Eyemouth, Paxton Terrace, St Ebba's Episcopal Church

Photographic survey of buildings in Eyemouth, Berwickshire, by the Scottish National Buildings Record in June 1961.

The following text has been prepared as part of the HES Urban Survey of Eyemouth, 2023-24.

The Eyemouth Victorian Expansion Area of Townscape Character forms a thin ribbon of development just west of the historic burgh core. Its northern section is very compact and hugs the top of the slope above the historic centre. Its southern half along Coldingham Road and by the River Eye is more open in plan.

Eyemouth did not have a huge period of expansion during the Victorian era, instead remaining very much a compact fishing community around the harbour and River Eye. Much of the town’s development during the Victorian period took the form of rebuilding within the burgh centre, rather than spreading inland from the coast and riverbank. The main artery through the Victorian Expansion Area of Townscape Character is formed by the development of the former back lane of the historic burgh. Noted on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of 1898 as Yardhead Road, by the time of the 1906 3rd edition of the OS 6” map this road was renamed Albert Road and the continuing route south out of the town named Victoria Road. Given the date, these streets would have been renamed/named following Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 to commemorate the Queen and her husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861.

From as early as 1846, there was a move to have a rail connection brought to Eyemouth from the North British Railway’s (NBR) East Coast Main Line, but this proved an enormous challenge due to the NBR’s commitment to other developments and expansion along its main line. Further attempts were made to engage NBR with extension schemes in 1864 and 1884, but investment was not forthcoming until the later 1880s, when locals finally succeeded in persuading NBR to proceed with building a light railway extension to connect the town to the East Coast Main Line at Burnmouth, c.3 miles south-east of Eyemouth. This opened in 1891 and resulted in six passenger services running daily each way between Eyemouth and Burnmouth from a single-platform station (NT96SW 75). As can be seen from historic maps, the station was situated in a very constrained site on the west bank of the River Eye, with the main road into Eyemouth above it. A goods yard was also established to the east of the station. All that remains of the station and the railway line is the track bed which now forms a footpath along the riverbank, and some walls and flat areas in the garden of Nos 49 Harbour Road and 1 Victoria Road (NT96SW 292) which would have formed part of the platform and railway sidings. The local authority acquired the site of the former station off Victoria Road in 1966 (see Scottish Borders Council 2018 ‘Review of Heritable Assets in Former Burghs’ Item No. 9 - Review of Heritable Assets in Former Burghs of Coldstream Eyemouth Melrose.pdf) and the SBC Review also notes the site was ‘disponed by Berwickshire DC to BRC, 1978 for road improvements’, which probably refers to the creation of the car park at this time.

Despite the arrival of the railway in Eyemouth, this did not bring the huge Victorian-era expansion that happened to other small towns. However, Eyemouth did eventually see some benefit from the railway, with the rise in numbers taking trips to the seaside in the early 20th century. Income from passenger services increased five-fold between 1913 and 1920, while goods income also increased by two and a half times during this period. Following WWII however, the fortunes of the railway declined. This was not helped by a major flood in August 1948 which breached the main railway line and took nine months to repair. Ultimately, major improvements to road transport in the area for both passengers and goods, saw the line closed to all traffic in 1962, with the tracks lifted shortly afterwards.

Development in this area comprised mostly of two-storeyed, stone-built, terraced houses along Albert Road, Paxton Terrace, Houndlaw Park and Upper Houndlaw, dating from the late 19th and early 20th century. Both Albert Road and Paxton Terrace were first to be developed, appearing between the OS 1st and 2nd edition 6” maps of 1856 and 1898, with Houndlaw Park and Upper Houndlaw developing from the turn of the 20th century. Expansion also took the form of large detached or semi-detached houses along Coldingham Road and what became Victoria Road, in styles and designs typical of the late 19th/early 20th century period. Most of Victoria Road was built by the 1898 OS 2nd edition 6” map, with Coldingham Road being slightly later, mostly from 1905 onwards into the 1910s. These are all set in large garden plots, and many have one- or two-storeyed canted bay windows in one or both outer bays. Some have decorative gable finials, and most have brick chimneystacks on their side elevations, with some on Coldingham Road having attic extensions with dormer windows or rooflights. Further along Coldingham Road’s south-western side, are a group of five detached and semi-detached bungalows dating from the 1910s/1920s. These are of a style typical of that period, with canted bay windows or tall gabled outer bays to the detached bungalows, and square bay windows with scalloped battlemented parapets on the two semi-detached pairs. Some now have later attic dormers inserted.

