the northern end of the High Street and also crosses the Jed to the south of the town centre near Abbey Bridge. Canongate is also linked via Queen Street to the eastern end of Smiths Wynd where we find the Mary Queen of Scots Museum to the north.
Another main street of Jedburgh is Castlegate, that forms part of the B6358. It joins Jedburgh market place from the south side along with the neighbouring street of Abbey Place that curves south-eastward around the abbey churchyard towards Jedburgh Abbey.
The most prominent building overlooking the market place here is the Sheriff Court that stands on the corner of Castlegate and Abbey Place. It was built in 1812. French prisoners of war are said to have been employed in its construction.
To the side of the court building is an archway beneath a spired clock tower that contains three bells. This is Newgate, a gatehouse, commenced in 1756 on the site of an earlier tollbooth. Above the arch are the words ‘Entrance to Bridewell Jail’ with the additional words ‘Newgate 1755’. Also above is an armorial shield, representing the Burgh of Jedburgh with the date ‘1720’.
Jedburgh Abbey
Built of red sandstone, Jedburgh Abbey (not to be confused with Jedburgh Friary) is a beautiful ruin and a symbol of the power and influence of King David I. An Augustinian establishment, it began as a priory established by David in 1118. As king of Scotland, David elevated it to the status of abbey in 1147, with the abbey’s church being dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. The Augustinian brethren of canons at the abbey are thought to have come from St Quentin, near Beauvais in France.
The monastery was interconnected with the royal castle at the south end of the town and after David’s death it came under the patronage of his successors, Malcolm IV (1153-1165) and King William the Lion (1165-1214).
In October 1285, another Scottish king, Alexander III, married his new queen (his second wife), Yolande de Dreux, in Jedburgh’s abbey church. On his wedding day, a ghostly apparition is said to have warned him of impending death. The following March he would be thrown from his horse – and to his death – in Fife, on his way to visit his queen there for her birthday.
In 1296, Jedburgh fell under English control. King Edward I of England appointed an English loyalist, William de Jarum as the Abbot of Jedburgh. The Jarum of his family name was possibly Yarm rather than Jarrow as is sometimes said.
Within a year Jedburgh Abbey suffered from English attack, following the victory of William Wallace in 1297 and the defeat and capture of King David II at Nevilles Cross in 1346. After his release David would oversee the repair and completion of Jedburgh Abbey.
More destructive attacks upon the abbey continued into the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. The abbey would witness destruction at least seven times. Ultimately, however, just like the abbey at Kelso, Jedburgh Abbey fell victim to the Protestant reformation, which sealed its closure in 1560.
However, much more of Jedburgh abbey survives to be seen today than any of the other great border abbeys of Scotland. The main surviving feature is the abbey church which displays both Romanesque architectural features of the Norman period and later Gothic styles.
There is a nice view of the abbey and the Jed Water river from Abbey Bridge just to the south of the abbey ruins. This three-span bridge dates from the mid-nineteenth century. It has the more recent A68 bridge just to its immediate east for company.
Jedburgh Castle Jail
Jedburgh Castle, a focal point for much of Jedburgh’s story, stood on an elevated location at the south end of Jedburgh and was one of the great royal strongholds of the Scottish kings. It was here, however, that the Scottish King Malcolm IV known as ‘Malcolm the Maiden’, died, possibly from Paget’s disease, in December 1165 aged only 24. In 1174, under Malcolm’s successor, William the Lion, who was captured at Alnwick, the castle fell into English hands as part of a peace agreement with the English king, Henry II.
The ownership and control of the castle was determined by the conflicts of the Anglo-Scottish wars. It would fall back into Scottish control but was then seized and garrisoned by the English king, Edward I in 1297. In 1320, Robert the Bruce of Scotland seized the castle, placing it under the control of Sir James Douglas but it was back under English control again after the Battle of Nevilles Cross in 1346.
