Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Stitchel

Stitchel, a village and a parish of N Roxburghshire. The village occupies a beautiful site, 405 feet above sea-level, and 3 ¼ miles NNW of Kelso, under which it has a post office. Consisting of one old-fashioned street, it has greatly decayed since the close of last century, when it was famous for the open-air preachings or `Holy Fairs ' of its Secession church; and it was the first place in the county visited by the cholera in 1832.

The parish, united since 1640 to Hume in Berwickshire, is bounded SE by Ednam, and on all other sides by Berwickshire, viz., S and W by Nenthorn, N by Hume, and NE by Eccles. Its utmost length, from ENE to WSW, is 3 ¼ miles; its breadth varies between 1 1/8 and 2 1/8 miles; and its area is 2803¾ acres, of which 5 are water. Eden Water, a capital trout stream, winds 1 7/8 mile east-by-northward along the southern boundary, and forms, near Newton-Don, the beautiful waterfall, 40 feet high, of Stitchel Linn. Sinking to close on 200 feet above sea-level, the surface thence rises north-north-westward, till at Sweethope Hill it attains a maximum altitude of 731 feet. The rocks are chiefly eruptive and Devonian; and the soils are variously argillaceous, loamy, and gravelly. Some of the land is naturally wet and cold, but all has been greatly improved, and most is in a state of high cultivation. In 1628 the lands of Stitchel were sold by Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar (afterwards Viscount Kenmure) to Robert Pringle, whose grandson received a baronetcy in 1683, and whose great-great-grandson, Sir John Pringle, Bart. (1707-82), an eminent physician and natural philosopher, was born at Stitchel House. About 1855 the estate was purchased by the Bairds; and its present proprietor, George Alexander Baird, Esq. of Stitchel and Strichen (b. 1861; suc. 1870), holds 4339 acres in Roxburgh and 11,248 in Aberdeen shire, valued at £8375 and £9049 per annum. His seat, Stitchel House, 5 miles NNW of Kelso, is a large and splendid edifice of 1866, whose tower, 100 feet high, commands a magnificent view of the country for 30 miles round. The grounds possess much beauty. Stitchel is in the presbytery of Kelso and the synod of Merse and Teviotdale; the living is worth £401. The parish church contains 320 sittings, as also does the new U.P. church, this being an Early Decorated building, erected in 1877 at a cost of £2000. Stitchel public school, with accommodation for 113 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 38, and a grant of £35, 1s. Valuation (1864) £4196, 5s. 6d., (1884) £4765, 2s. 5d. Pop. (1801) 506, (1831) 434, (1861) 425, (1871) 388, (1881) 342.—Ord. Sur., sh. 25, 1865.


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Stichill ScoP       Roxburghshire ScoCnty
Place: Stichill

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