To the north-west of these bungalows is the entrance to Eyemouth Cemetery. The Scottish Borders Council 2018 ‘Review of Heritable Assets in Former Burghs’ (see Item No. 9 - Review of Heritable Assets in Former Burghs of Coldstream Eyemouth Melrose.pdf) notes that land for the cemetery was ‘Purchased by Parochial Board in terms of Burial Grounds (Scotland) Act 1855 and Land Clauses Scotland Consolidation Acts’. Based on this information, the cemetery was probably established around 1860 to replace the overcrowded burial ground on the High Street (see Historic Burgh and Harbour Area of Townscape Character). The SBC Review also notes additional land was purchased in 1939 and 1948 to allow for expansion to the cemetery. The National Records of Scotland also hold a plan for an expansion to the cemetery, as submitted by Eyemouth Town Council’s Burgh Surveyor of the time, J D Cummings (n.d.), dated 5th May 1948 (see Plan Of Cemetery At Coldingham Road, Eyemouth | ScotlandsPlaces). This expansion to the south-east of the original Victorian section of the cemetery sits within the Inter-War (Hurkur Crescent and Schools) Area of Townscape Character, and plans have recently (July 2024) been approved to expand the cemetery further to the south-west.

The Victorian Expansion Area of Townscape Character contains four of the town’s churches. The earliest of the four is what is now Eyemouth Parish Church (NT96SW 316), on the corner of Victoria Road and Coldingham Road. Originally built as St John’s United Free Church in 1878, it was remodelled in 1902 by architect George Fortune (n.d.). It became the town’s parish church in the mid- to late 20th century, well after the unification of the Free Church and Church of Scotland in 1929. Built in a relatively plain Gothic style, its main features are the stone buttresses on all elevations, and the tall octagonal spire dominating the north-eastern corner. Next oldest is St Ebba’s Episcopal Church (NT96SW 310) which stands on Paxton Terrace, overlooking the bay. The original St Ebba’s was a corrugated iron shed known as the ‘Tin Tabernacle’, which was erected on this site c.1884. A sandstone chancel was built in 1887 to designs by William Gray Jnr (1846-1933), with the shed serving as a temporary nave until it was deemed unsafe and demolished, to be replaced by a stone nave, vestry and bell tower in 1891. A substantial two-storeyed, three-bayed parsonage was built to the north-west in 1907 (now a private house), and a timber weatherboard-clad church hall was erected to the rear of the church in 1937.

At the corner of Coldingham Road and Albert Road (opposite the Parish Church), is what is now the United Congregational Church (NT96SW 268). Built in 1905 as a Primitive Methodist Church in the Gothic style and, like St Ebba’s, to designs by William Gray Jnr, this church replaced the original 1863 Primitive Methodist Chapel built by the town’s fishermen in St Ella’s Place (now a much-altered outbuilding/garage adjoining the house Demerara in the Historic Burgh and Harbour Area of Townscape Character). This replacement was originally cruciform in plan, with a later hall addition to the rear (south-west) elevation. Its gable-fronted entrance elevation on Albert Road has a large pointed arch window above the entrance doorway, comprising three graded lancet windows below a circular window with cinquefoil tracery. Above this is an inscription between two stringcourses in the gable reading ‘PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH’, flanked by corbelled pinnacles. Three tall graded lancet windows fill the south transept to Coldingham Road.

As well as expanding the town’s ecclesiastical needs, the educational requirements of the town’s children were further accommodated in this Area with the provision of a new public school built on Albert Road (NT96SW 142) in 1876-7 to replace the small parish school at Nos 7-9 High Street. Designed by architect William Gray Jnr (1846-1933) in symmetrical U-plan, the school was extended to the rear of the Infant School in the south wing in 1906-7 by Gray, this time in partnership with George Pratt Boyd (1884-1917). The central two-storeyed entrance on Albert Road has ‘GIRLS’ carved into the lintel above the main doorway, and a truncated belfry at the apex of the gable, which contains a datestone in a shield. The ‘BOYS’ entrance (now blocked) is marked on the east elevation of the projecting entrance on the north wing, and the ‘INFANTS’ entrance (also blocked) is on the corresponding projection to the south wing. The school was subsequently replaced by a larger-still premises on Coldingham Road in the late 1960s and the building on Albert Road became the town’s youth and community centre (NT96SW 141) in the early 1970s. The building continues to be used as such today (2024).

The north and west boundaries of the former school playground now contain late 20th-century healthcare provision for Eyemouth and the surrounding area. To the north-west, a health centre was built c.1986 to designs by Robbie & Wellwood Architects. This was extended to accommodate the growing population in 2016. Adjoining the original health centre to the east is Eyemouth Day Hospital which was built in 1995 to provide additional outpatient healthcare services to the town. Both phases of the health centre are single-storeyed, while the day hospital goes from single-storeyed where it adjoins the health centre, to two-storeyed at the Albert Road end as it follows the slope of the site. Both are beige-harled, with brown brick base course and slate pitched roofs, while the day hospital is faced in artificial stone in various places, helping it blend in with the older materials and textures throughout the area. The more recent extension to the health centre, which leads into School Lane, is flat-roofed, mainly clad in timber weatherboarding and white-harled to the School Lane elevation.