Falling back again under English control, the castle was finally destroyed by the Scots in 1409 to prevent the English from retaking. However, the loss of the castle placed the security and protection of the town and people of Jedburgh under threat. The following year the English razed the town to the ground and after its rebuilding by the Scots, the English would return to destroy it once again. Over the years and decades more attacks on Jedburgh followed, notably in 1464, 1513, 1523 and 1544.
Off Castlegate at the south end of the town of Jedburgh is a late Georgian prison of 1823 built on high ground that was once the site of Jedburgh Castle. This old prison is now the Jedburgh Castle and Jail Museum. Inside, the museum gives an impression of what life would be like inside an 1820s prison with a chance to explore the cells and find out about the people who were imprisoned there. Part of the museum (the former jailer’s house) is a museum about the town of Jedburgh itself.
The town-focused part of the museum includes features on famous people from Jedburgh including Mary Somerville (1780-1872), the Jedburgh-born mathematician and scientist from whom Oxford University’s Somerville College is named. Other locally-born notables connected with Jedburgh include David Brewster (1781-1868), the inventor of the kaleidoscope and the astronomer and church minister, James Veitch (1808-1879).
Carter Bar and Jed Water
The principal route into Jedburgh from England and the south is the A68 that heads north through Northumberland from Newcastle, Corbridge and Redesdale. This road crosses the border at Carter Bar in the Cheviot Hills where there are impressive views across the Scottish border country. From Carter Bar the A68 continues for four miles into Scotland before reaching the Jed Water at a hamlet called Camptown where it crosses the Jed as the valley comes in from the west.
On the way to Camptown the A68 passes near a little hamlet called Edgerston, just to the east. Edgerston was historically associated with the Rutherfurd clan of Border Reivers who lived here from at least the 1400s. One of their descendants, Thomas Rutherfurd (1650-1720) built the impressive Edgerston House in 1695 on the site of an earlier tower house but it has not been owned by the family since 1915.
An alternative, longer route from Carter Bar to Jedburgh is to head west along the A6068 Bonchester Bridge road. After four miles this road also crosses the Jed Water but at a location further upstream called Southdean. It was at Southdown (‘Souden’) that the forces of Douglas assembled prior to the Battle of Otterburn in 1388.
Further upstream to the south, without any road to follow its lonely course, the Jed Water is fed by streams called the White Burn and the Black Burn in the extensive Cheviot tree-scape of the Wauchope Forest. Crossing the Jed Water at Southdean we reach a place called Chesters. Here, instead of continuing onward to Bonchester Bridge which is in a quite separate valley called the Rule Water, we can turn right and follow a minor road north-eastward that also takes us to the A68 near Camptown.
Back on the A68 heading to Jedburgh from Camptown, this major north-south road now more or less follows the Jed Water valley downstream on its journey through the Cheviots. At Camptown, another minor road heads three miles north east towards Oxnam and yet another quite separate valley, the Oxnam Water. The village of Oxnam once belonged to the Kerr family of Border Reivers.
A little north of Camptown, the A68 passes near a spot called Old Jeddart. This name is a bit of a mystery. A Norman chronicler, Symeon of Durham said there were two places or villes called Geddewerde belonging to the Bishop of Lindisfarne in Anglo-Saxon times and Old Jeddart had long been identified as one of these villes
It was supposedly the site of an Anglo-Saxon church founded by Bishop Ecgred of Lindisfarne. However, it is now thought the second ville was near the site of Jedburgh castle just south of Jedburgh itself. Old Jeddart may be a fanciful name for some other long-forgotten feature. Over to the east side of the river are places called Dolphinston and Mossburnford.
Dolphinston was once the seat of Dolfin of Carlisle, a Northumbrian noble who had significant powers in the Borders under Malcolm III. He lost Carlisle (then under Scottish rule) to William Rufus in 1092.
Ferniehirst Castle
A mile and a half north of Mossburnfood located above the Jed Water valley as it approaches Jedburgh, is Ferniehirst Castle, one of the historic strongholds of the Ker (or Kerr) family, who were originally of Cessford.
