COCKBURNSPATH
It was not until after the Reformation that Cockburnspath became a separate and independent parish. Previously, it formed a chapelry of Oldhamstocks. The parish also includes the ancient parish of Auldcambus, which belonged to the monastery of Coldingham as a cell of Durham.
Cockburnspath parish was made up of parts of Coldingham, Oldhamstocks, and Abbey St. Bathans. As a chapelry, it is quite old, probably coexistent with the hospital, both dating back to the thirteenth century.
The chapelry and hospital were interconnected. The seal of Master Robert, the chaplain of Cockburnspath, is affixed to a charter given at Ayton in 1255. The title of "Master" belonged to the hospital—a leper hospital, no doubt—where local victims of an incurable and loathsome disease found refuge and support.*
It is doubtful if the foundations of the present church, which are very old, belong to the ancient chapel. There is a place called Chapelhill, located some distance from Cockburnspath, near which there are indications of a graveyard having once existed. This would likely have been connected with the chapel.
*Dr. Hardy – Hist. Ber. Nat. Club.
Whether the hospital, with its chapel and burial ground, was located in the village is uncertain.*
In the Chartulary of the Priory of Coldingham, a charter is preserved in which William the Lion confirms a grant of half a carrucate of land to the hospital.†
The present church building is of a peculiar shape, with its length about 4½ times its breadth. The internal dimensions are 80 feet long and 18 feet 3 inches wide. At the west end of the church is a curiously shaped tower or belfry. This tower is circular and reaches a height of 30 feet, with an internal diameter of 6 feet and walls 15 inches thick. Its age is uncertain, though some antiquarians regard it as very ancient.
The chapelry and hospital are mentioned in the Berwickshire Retours, No. 145, Oct. 7, 1625, as being in possession of Master James Nicolsone of Cockburnspath. It is specified as "the Kirklands (still so named) of Auldhamstocks, lying in the Maynes and within the vill of Cockburnspath, called 'Lie Hispittell.'"
†The following is a transcript of that charter, previously unpublished:
Confirmatio Donationis Hospitali de Aldcambus Facti
"Willelmus Dei gratia Rex Scottorum omnibus probis hominibus totius terre sue clericis et laicis salutem. Sciant presentes et futuri me concessisse, et hac carta mea confirmasse donationem illam, quam David de Quicheswde fecit Hospitali de Aldcambus et Leprosis ibi manentibus, de ilia dimidia carucata terras in Aldcambus quam Radulfus Pelliparius tenuit: tenendam in liberam et puram at perpetuam elemosinam, cum omnibus libertatibus et aisiamentis et predictam terrain juste pertinentibus, ita libere et quiete sicut carta predicti Davidis testatur: Salvo servicio meo. Testibus Willelmo de Bosch. Cancellario meo, Waltero Cuming, Davide de Hastings. Appud Jeddewrith, XVI. die Maij." – Archaeological Essays by the late Sir James Y. Simpson, Bart., M.D., D.C.L.
In the Latin extract above, the original orthography is preserved.
The present church’s tower features several apertures in its upper part that resemble the loopholes of peel towers, suggesting it may have been erected as a watchtower.*
Near the east end of the building, remnants of a base course of early character remain. Diagonal buttresses with rudimentary pedimental heads stand at each angle of the church. A window head of the second-pointed period has been preserved and embedded in the south wall. This window consists of two foliated round-headed lights, with a quatrefoiled circle above. A pointed label, terminating on each side in a notch head, decorates the top.†
An old lintel inserted nearby is said to have come from another unrelated building. It is inscribed:
"IN I H 1652."
The exact date of the church’s earliest construction remains unknown. However, it is undoubtedly ancient, with one stone removed during repairs bearing the date 1163. Over the years, repairs have improved its state, including significant renovations in 1807, when it was newly roofed.
Macgibbon and Ross, authorities on such structures, suggest the tower dates to the early sixteenth century. However, the walls' thinness challenges this theory.
†Mr. Ferguson – Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, 1890.
