“The name of Newlands refers to the era when the lands lying around the Kirktown were first brought into cultivation by Scoto-Saxon bands.”[195] At the end of the thirteenth century Newlands belonged to the monks of Dunfermline. In Bagimond’s Roll the Rectoia de Newland, in the Deanery of Peebles, is valued at £16.
CROSS CHURCH, Peebles.
The fragmentary ruins of the church of the monastery of the Redfriars stand in the middle of a fir plantation immediately to the west of the town of Peebles. All architectural interest connected with the edifice has been destroyed. The freestone work which Grose specially commends has been carried away, leaving only bare and ragged whinstone walls, and giving the structure a very desolate appearance. The monastic buildings were situated on the north side of the church; and the fir plantation, which seems to represent their extent, runs in that direction for about 100 feet, with an average length from east to west of about 250 feet, the whole extent of the plantation being a little less than an acre. It is probable, from these dimensions, that the monastic buildings were extensive, but, unfortunately, their destruction has been very complete. The ruins of the nave remain (Fig. [1433]), and measure, within the walls, about 70 feet 6 inches from east to west by a width of 26 feet 9 inches. Grose gives the length of the church as 102 feet, and there are indications (see Plan) that it was longer at one time than it is now. There is a tower at the west end, which measures about 20 feet by 21 feet, and had an opening into the church, now built solidly up. From a view of the church in Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland, the building was evidently in a much better condition in 1790 than now. It appears to have been then entire, wanting only the roof, and the tower was finished with a projecting parapet and two gables, after the manner of a pele tower.
Fig. 1433.—Cross Church, Peebles. Plan.
So completely has the place been harried that little is left to describe. There were three pointed windows in the south wall and one in the east gable, the latter of which (Fig. [1434]) still partly remains. Against the north wall of the church there is an erection called the Douglas vault, to which a door opens from the church. It is in a very dilapidated state, although the vaulted roof is complete. Immediately to the west of this vault, with a passage between of about 7 feet, there are indications of other vaulted buildings, and similar indications are found at the east end of the church, all in a very fragmentary condition. In the historical books relating to the locality, a story is repeated of the finding, on this site, of a magnificent cross in 1261, of the miracles performed by it, and the ultimate founding of a church by the king, which was called the Cross Church. Such a church existed in 1296, for Frere Thomas, Mestre de la Maison de Seint Croce, de Pebblis, swore fealty to Edward I. at Berwick.[196]
At the Reformation the Cross Church became the church of the parish, and on the lintel of the door at the east end are cut the words “Feir God,” with the date 1656. A portion to the west of this may have been
Fig. 1434.—Cross Church, Peebles. View from South-West.
the part, about 30 feet in length, which Grose says was walled off to form a school, probably at the date just mentioned.