St Abbs

St Abbs is a small fishing village on the southeastern coast of Scotland, within the Coldingham parish of Berwickshire.

The village was originally known as Coldingham Shore, the name St Abbs being adopted in the 1890s. The new name was derived from St Abb's Head, a rocky promontory located to the north of the village, itself named after the 7th century saint Æbbe of Coldingham.

St Abbs was originally called Coldingham Shore. Prior to any buildings the fishermen who worked their boats from the beach resided at Fisher's Brae in Coldingham. These fishermen had to carry their fishing gear the one and a half miles down a path. The path is now known as the Creel Path; creel is the local name for a lobster pot.

The first building in St Abbs was constructed about the middle of the 18th century followed later by a row of five cottages. This first row of houses were constructed in a traditional Scottish style with a central fire and a wide chimney. The walls were constructed of "clat and clay" a framework of wood interlaced with straw and daubed over with moist clay.

By 1832 it is recorded that the inhabitants of the Shore comprised sixteen families, who with twenty others residing in Coldingham, obtained their livelihood by fishing. In addition to these, thirty people proceeded annually to the north for the herring fishing, which gave employment for fourteen boats from the village.

The village was renamed at the end of the 19th century by the then-laird, Andrew Usher, who played a major role in improving the fishing village and harbour. Usher purchase the Northfield estate on the edge of the village, enlarging and finishing the building of a countryside manorby the coastal shore in 1892. He considered the local public hall inadequate and subsequently funded a new village hall and school, which was constructed in 1887 and is now occupied by the St Abbs visitor centre. Usher also gave funds for the building of the local church in 1892 and the extension of the outer harbour wall in 1890.

In November 1907 the Member of Parliament for Berwickshire, Harold Tennant, announced that the Royal National Lifeboat Society had agreed to supply St Abbs with a lifeboat, and that the Board of Trade had also agreed to place life-saving apparatus at St Abbs as soon as possible.

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