Seated and rendered more comfortable, and again to a considerable extent in 1826.*
Surmounting the buttress at the southwest corner is a curious old sundial, which is believed to date back to the beginning of the sixteenth century.†
The communion plate consists of two silver cups engraved with the words:
"This cup belongs to the church of Cockburnspath. A.H. 1708."
The churchyard contains nothing particularly interesting. The oldest legible stone is a small one, inscribed:
"Here lyeth John Sinclar, who departed this life the 3rd of May 1726, and of his age..."
On the other side of this stone are a death's head, crossbones, and an hourglass.
*New Statistical Account.
†Referring to the sundials on the churches at Cockburnspath and Oldhamstocks, MacGibbon and Ross say:
"These are sloping dials, and, so far as our observation goes, they are unique amongst attached sundials, which are all upright; and as these two dials probably date from early in the sixteenth century, they may be regarded as the forerunners of the 'lectern dials,' to be considered under a separate head. The dial at Cockburnspath forms the terminal of the angle buttress at the S.W. corner of the church; its face leans forward, and the sides are splayed away; the upper surface slopes backward to the skew of the gable and is hollowed like a half-cylinder. A singular piece of stone sticks out like the stump of an amputated arm from the west side. Whether this was meant to tell the time by its shadow on the gable cannot be determined, as the wall is 'harled over.' The west end of this church, including the buttress and the singular round tower, as well as the east end, probably date from about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and without doubt, the dial is part of the original structure." – MacGibbon and Ross' Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century.
The following beautiful lines appear on a nineteenth-century stone:
"Dear is this spot where her dust sleeps,
And sweet the strains her spirit pours;
Oh, why should we in anguish weep,
She is not lost, but gone before."
There is an old handbell belonging to this parish, which is said to have been rung before funerals. It is encircled by three lines of inscriptions as follows:
"Gifted be John Henrie Bower in Edinburgh to the Sessione and Kirke of Cockburnspath 1650."
The church of Aldcambus, called St. Helen's Kirk, is situated three miles east of Cockburnspath, close to the seashore. The writer of the Old Statistical Account, referring to its antiquity, states:
"From the nature of the building and other circumstances, it is supposed to have been erected sometime in the seventh century."
Unfortunately, no evidence supports this statement. A careful examination of the building by Mr. Muir in 1845 suggests an origin no earlier than the first quarter of the twelfth century, although it may have replaced an earlier structure.
A considerable portion of the old building still stands, though it is in quite a ruinous condition, surrounded by the old burial ground. When examined by Mr. Muir in 1845, the ruin was relatively intact, and he described its appearance and architectural features with great accuracy:
"This lonely and weather-beaten fragment of early Christian art, with its little surrounding burial ground, stands on an elevation overlooking the ocean, about three miles east of the village of Cockburnspath. It belongs to the Norman period and consists of a chancel, internally 15 feet 6 inches long by 11 feet 5 inches wide, and a nave, 30 feet 6 inches by 16 feet 11 inches.
The nave is grievously reduced but still retains the remains of a southeast window and indications of a northwest doorway and vaulted roof. In the east end of the south wall, close to the ground, is a plain, square-edged, segmental-headed recess, 5 feet 9 inches wide and 9 inches deep; immediately east of it is another recess, bisected in form, with its crown abutting on the wall of the chancel arch. The west wall, with its gable, is nearly perfect, though manifestly of later date. It has a plain triangular-headed buttress of three unequal stages placed diagonally on each corner; otherwise, it is simply a mass of dead wall, most likely composed partly of wrecked portions of the ancient fabric, as the stones are nearly similar in size and shape to those in the building at large. Some of the stones, on the inner plane, are hatched with the chevron moulding and indubitably parts of the windows or doorway arches.