While most of this Area comprises typical Victorian development, there have been some later additions and changes to the townscape over the course of the 20th and early 21st century. The main insertion into the townscape is Nos 40-56 Albert Road where a group of terraced houses have been replaced by a flatted housing association development. Built in the 1990s, this is a group of three-storeyed flats, with a basement level on the Albert Road elevation as the development steps down the hill towards the High Street. An archway gives pedestrian access downhill onto Renton Terrace. The development comprises a number of elements which mimic design features and materials of older properties in the area: the building is slate-roofed and beige-harled with artificial red sandstone dressings for window surrounds, basement level and stringcourses; windows imitate two-over-two and four-over-two sash and case-style windows; there is a projecting curved stair tower on the front elevation giving access to all floors.

Another later insertion to the Victorian expansion of Eyemouth is the town’s bowling green. Located just off Coldingham Road and along a lane to the rear of the Parish Church, it is not marked on maps until the OS 1:10,560 map of 1957, but the ‘formal opening of Eyemouth Bowling Club’ is listed in The Southern Reporter newspaper on 20th June 1924, which is later in date compared to many other bowling clubs across Scotland. The green sits adjacent to the Primary School playground, surrounded to north and east by the Victorian villas of Coldingham Road and Victoria Road. A single-storeyed, shallow-pitched roof, pebble-dashed clubhouse and changing rooms sit on the eastern boundary, probably dating from the late 1960s/early 1970s.

The area at the north-westernmost tip of the Victorian Expansion Area of Townscape Character, where Hurkur Crescent, Albert Road, High Steet, Fort Road and Northburn Road all meet, has seen some small-scale redevelopment and insertions into the townscape in the late 20th century. Heading uphill from this junction, the early 19th-century former Northburn Mill complex has been converted to form a group of three two-storeyed terraced houses and a handful of detached houses at the corner with Hurkur Crescent. These are mostly white-harled with slate roofs and maintain the 19th-century character of this part of Eyemouth. Sitting above this group of buildings is a late 1960s/early 1970s detached house, Norwave, which is of a distinctive design with a mix of narrow horizontal and large vertical plate glass glazing on all elevations. It is mostly harled, with a large section of timber cladding on the north-east elevation adjacent to a first-floor terrace, and angled buttress sections on its east and west elevations giving an unusual silhouette from Northburn Road.

At the northern end of Albert Road, directly below the derelict area of land formerly occupied by one of the town’s late 19th-/early 20th-century gasholders (NT96SW 90), the corner site is occupied by a mid- and late 20th-century car repair garage and small petrol station. The buildings are single-storeyed, with the south-eastern building having a very shallow-pitched roof, large roller-shuttered doors to the repair bays, and large 1930s-style glazing patterned window in the northernmost bay lighting an office section. The south-western building is flat-roofed with large single- and multi-paned glazing onto the forecourt.

More in-depth discussion on the character of 12 further Areas of Townscape Character identified in the town can be found under:

-Eyemouth, Historic Burgh and Harbour Area of Townscape Character (NT96SW 551)

-Eyemouth, Inter-War Area of Townscape Character (Hurkur Crescent and Schools) (NT96SW 548)

-Eyemouth, Mid- to Late C20 Area of Townscape Character (The Avenue) (NT96SW 552)

-Eyemouth, Mid- to Late C20 Area of Townscape Character (Barefoots) (NT96SW 544)

-Eyemouth, Mid- to Late C20 Area of Townscape Character (Deanhead) (NT96SW 545)

-Eyemouth, Mid- to Late C20 Area of Townscape Character (Gillsland) (NT96SW 550)

-Eyemouth, Modern Area of Townscape Character (Gunsgreenhill) (NT96SW 553)

-Eyemouth, Modern Area of Townscape Character (Acredale) (NT96SW 546)

-Eyemouth, Industrial Area of Townscape Character (Acredale and Eyemouth Industrial Estates) (NT96SW 547)

-Eyemouth, Industrial Area of Townscape Character (Gunsgreenhill Industrial Estate) (NT96SW 554)

-Eyemouth, Recreation Area of Townscape Character (Holiday Park) (NT96SW 543)

-Eyemouth, Recreation Area of Townscape Character (Golf Course) (NT96SE 41)

Information from HES (LCK) 30th April 2025