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In presenting your
readers with an historical account of West Calder, it is my first
duty to state that I am indebted to various authors for the
following information which I will endeavour to compile in
consecutive order.
Calder is a large district in Edinburghshire or Mid-Lothian,
Scotland. The ancient history of this district is involved in the
general history of Scotland and England, commonly called great
Britain, and a few general extracts will lead us through the vista
of time down to the more immediate history of Calder, and thence to
the history of West Calder, to which I will afterwards confine my
remarks.
The most early mention of Scotland is made by Tacitus, who
flourished about one hundred years after Christ. The original
population seems to have consisted of Cimbrians from Jutland. About
two centuries before the Christian era the Cimbrians appear to have
been driven to the south of Scotland by the Caledonians or Picts, a
Gothic colony from Norway.
Tacitus denominates the country Caledonia. The venerable Bede, who
wrote about the year 700 a.d., names the country the Province of the
Picts. And Alfred the Great, who translated his history into the
Anglo Saxon tongue about the year 882 a.d., called the people Pichts
and their country Picht-land. From the Picts then or Pichts probably
originates the population of the Lowlands the Lowlanders having been
in all ages a distinct people from those of the Western Highlands.
In the tenth and eleventh centuries the name of Scotia, previously
applied to Ireland, was given to modern Scotland, by which title it
is designated by Adam of Bremen. About 258 years after Christ, the
Dalraids of Bede, the Attacotti of the Roman writers passed or
repassed from Ireland into Argyleshire, and became the progenitors
of the Scottish Highlanders, who speak the Irish or Celtic language,
while the Lowlanders have always used the Scandinavian or Gothic.
Coming to the more immediate history of Edinburghshire, we find that
although the Romans landed in Kent about 60 B.C., yet it was uot
until 80 a.d. that they reached this part of the country, when
Agricola formed a chain of forts from the Forth to the Clyde. After
many wars with the natives, the Romans at length subdued them and
called the province that lay between their two well-known walls,
Valentia, in honour of their Emperor, Valentinian 1st.
The Romans held the country they had conquered until 446 A.D., and
three years after they left, it became a prey to the Saxon invader.
After a century of hard fighting, the superior genius of the Saxon
Ida fixed this new race in the kingdom which he founded 575 A.D.,
extending from the Forth to the Humber, called Northumbria.
About this time Christianity was introduced by Columba of Donegal
into Iona, and about thirty years later by Augustine, who came to
Canterbury in Kent.
In 843 A.D., Kenneth Macalpine ruled the country north of the Forth
and Solway.
The kingdom of Northumbria lasted until the year 826 A.D., when
Egbert the Angli conquered all the country south of the Tweed, and
founded the kingdom of England. In course of time the Scottish kings
gradually secured the land between the Forth and Tweed, and as a
consequence their royal residence was removed southward by stages,
until at last Edinburgh (the Saxon King Edwin's burgh) became the
royal seat.
After much reading and personal observation, I am of opinion that
the descendents of the Scots proper are the Celtic Highlanders, The
Picts the inhabitants of the North-East Coast, Strathclyde, and
South-westward, while the Saxon line is still distinct in the
Lothians and South-eastward.
The name Lothian has occasioned much controversy and has been spelt
in various ways, such as Lothene and Loudian. Some suppose it took
its name from Lothus, a king of the Picts or pictured people
(tattooed), and that the Pentland Hills derived their name from
these pented or painted warriors who lived by hunting and pillage,
and whose religion was Druidism, with its mysterious rites and human
sacrifices. They worshiped the sun and venerated the oak. On the
night of the shortest day they lighted great fires on the hill tops
in honour of the sun’s return to longer days, and from this has
descended the custom of burning the Yule-log at Christmas or
Yule-tide, a curious combination of Christianity and heathenism.
Whatever the origin of the Lothians, it is certain that century
after century it was the Debateable Land or battle ground of the
various tribes; and that the high roads passing through it from
England to Scotland are stained with blood from end to end; and many
places have derived their names from well known battle fields, such
as Athelstane-ford, Gorebridge, the Hills of Peace, &c. &c. But it
is pleasing to reflect that, after ages of warfare, the Scottish and
English tribes were at length fused into one great nation, under one
monarchy, the result of a royal marriage, and that international and
civil wars have long been banished from this island.
It is also a pleasure to turn to the history of Calder, for this
district, although in the Lothians, lay out of the highway between
the nations, and in ancient times must have been a splendid retreat.
So much so, that in connection therewith one cannot help thinking of
the beautiful words with which Longfellow begins his tale of
Evangeline—
‘This is the forest primeval for the very word Calder signifies a
wooded stream, and no doubt was applied to the district on account
of the boskiness of the watercourses, but was applied, however, in
circumstances and at a date unknown to record. The district may have
been originally one property or barony, but it was early divided
into Calder Clere on the east and Calder Comitis on the west; the
latter, which was by far the larger division, was afterwards divided
into Mid Calder and West Calder. The name of Calder by itself or
accompanied by some distinctive prefix or affix, is common both in
Scotland and England, such as the Calder, North Calder (streams),
Caldercruix, Calder Abbey (places).
From which of the tribes or kingdoms, that have from time to time
inhabited or possessed this island, the distinctive name of Calder
with its beautiful meaning has descended I am unable to determine,
but some of your numerous readers maybe able to do so. It is
sufficient for our present purpose to know that the whole of East,
Mid, and West Calder was originally called Calder, and that it
belonged to or was ruled by the Thanes of Fife under the feudal and
baronial systems, with their castle somewhere near Calder House.
Any one acquainted with the district will know how aptly the word
“Calder” describes it, for to this day it is a land of woods and
waters. In primeval times there must have been great forests here if
geologists are correct in saying that coal and peat are simply
decayed timber. And there is probably much truth in some of the
traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation
about boar hunting, &c., in the Calder wood or rather forest, for it
was then of great extent.
I once had pointed out to me a cottage at the east end of West
Calder Kirk, and was told by the owner that there once stood on the
same site a lone house whose charter contained a free gift of the
dwelling, with, in those days, the great privilege of “Hunting with
hawk and hound, for four miles round.”
Now, whether this poetic clause had been inserted for faithful
services or money’s worth it is impossible to tell, but it is
certain that noble deeds used to be recorded in song or recited by
the minstrels at the festive board of the old baronial halls, as
beautifully depicted by Sir Walter Scott.
Calder, as already said, included the whole three parishes. In the
reign of Malcolm IV., 1160 a.d. the manor of Calder was granted to
Handulph de Clere, and from him it became known by the name of
Calder Clere to distinguish it from Calder Comitis, the adjoining
manor, the property of the Earl of Fife.
The ancient Church of Calder, built in the 12th century, is now in
ruins at the west end of East Calder village. It was founded in
Catholic times and dedicated to St Cuthbert, whose bones and robes
are deposited in Durham
“Where, after many wanderings past,
He chose his lordly seat at last
Where the cathedral, huge and vast
Looks down upon the Wear—
There, deep in Durham’s Gothic shade,
His relics are in scarlet laid,”—Marmion |
