Sometime in the 1930's, two itinerant English show-people, Walter and Winifred Wilkinson, embarked on a tour of the Borders. Arriving in Berwick by train, they set off pushing a handcart with their puppet-show, tent and provisions across the Borders, camping in fields along the way (scrupulous about getting the permission of the farmers) and giving the occasional performance in schools, barns and town squares. Their route took them through Duns, Chirnside, and Greenlaw before a stop somewhere around East Gordon, from where they ventured into Gordon.....their impressions are recorded in the unpromisingly titled "Puppets into Scotland", published in 1935.
"Rain persuaded us not to move in the morning and growing tired of sitting in the tent we took a damp walk into Gordon, a very shapely and respectable village, the neat flat houses enclosing the wide street with some dignity. We pushed into the newsagent's shop, which turned out to be the cobbler's, about as big as a cupboard and already filled to capacity with three men and a woman talking un-understandable Scotch against the hurdy-gurdy of the radio which was broadcasting lustily. With the prospect of wet days before us we bought the Bulletin, the Scots Pictorial and the Scotsman, and moved over to the grocer. Here we learned a number of things and one of them that the County Hospital down the road collects the sick tramps from all over the County and buries them, when they die, in the local graveyard. .. At the baker's, shopping was comparatively dull without music, but we bought a pretty loaf called a Jenny Lind, a double-decked, slashed affair.
[the following day] The deserted road took us on again in the morning and we passed through Gordon and took the opportunity to shop again, but there was no radio this time and no gossip. The severe post-mistress attended to us without a word; the baker served us with no more than a bare thanks; there was a man instead of a lady at the grocer's and he dealt with us without the least remark. This seemed the proper taciturn Scotland; possibly it was only due to the early hour - it takes a bit of time to get going in these northern climes- but we passed on, a little crushed, into the country to find the road to Earlston."
Their next stop was Fans, which they were mightily impressed with.
Main Street looking both ways....these could be the nearest available photos to the 1930s. Car enthusiasts could date the picture on the left. Picture on the right shows road markings favouring Kelso Road as the main road.
This article was first published on page 9 in the April 2024 edition of The Gowk.