It was a Sir Thomas Kerr who built the first tower house here in 1470 and later that century it became the home of his left-handed swordsman son Andrew ‘Dand’ Kerr who installed a left-handed spiral staircase in the tower. Dand, who encouraged his men to fight using their swords in their left hand, established a separate branch of the Kerr clan – the Kerrs of Cessford – and was the virtual chieftain of the men of Jedburgh. Later, the two branches of the Kerr family became fierce rivals and in the 1570s when the Kerrs of Ferniehirst engaged in a bitter feud with Jedburgh, attacking the town in 1572, the Kerrs of Cessford rode against them.
In the 1520s Ferniehirst was besieged by the English and subsequently garrisoned by English soldiers until recapture by the Scots in 1549. Some 130 English soldiers from the castle were executed by the Scots. Later that year it was briefly retaken by the English but they subsequently departed.
In 1593 James VI of Scotland ordered the destruction of the castle after its then owner, a Sir Andrew Kerr, was accused of supporting the rebellious 5th Earl of Bothwell. After Sir Andrew Kerr was pardoned, the house was rebuilt in the 1590s. In the 1690s the castle passed to another branch of the Kerr family who were the Earls of Lothian (later titled Marquess of Lothian). This family still own the castle today.
Bonjedward and Nisbet
A mile north of Ferniehirst Castle, the Jed Water reaches the southern outskirts of the little town of Jedburgh. The A68 crosses the river six times between Ferniehirst and the northern end of Jedburgh. The river is of course also crossed by the old Canongate Bridge.
After passing through Jedburgh the Jed Water, still followed by the A68, continues north to join the River Teviot, two miles north of the town. Half a mile from the river junction is a village called Bonjedward. The ‘Bon’ of the name Bonjedward is from a Gaelic word ‘bonn’ meaning ‘foot’ – ‘foot of the Jed’. Near here, the A698 crosses Jed Water close to a point where the Roman road of Dere Street once crossed the Jed and Teviot.
From here the Teviot flows north-eastward to eventually join the Tweed eight miles north of Jedburgh at Kelso. On the way there the Teviot passes the villages of Nisbet and Roxburgh. Before it reaches Kelso the river also passes near the site of Roxburgh Castle and the long lost burgh or town of Roxburgh.
Over on the north bank of the Teviot two miles north east of Bonjedward, we find the village of Nisbet situated below Nisbet Moor. It is named from a ‘nose-bit’ shaped bend of the River Teviot less than a mile downstream from the mouth of the Jed Water.
Just to the west of Nisbet is a prominent hill called Peniel Heugh overlooking the Teviot valley on which we find the Waterloo Monument, a 150 feet high column built to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo at the instigation of William Kerr, the 6th Marquess of Lothian. At first a pyramid monument was erected by the architect, William Burn in 1817 but it collapsed and it was replaced by the present monument, completed before 1824 by Archibald Elliot.
A late nineteenth century bridge crosses the Teviot at Nisbet linking it to the nearby village of Crailing on the A698, a little way across the river. Close to Crailing the Teviot is joined by the Oxnam Water.
Upstream, the Oxnam Water passes another village called Crailinghall where a road leads east to Cessford. Near Crailinghall the Oxnam Water is crossed by the course of the Roman Dere Street. A little deeper into the Cheviots to the south, the Oxnam Water passes the tiny village of Oxnam itself. Oxnam Water is quite a minor valley compared to the Kale Water to the east and the Jed Water to the west.
Ancrum and Ale Water
From its junction with the Jed Water near Bonjedward, the River Teviot passes close to Harestanes Country park and visitor centre on the northern bank of the Teviot. Along the Teviot a mile upstream to the west, the river is crossed by the A68 at Ancrum Bridge and half a mile upstream it is joined by a little river called the Ale Water near the village of Ancrum.
