Paxton is a small village near the B6461 and the B6460, in the pre-1975 ancient county of
Berwickshire
Berwickshire (; ) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. The county takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, its original county town, which was part of Scotland at the ...
, now an administrative area of the
Borders region of Scotland. It lies 1 mile west of the border with
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
, It is a traditional, country village surrounded by farmland, and its closest market towns are
Duns and
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...
.
Paxton is beside the
River Tweed
The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the River Tweed. The Tweed is one of the great salmon rivers ...
which is the border at that point and on
Whiteadder Water. Paxton is also the location of
Paxton House.
Linking Scotland and England, the nearby
Union Chain Bridge, opened in 1820, was the longest
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...
suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
in the world. It was also the first of its kind in Britain.
History
Traditionally home to villagers working on the land or in the salmon fishery on the Tweed, Paxton is said to be the birthplace of the song ''
Robin Adair'':
''Paxton's a fine snug place, Robin Adair,''
''It's a wondrous couthie place, Robin Adair;''
''Let Whiteadder rin a spate,''
''Or the wind blow at ony rate,''
''Yet I'll meet thee on the gait, Robin Adair.''
The settlement at Paxton was burnt by an English army in November 1542.
[Joseph Bain, ''Hamilton Papers'', 1 (Edinburgh, 1890), xci–xcii.]
See also
*
Paxton House
References
External links
CANMORE/RCAHMS record for Paxton, Village HallCANMORE/RCAHMS record for Paxton, GeneralSCRAN image: Salmon Fishers Hauling In Their Catch At Paxton On The River TweedGEOGRAPH image: Church of Scotland, Paxton Paxton Village Hall official website
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Berwickshire
Villages in the Scottish Borders
Hutton Castle