Kith and Kin – Borders Family History Society
AS we travel up and down the A1 these days, we bypass the villages and hamlets, Reston, Houndwood, Grantshouse and Auchencraw which all lie along the route and in the western part of the geographically large Coldingham parish.
After the North British Railway line from Edinburgh to Berwick opened in 1846, Reston had its own station, reopened in 2022, which employed a Station Master, railway porters and others from the village. The branch line for Duns, which headed towards the west from the village, was later extended to St Boswells.
These links to Berwickshire and the Borders played a part in the migration story of many Borderers.
In 1852, 103 people left Reston station to travel to Greenock and onwards to North America. Alexander Darling of Chirnside made the arrangements for the journey and accompanied them as far as Greenock.
They were described as agriculturalists, a few tradesmen, two blacksmiths, three shoemakers and tailors.
The village is stretched out along the Main Street with the school at the top of the village and Reston Mains at the foot. There was a parochial school in the 1850s, the administration of which was taken over by the local school board following the 1872 Education Act.
A new school building was completed in 1897 and remains in use today but the only record available for researchers is the log book for the years 1908 to 1936, held at Scottish Borders Archive, Hawick. Church records too are incomplete.
The main Church of Scotland Parish church was in Coldingham with a later Quoad Sacra Parish church at Houndwood. Congregations set up Free Churches in Houndwood, Reston and Grantshouse.
The Reston church sits in the middle of the village. Some records survive – the Minutes 1912-1935, Proclamation register 1932-1977, but perhaps the most useful are the Communion Rolls from 1882 to the 1960s which list those living in the village and surrounding area who were members of the congregation.
During the early 1930s, the minister, the Rev Harry J Dodd, was a contemporary of the athlete Eric Liddell and also brother to the writer Lavinia Derwent.
Her book, Lady of the Manse, reflects her life in the manse and the life of a small Borders village.
The surrounding farmlands of the area are the result of the agricultural improvements of the 18th and 19th centuries when Duns was the main agricultural market for the Lammermuirs and the Merse.
In 1873, the Swan family set up an auctioneering partnership for markets at Duns and Reston, the site for the latter being convenient for the railway yards. After WWII, the number of sales of sheep and cattle increased and improvements were made to the site.