Place:Galashiels (town), Selkirkshire, Scotland

Galashiels is a burgh or town in the Scottish Borders, formerly in Selkirkshire, on the river named Gala Water. The name is often shortened to "Gala". The population is about 15,000. The town is a major commercial centre for the Scottish Borders, known especially for textile making, and is the location of Heriot-Watt University's School of Textiles and Design.

The town of Galashiels straddled the border of Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire until a reorganization of boundaries in 1894. Portions of Channel Street are in each county in the 1851 census.

From GENUKI:

"Ladhope, a quod sacra parish on the north-west border of Roxburghshire. It was constituted by the Court of Teinds in 1855. It comprises part of the post-town of Galashiels, and the north-western part of the quod civilia parish of Melrose."
(source: The Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson, 1868.

Note from GENUKI: Ladhope was transferred to Selkirkshire between 1871 and 1881.

It is presumed from these notes that the part of Galashiels that was in Roxburghshire was synonomous with the area called Ladhope.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

To the west of the town there is an ancient earthwork known as the Picts' Work Ditch or Catrail. It extends many miles south and its height and width vary. There is no agreement about the purpose of the earthwork. There is another ancient site on the north-western edge of the town, at Torwoodlee, an Iron Age hill fort, with a later Broch known as Torwoodlee Broch built in the western quarter of the hill fort, and overlapping some of the defensive ditches of the original fort. The Romans destroyed the broch in AD 140, soon after it was completed.

The town's coat of arms shows two foxes reaching up to eat plums from a tree, and the motto is Sour Plums pronounced in Scots as soor plooms. This is a reference to an incident in 1337 when a raiding party of English soldiers were picking wild plums close to the town and were caught by Scots who came across them by chance and slaughtered them all.

On a hillside to the north of the town, Buckholm Tower is a prominent structure that dates back to 1582 and replaced an earlier tower built on the same site but destroyed around 1570.

In 1599 Galashiels received its Burgh Charter, an event celebrated every summer since the 1930s by the "Braw Lads’ Gathering", with riders on horseback parading through the town. Galashiels Burgh Chambers were designed in the Scottish Renaissance style and completed in 1867.

The Paton Street drill hall was completed in the late 19th century.

Galashiels' population grew fast through the textile trade with several mills. A connection with the town's mill history, the Mill Lade, still links the town from near the site of mills at Wheatlands Road, to Netherdale, via Wilderhaugh, Bank Street, the Fountain and next to the Tesco/retail development Street.

Research Tips

Refer to the parish of Galashiels.