Listed Buildings in Tweedsmuir Parish
1.5 The Bield. (Listed as Category B in 1971).
This site was occupied by an Inn in the late 17th century and the oldest part of the present building may belong to that period. The structure was extended and partially rebuilt in 1726 and further additions were made about a century later. Above the front door there is a lintel bearing the incised initials IT and ME for James Tweedie of Oliver and his wife Margaret Ewart. who were married in 1718. (The above details are from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuemts of Scotland survey for Peeblesshire in 1959).(1) The RCAHMS have the site listed on their online archive Canmore as ID 48577. Historic Scotland Ref ID 15426.
The building has a commerative plaque on the south gable to John Ker an emminent Minister of the United Presbyterian Church who was born there. The plaque can be seen in the image above at the centre of the end wall of the building fronting the road. There is also a nice memorial stained glass window in Tweedsmuir Parish Church.
For more information on the history of the Bield there is an informative article in the December 2016 issue of The Upper Tweed Community News. (Issue 75) that can viewed on their website http://uppertweed.org/ click on News Archives then 2016 then December 2016 - page 8.
The above article mentions that the earliest mention of the Bield is in connection with John Graham of Claverhouse who had a dragoon Billeted at the Bield for several days.(2) This was in 1682. It would appear that Claverhouse actually stayed there for at least one night during which time he despatched letters.(3) Claverhouse mentioned that he "sent from the Bille ane express" the express must have been an early Pony Express! One of the services provided by the Bield?
In June 1682 the records of the Tweedsmuir Parish Kirk state "Claverhouse nearly captured at the Crook by hillmen returning from their quarterly convention at Talla Linns.(2) Although the Crook is mentioned in the Kirk records the incident, according to Claverhouse, took place nearer to the Bield.(3)
In the Newsletter article it mentions that the Bield was located at at the strategic junction on the highway with the bridal path to the ford at the Tweed near the Kirk . It must have been the actual position of the Bield that made the it the favoured location for Claverhouse's "base" in Tweedsmuir - spurning the Crook!
It could be the location of the Bield that Claverhouse liked but it could have been the quality of their own brew whisky! We do now that a century later Robert Burns and his friend Thomas Campbell, found the whisky there superior to that of the Crook(4). We also know later that the Bield did have an illicit still(5).
The date of 1682 is the earliest mention of the Bield in the records but it must have been well established as an Inn/Change House by that date to welcome Claverhouse as a guest. The next earliest date is 1696 when Thomas Tweedie of Oliver had difficulty with his tenant there, William Tweedie, and had to eject him.(4)
References.
1) Royal Commission on the Ancient Historical Monuments if Scotland; Inventory for Peeblesshire - Bield ref 546, Edinburgh, 1967. Vol 2 p284.
2) Gunn, Clement, Bryce, Dr; The Book of Tweedsmuir Kirk, Alan Smyth/Neidpath Press, Peebles, 1926. p135.
3) Scottish History Society; Miscellany, Claverhouse Letters, Edinburgh, 1990. Vol XI p183.
4) Buchan J W & Paton, Henry Rev; History of Peeblesshire, Jackson Wylie, Glasgow, 1927. Vol III p365 - Footnote and p383- Footnote.
5) Scott, Sheila; Tales of Tweedsmuir Glimpses of an Upland Parish in the Past, Biggar, 1995. p3.