A Jail, An Abbey and Meringue!

I've been neglecting my blog these past few weeks, lots has been going on and I haven't had a lot of spare time to devote to writing.  But I thought I'd write up a visit I recently made this weekend to Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders.

Jedburgh Jail

I met up with my friend Alison in Hawick - I'd taken the bus there because with the sky high price of petrol now it was cheaper than taking my car.  We went for lunch in The Bourtree, a Wetherspoons pub in the centre of Hawick.  It was a rather grand building, that had a sweeping wooden staircase that led to the loos!  Apparently it used to the a Conservative club, and the name Bourtree comes from ancient elder trees that used to stand where the present day building now is.

After a nice lunch we drove the 10 or so miles to Jedburgh.  I'd never been there before and thought it a lovely town dominated by the old castle-like jail on top of a hill at the head of the town's main street.  We first visited the jail which was on a prominent site where there was originally a castle built in the 12th century by King David I.  Being only ten miles from the border with England the castle was constantly fought over and by the 1400's had fallen into disrepair.

In 1823 the remains of the castle were removed and a Howard Reform prison was built on the site.  At the time it was the most modern and forward-thinking form of incarceration.  It has the look of a well preserved castle with turrets and walls and a portcullis-like entrance through the outer wall.  Entry was free (donations welcome) and what we noticed first was how bitterly cold it was inside - colder than outside!  That was really odd, maybe the stories of it being haunted are true.  We saw a display of the history of the building, the bleak cells with huge iron doors, examples of crimes - a 9 year old boy imprisoned for stealing potatoes was an example I remember.  Examples of the prison clothing was exhibited and the prison diet consisted of porridge, milk and potatoes.  It was a reformist jail but it still seemed pretty harsh.

Jedburgh Abbey

It was a relief to get outside again and warm up a bit!  We went to look at Jedburgh Abbey nearby.  It was a large building quite well preserved.  We didn't actually go into it as you had to pay but wandered around the perimeter.  Jedburgh is a small town of 4000 inhabitants today, but was clearly was an important religious seat in past times.

Mary, Queen of Scots House

We walked down Castle Gate and noticed a very old house called Mary, Queen of Scots House so we went to investigate.  It was another donation only museum so we went in to look around. It is rumoured Mary stayed at this house, owned by the Kerr family, while recovering from illness in 1566.  It is has four storeys which you reached via a stone spiral staircase and is full of memorabilia of Mary and this era. Once she returned from exile in France to Scotland, and later England, she seemed to have led an almost nomadic existence staying at various castles and grand mansions along the way.

The walls are wood panelled, the floors stone flags.  In one room there are panels painted with the images of people who played a role in Mary's eventful life.  A family tree shows all the royal inter-connections between those vying for the throne of England at the time. There is also a death mask of Mary taken after her execution in at Fotheringhay Castle1587 in the museum which shows her to have been a very beautiful woman.

Finally Alison and I went to a meringue shop, my idea of heaven LOL!  Border Meringues supplies meringues to shops etc in the region, and it's very ordinary exterior hides a lovely cafe with meringue and cake delights to please everyone.  Delicious and well deserved after our historical traipsing around Jedburgh.  It's a small, but historically interesting town and well worth a visit.

Apple Day (Nothing to do with Steve Jobs!)

One of the few fruits that thrives in northern England is the apple.  This is the time of the apple harvest and many areas hold their own Apple Days.  Today I went through to Harestanes, a country park just outside Jedburgh, to meet up with my friend Alison and to go to my first Apple Day.  It was difficult to find and in the end I came across it by accident and arrived half an hour late!  Alison was helping out at a Border Organic Gardeners stall and I met her there.

Apples, Apples, Apples!

We went over to a room in what looked like a converted stable block which was full of fresh apples, the gorgeous, aromatic smell hit you as you walked in.  I had never seen so many apples in my life!  Most were English varieties, but there were some from the US, Australia and other countries.  All had information about them on little cards complete with how they tasted.  You could touch and pick up the apples which was nice, somehow you want to be tactile with things like this.  There was one absolutely huge whopper whose taste was noted as "insipid", not exactly inspiring!  They also had information leaflets about how to look after apple trees, I picked one of these up as I planted a Cox's Orange Pippin tree in my garden earlier this year and have no idea how to look after it.

The Insipid Whopper

There was a stall of honey products that had delicious ginger cake made with honey instead of sugar.  We had a wander round the craft rooms, one had fabulous leather handmade handbags - one of the women was actually making one when we were there.  They were beautiful and unique, expensive but not outrageously so.  I had to put my sensible hat on and resisted the temptation to buy.

We went to the cafe for something to eat, and there was an apple theme to much of the menu.  I got into the spirit of it and had tomato, celery and apple soup (delicious) and an apple and cinnamon scone (equally delicious.)

We went on a walk through some nearby woods which was very pleasant, shame I'd left my dogs at home, but I am wary about leaving them in my car nowadays with all that you hear about pedigree dogs being stolen.

Afterwards, seeing the weather wasn't too bad, we sat in the central square, had a cappucino and listened to four musicians playing traditional music.  As I listened I noticed how like Irish music it was, bodhran and all.  There was a lovely atmosphere, busy and the people were chatty and friendly. It's good to see that local people still like and frequent traditional events like Apple Days.  It was a first for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it!