Stow of Wedale, or more often Stow, is a village in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

area of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

(historically in

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

), north of

Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...

. In the 2011 Census the population was 718. It is served by Stow railway station.

The name

The name Stow is an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word '' stōw'' meaning 'holy place' or 'meeting place', whilst Wedale is probably derived from the words '' wēoh'' (or ''wīg'') meaning 'shrine' and '' dæl'' meaning 'valley'.

History

According to legend, Stow was the site of one of the battles in which

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

defeated the

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

. There has been a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

at Stow since the 7th century, but the earliest example still visible today was built in the late 15th century on the site of the Church of

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

which was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

on 3 November 1242. The church used today, St Mary of Wedale, was built in 1876 and features a 140-foot-high

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

. A mile or so north of Stow lies the clachan of Torquhan, likely in the 13th century to have been one of the last places where the Brittonic language

Cumbric Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the ot ...

was finally replaced by English. Our Lady's Well is situated south of the village and was rebuilt in 2000. This is one of the oldest holy wells associated with the Virgin Mary in Scotland. A rare example of a

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low Parapet#Bridg ...

, built in the 1650s, can be found in Stow. Stow of Wedale Town Hall was completed in 1857. In 1870,

James Thin James Thin Ltd was a British bookshop chain, founded by James Thin (Bookseller), James Thin in 1848. It operated for 154 years, during which time it was run by five generations of the Thin family. Starting from a single shop in Edinburgh, it gr ...

purchased a plot of land in the village and had a house built which was completed in 1873 and was named Ashlea. This house is still a private residence but is not owned by the Thin family. The Parish of Stow and Fountainhall is part of the Galashiels and District ward of Scottish Borders Council area. The village has a vibrant community with Stow Primary School and Nursery, Stow Bowling Club, Stow Amateur Football Club and Stow Cycle Hub at the centre of the village. There are also a Post Office and Shop, Cafe, Bookshop and the Station House Bar and Kitchen. A number of Walks Around Stow leaflets have been produced which feature local landmarks, including a nearby Broch, with short histories of each route. These are available to buy locally.

Famous residents

*Sir John Rose Cormack (1815–1882), born and raised in Stow * George Darling (physician) (1782?–1862), physician *Sir Walter Mercer

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(1890–1971) orthopaedic surgeon

Gallery

File:St. Mary's of Wedale Parish Church - geograph.org.uk - 2232233.jpg, St. Mary's of Wedale Parish Church File:Pack-horse bridge over the Gala Water, Stow - geograph.org.uk - 3148811.jpg, Pack horse bridge across the Gala Water, at the south end of Stow File:Stow Town Hall (geograph 5401009).jpg, Stow of Wedale Town Hall

References

Sources