Mordington

Mordington is an agricultural parish in the extreme south-east of Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders region. It is five miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed and borders Northumberland to the east, and south (where the boundary is the Whiteadder Water), Foulden to the west, and Lamberton to the north. The parish is bisected by the A6105 Berwick to Duns road. The lower part of the parish is covered by the Edrington estate. It is possibly the warmest parish in Scotland; the annual hours of sunshine are said to be almost as high as at Dunbar, which records the most hours in Scotland.

It is said that there was once a Saxon village, dating from the 11th century, in the northern part of the parish but this has long vanished. Originally claimed by Coldingham Priory, the larger part of the parish eventually came into the possession of the de Mordington family who appear to have failed in the male line. Sir Peter de Mordington, knight, son of the deceased Sir William de Mordington, gave a feu to Simon Baddeby of certain lands in neighbouring Lamberton circa 1276.

Mordington was said to have had a chapel before the 11th century. The first parish church of which there is reasonable record stood on high ground known as the Kirk Park, near Mordington House, above the ancient bullock-track which dissected the parish from the Whiteadder to Lamberton Common. Apart from the tarmac, this single-lane road is the same today. In 1275 the vicar at Mordington refused to pay the crusader's tithe, and his successor, Bernard de Linton, swore allegiance to King Edward I on 24 August 1296. It mysteriously burnt down in 1757 and a new church was erected on the Duns road on what became known as the Minister's Glebe. Both of these churches had burial grounds attached to them, and the latter has survived. Little remains of the original churchyard, although in 1662 William Douglas, 2nd Lord Mordington erected a new doorway to an ancient burial vault which is still extant. In 1870 a new church was erected a quarter of a mile uphill from the 2nd church. It was Gothic and cruciform. It too had a churchyard, which is still in use. This church was quickly demolished circa 1989 when the Duns Presbytery refused to pay less than £10,000 for essential roof repairs.

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