The year 1893 figured prominently in the history of the County–town of Haddingtonshire, and the following events are some of the most interesting examples
1. The county-town numbered just under 4000 residents in that year but its busy late Victorian social life reflected the interest of the broader county population ten times that number.
2. The visitor, arriving at the railway station at the west end of the town would have travelled on one of four daily trains from Edinburgh or Berwick. The single track branch, opened with the main North British line in 1846 carried to the city the goods that had made Haddington the largest grain market in Scotland.
3. The annual Hiring Fair was held on the first Friday in February. Booths, sideshows, rifle ranges and mechanical shows were moved further from the town centre to East Haugh in 1893 but the streets were still thronged from 8.00 am all day.
4. Beside the station was the Somnerfield works of Samuel Dodds, one of four agricultural implement markets in the burgh; his employees presented his daughter with a silver tea and coffee service on the occasion of her wedding in 1893.
5. The 7th Volunteer Battalion Royal Scots, 355 in total in five companies, was still active in 1893, holding its annual inspection in Amisfield Park on the other side of the Tyne. The East Lothian and Borders Yeomanry held their sumptuous January Ball in the Assembly Rooms, its interior draped with crimson curtains, flags, crests and evergreens, decorations left for the Masonic Social, the following evening.
6. During renovations to St. Mary’s Parish Church in 1893, the manses in Sidegate housed the families of the two ministerial charges, The Rev. Robert Nimmo Smith of St. Mary’s, had been ill for some time so this year an assistant was appointed to undertake his duties at no extra cost to the congregation. Haddington House, however, the 17th century town house of Baillie Alexander Maitland was in 1893 inhabited by gardeners, laundresses and a shepherd.
DAVID McMANUS
Acknowledgements Chris Roberts.