Bradshaw’s Tour of the Borders!
(North British Station, Peebles, c.1910. Ref: PC/5/4)
After watching some of the BBC’s latest series of Great British Railway Journey’s with Michael Portillo (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xgqxy) we looked to see what Bradshaw said for the Scottish Borders.
Bradshaw’s shilling handbook or descriptive railway handbook, volume for 1860, section IV, which includes some Border towns and areas can be found on google books at:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xKNDAAAAcAAJ&dq=Bradshaw%20Galashiels&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false
This guide mentions the railway routes such as the North British Railway and North Eastern Railway, and describes towns such as Peebles, Kelso, Galashiels and Hawick, even mentioning that Hawick Farmers Club is the oldest in Scotland (and we have the archive collections for the club! (Refs: SBA 15 and SBA 67)
Although we don’t have a copy of Bradshaw’s guide we have quite a few similar guides that were written before and as the railways opened up the Border landscape. An early guide is the 1821 ‘Beauties of the Borders’ by Sir Walter Scott from 1821. This follows a descriptive style for a grand border tour!
So a challenge if you’re out walking/ driving about in the Borders - grab a copy of one of the guides we hold and see what you can find that is the same as when the guide was written! Can you stay at the same hotels? Can you visit the same attractions?
Do contact us to find more on the guides we hold and for copies for your ‘Tour of the Borders’!
Posted by: Rachel