Ancrum’s name is from the Brythonic ‘Alncrwm’ meaning bend in the River Alne – seemingly an old name for the Ale Water. Situated in a loop of the river, Ancrum was once a monastic site where the ruins of a medieval church can be seen dating to 1136. The title ‘Earl of Ancram’ comes from an alternative spelling and was held by a branch of the Ker family between 1568 and 1690. Their successors were the Earls of Lothian, later titled Marquess of Lothian.
Focused on a village green with the old Mercat Cross at its centre, Ancrum is a pretty place sometimes known as ‘Little Lovely’. Near the green is a war memorial of red stone designed by the Glasgow architect Alex Nisbet Paterson (1862-1947). The village pub is the Cross Keys and the local church dates from 1890, though there had been an earlier one. It contains a Dutch bell dating from 1618.
A mile north of Ancrum, east of the A68, is the site of the Battle of Ancrum Moor of 1545 fought between English and Scottish armies. The Scottish commanders were James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton and Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. The English commanders were Sir Bryan Layton, captain of Norham Castle and Sir Ralph Eure of Witton Castle in County Durham.
Fought on February 27, 1545, the battle was a Scottish victory that saw the death of both English commanders. At that time Henry VIII was King of England and Mary Queen of Scots (in line for the English throne) was just an infant. Henry had constantly sent men north to harry in Scotland in the ‘War of the Rough Wooing’ reflecting Henry’s desire to have Mary married to his son, Edward. Ralph Eure (also called Evers) was one of the men sent north to cause havoc.
Some of the Scottish soldiers at the battle were Borderers as were many soldiers on the English side. The Scots were victors despite being outnumbered. The battle took place at a site between what is now the A68 and the nearby Dere Street. The village of St Boswells, on the Tweed, is about two miles to the north.
A monument at ‘Lilliard’s Edge’ within the battle site recalls an apocryphal story of a ‘fair maiden’ called Lilliard who fought in the battle and kept on fighting from her stumps, with her sword, after her legs were cut off:
Fair maid Lilliard lies under this stane;
Little was her stature, but muckle was her fame;
upon the English loons she laid monie thumps;
and when her legs were cuttit off,
she fought upon her stumps.
In fact variations of the place-name Lilliard’s Edge referred to this location long before the battle, with earlier forms including ‘Lyliattis Cros’; ‘Lillyat Cros’ and ‘Lyliot-crosse’. It seems to have referred to a stone marking a boundary of lands belonging to Melrose Abbey. The first part of the place-name is a personal name that also appears in the name of Lilliesleaf to the west.
Ancrum’s Ale Water river is of considerable length – about 24 miles. It rises in the hills south west of Hawick. Places along its course upstream include Lilliesleaf village south east of Selkirk. Its name written in earlier times was written as Lillescliff, it is home to a church of 1771, on the site of an earlier medieval church.
Further up the valley is the Riddell estate and a village called Ashkirk where the A7 road crosses the Ale Water, linking the towns of Hawick and Selkirk. Historically Ashkirk parish was mostly located in Roxburghshire and partly in Selkirkshire but was moved in its entirety into Selkirkshire in 1891. One of the old houses in the village was formerly a toll house.
Much further upstream the Ale Water river plays host to the Alemoor Loch and further still, the river begins its course in western Roxburghshire in the region of the forest of Craik. The River Teviot itself also rises in this wild and remote country. Heading back downstream, about four miles south of Ashkirk, in the valley of the River Teviot is Hawick, the largest town of Roxburghshire.
Scottish Borders Pages
Berwickshire Coast and Lothians
English Border Pages
- Berwick-upon-Tweed
- Battle of Flodden
- Till, Tweed and Norhamshire
- Wooler, Glendale and Wark
- Redesdale
- North Tynedale
- Carlisle
- Cumberland Border region
- Borderlands
- The Border Reivers
Explore North East England and the Scottish Borders
Select an area on the interactive history map above