The separation of the chancel is very distinctly marked both internally and externally, but the whole compartment is nearly as ruinous as the nave. Scarcely anything of the south wall remains, but the north and east elevations are relatively intact. The former is blank; the latter contains a small, slightly pointed light, recessed under a shallow rectangular nook. This window measures 2 feet 4 inches long by 6 inches wide. It is quite plain, with its head formed of a single stone, and opens upon the interior in a deep splay 5 feet high by 2 feet 11 inches wide. The inner aperture is semicircular and features a single hollow chevron carried around the head and down the sides close to the edges on both the outside and inside.
Of the chancel arch, which appears to have been of two chevroned orders, only a few voussoirs remain on each side. The jambs are relatively intact, consisting of four slender half-roll shafts—two grouped together under one double-scalloped capital—on each side of a large capitaled half-roll, thrust prominently forward to meet the soffit-rib of the arch. None of the bases are visible. The capitals are quite perfect, very heavy, and appear to have had enormously ponderous abaci, as evidenced by a remnant. The extant portion on the north side is of the common trigonal form, with its intermediate face continued with a double row of continuously notched squares studded with saltires—the crude typifications, doubtless, of the star-moulding seen in more enriched examples.
Like that of most old Scottish churches, the masonry is excellent. However, the material does not seem very durable. It is of a deep red color, common to many parts of the country, and is more abundantly present in the buildings of this district, both ancient and modern.
It is worth noting that the burial ground north of the church does not appear ever to have been used for interment."*
About a dozen stones remain, though they are defaced and scattered in a most shameful and dilapidated condition.
On a large horizontal stone are these words:
"Here lyes Evphan Sebbald, who departed this life the 6th of March 1672. Also Margret Atchison, who departed this life the 27th of December 1697, and of her age 41 years."
"Also James Suanston, who departed this life the 15th of August 1717, and of his age 75 years."
Another large horizontal stone is inscribed thus:
"Here lyes William Swanstown, who departed this life the 9th of February 1711, and of his age 24 years."
The inscription on a large horizontal stone with beveled edges is as follows:
"Here lyes John Broun, who departed this life the third of July 1686, and of his age 26. As also:
"Here lyes William Roughead, who departed this life the 26th of January 1710, and of his age 21 years."
An old horizontal stone, which was almost entirely covered over with turf and lying considerably below the general level of the ground, bears these words:
"Heir lies John and Jenit Booklesses, 1668, 1669."
"Here lyes Georg Bookless, who departed this life the seventh of June 1748."
Another horizontal stone bears the dates:
"1646, 1655,"
as well as initial letters. Unfortunately, the latter are hidden by another large, heavy stone.
Descriptive Notices of some of the Ancient Parochial and Collegiate Churches of Scotland, by T. S. Muir, 1848.
This demonstrates the utter confusion into which the place has been allowed to drift.
The following is a list of the ministers that have served in Cockburnspath since 1617:
John Lauder (in Auldcambus): 1617 to 1627.
George Sydserfe, M.A.: 1627 to 1639.
James Wright, M.A.: 1640 to 1656.
Richard Callender, M.A.: 1657 to 1663.
George Pollok, M.A.: 1663 to 1671.
David Stirling, M.A.: 1671 to 1681.
John Barclay, M.A.: 1682 to 1689.
David Clunie, M.A.: 1689 to 1700.
Henry Shaw: 1702 to 1746.
David Spence: 1748 to 1789.
Andrew Spence: 1789 to 1844.
James Stirling (assistant and successor): 1805 to 1830.
Andrew Baird (assistant and successor): 1831 to 1843.
William Paterson: 1843 to 1863.
John M. Buchanan (assistant and successor): 1863 to 1869.
Joseph Hunter (assistant and successor, present incumbent): 1869.
There is a neat Free Church in the village of Cockburnspath, erected in 1890. The congregation formerly worshipped at Oldhamstocks. The present minister is David Hewitt, M.A., settled in 1882.
There is also a United Presbyterian Church at Stockbridge, in this parish. The present minister is Robert Simpson.
Baird left the Established Church and joined the Free Church at the Disruption in 1843. — Scott's Fasti.
SOURCE: The Churches And Churchyards Of Berwickshire By James Robson 1893, updated 2025 Nathan Zipfel