Greenlaw

Greenlaw is a town and civil parish situated in the foothills of the Lammermuir Hills on Blackadder Water at the junction of the A697 and the A6105 in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 661.

History

Greenlaw was first made the county town of Berwickshire in 1596. At that time, Greenlaw was situated about south of the present village, atop a hill - the 'Green Law'. This area is now known as Old Greenlaw.

In 1661, county town status was lost to Duns by an Act of Parliament. When Patrick, Earl of Marchmont attained the barony of Greenlaw in the 1670s, he made it his business to restore what he saw as the rights and privileges that came with the barony. In 1696 he succeeded: an Act of Parliament was passed, laying down in statute that the town of Greenlaw should be the Head Burgh of Berwickshire.

However, attempts were made in 1739, 1790 and 1810 to take the rights and privileges from Greenlaw and make Duns the county town once more. Though unsuccessful in their primary aim, the grounds were laid for an 1853 Act authorising Sheriff and Commissary Courts to be held at Duns. Another courthouse, known as County Buildings, was subsequently built at 8 Newtown Street in Duns in 1856. When Berwickshire County Council was created it held its first meeting on 22 May 1890 at County Hall in Greenlaw, when it decided by 18 votes to 12 that all subsequent meetings should be held at Duns. Greenlaw was still considered the official county town after 1890, despite the county council meeting in Duns and courts being held at both towns. An Act of Parliament in 1903 finally revoked Greenlaw's status as county town and declared Duns to be the county town for all purposes.

There is also a fine church, built in 1675, on earlier foundations. The corbie step gables preserve a feature of the architecture of that period. The church was expanded during the eighteenth century and completed in its present form around 1855.

After Greenlaw became a county town in 1696, the church tower was planned as a tolbooth or prison and was completed by 1712. Its style was adapted to present the appearance of a Church Tower. It is unique in structure – square rising to a height of and ending in a corballed parapet from which an steeple rises. The old iron gate or yett is the original one of 1712. A Court House also completed in 1712 stood on the west side of the tower, therefore by 1712 there stood by the side of the Church, a Tolbooth and Court House, hence the rhyme:

"Here stands the Gospel and the Law, Wi' Hell's Hole atween the twa"

A new jail was built in the town in 1824. This was used throughout the Victorian period but was taken out of use in the 20th century and demolished in the 1960s.

Greenlaw Town Hall, completed in 1831, is a listed building from its county town era and was one of the buildings shortlisted in the 2006 BBC
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