High Street, The Horse Hawick, Scotland
Listed Building Data
High Street, The Horse has been designated a scheduled monument in Scotland with the following information. Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- Historic Scotland ID
- 378957 (entity ID)
- Building ID
- 34645
- Canmore ID
- 78758
- Category
- A
- Name
- High Street, the Horse
- Parish
- Hawick
- County
- Scottish Borders
- Easting
- 350428
- Northing
- 614790
- Date Listed
- 16 March 1971
Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
William Francis Beattie, 1914, completed by his father, Thomas Beattie, 1921. Prominently sited bronze equestrian statue of mounted standard bearer, situated on oval-plan stone pedestal and positioned at critical junction in town centre. Statue of standard bearer sitting astride horse, holding unfurled flag aloft in right hand. Horse with right foreleg raised and head bowed. Pedestal with deep plinth; base course, cornice. Inscription to front (S) TERIBUS YE TERIODIN with date 1514 above and town coat-of-arms plaque above. Other inscriptions to sides (see Notes).
Listed Building Statement of Special Interest
Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Prominently positioned in the centre of the town, this well-detailed sculpture celebrates one of the most famous events in the town's history and is one of its major landmarks. Also known as the 1514 Memorial, it was erected in 1914 to celebrate the 1514 defeat of Lord Dacre's English Army at Hornshole, two miles away, by a party of local youths. The youths then brought a flag back from the battle site. A replica of this flag is carried each year around the boundaries of the common lands, borne by the standard bearer or 'Cornet' and accompanied by other riders. Known as the Common Riding, this is the major festival for the town, and The Horse has become a focus of the festivities, being decked with blue and gold ribbons by each year's Cornet since 1923. The inscription to the side of the pedestal reads: 'ERECTED TO COMMEMORATE THE RETURN OF THE HAWICK CALLANTS FROM HORNSHOLE IN 1514, WHEN AFTER THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN THEY ROUTED THE ENGLISH MARAUDERS AND CAPTURED THEIR FLAG.' The inscription at the opposite side commemorates the unveiling in 1914. The face of the rider was reputedly modelled on that of the 1888 Cornet, A H Drummond. Public subscriptions for the statue reached £1,440 (not the £1,514 hoped for) and the statue was unveiled by Lady Sybil Scott, younger daughter of the Earl of Dalkeith. It was moved slightly, amid great controversy, during re-routing of the roadways in 2003. William Francis Beattie (1886-1918) was born in Hawick and based in Edinburgh. He served in the First World War as a major with the 73rd Battery of the 5th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery and was killed in action on 3 October 1918. This sculpture was completed by his father Thomas. List description revised following resurvey (2008).
Listed Building References
Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Shown on 3rd Edition Ordnance Survey map (1917). Charles Alexander Strang, Borders and Berwick (RIAS, 1994), pp142-3. R E Scott, Companion to Hawick and District, 3rd Edition (1998), pp26-7. Alex F Young, Old Hawick (2004), p61. Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett, The Buildings of Scotland: Borders (2006), p359. Douglas Scott, A Hawick Word Book, draft version, http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/scott/book.pdf (26 February 2008), p532.
