Parish of Foulden

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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1791-99: Foulden 1834-45: Foulden

Foulden, a village and a parish in the eastern part of Merse district, Berwickshire. The village stands 1 mile to the N of Whitadder Water, and 5½ miles S of Ayton station, 4 E by S of Chirnside, and 5 WNW of Berwick-upon-Tweed, under which it has a post office. A pretty little place, it once was a burgh of barony and a place of considerable size and note, and had its Border peel-tower, whilst its church, on 23 March 1587, was the meeting-place of Elizabeth's commissioners with those of James VI., to vindicate the execution of Queen Mary.

The parish is bounded N by Ayton, E and SE by Mordington, S by Hutton, and W by Chirnside. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 2½ miles; its utmost breadth, from N to S, is 2³/₈ . miles; and its area is 3298 acres, of which 20 are water. Whitadder Water winds 2½ miles east-by-southward between steep banks along all the southern border, and receives three little burns from this parish, one of which traces most of the boundary with Mordington. The surface declines at the SE corner to less than 100 feet above sea-level, thence rising to 389 feet near Blinkbonny, 461 near Mosspark, 421 near St Johns, and 642 at Greenfieldheights that command a wide and magnificent view of Flodden and other famous historic scenes. The rocks are mainly Devonian; and the soil ranges from stony clay in the S to loamy towards the centre, and light and moorish in the N. Rather more than one-twelfth of the entire area is under wood, chiefly in the central district; one-ninth is natural pasture; and all the rest is in tillage. Foulden House, to the E of the village, is the seat of the chief proprietor, John Wilkie, Esq. (b.1806; suc. 1817), who holds 2550 acres in the shire, valued at £5245 per annum. Another mansion is Newlands House, ½ mile N of the village. Foulden is in the presbytery of Chirnside and synod of Merse and Teviotdale; the living is worth £260. The church, rebuilt in 1786, contains 166 sittings; and a public school, with accommodation for 72 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 41, and a grant of £38, 9s. 6d. Valuation (1865) £5563,2s. 10d., (1882) £6529,16s. Pop. (1801) 393, (1831) 424, (1861) 431, (1871) 425, (1881) 393.—Ord. Sur., sh. 34,1864.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer