east-lothian-1924/05-216

Transcription

TRANENT.] -- HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION. -- [TRANENT.

masonry is freestone rubble and has been
harled externally ; the floors and roof were of
timber. It is stated* that there was a dormer
window on the building which bore the date
1618 and initials I.F. I.L. (James Fawside and
his wife Janet Lawson: cf. Reg. P.C. xii., p. 387).

Falside was the home of the Fawside family.
The arms of Sir John Fawside are represented
on a panel in Tranent Church (No. 190). These
are : a fess between three roundels (bezants).

The building is in bad preservation.

HISTORICAL NOTE.-The grant of Tranent
Church by Thor to Holyrood c. 1150 is wit-
nessed by, among others, Ædmundo de Faze-
side. Robert del Fausyde is on Ragman Roll.
In 1307-8 " John of the hill of Fausyde " was
a prisoner in Scarborough Castle.1 Under
English occupation the lands of Falside were
possessed by the family of la Zouch or Souche
and on their forfeiture were transferred to
Alexander Seton, being part of his barony of
Tranent.2 In 1371 William de Seton gave a
new charter of Wester Fausyde to John of
Fausyde, his armour-bearer, the predecessors
of the grantee having held them from the
ancestors of the granter ; the reddendo was a
pound of pepper or two shillings sterling, if
asked for, to be given on the ground (super
solum) of Fawsyde.3 No dwelling house is
mentioned ; but in Somerset's Expedition of
1544 the " little castel or pile " on " Fauxsyde
Bray " shared in the battle of Pinkie, its
occupants shooting at any English soldiers that
came near with their dozen or so " hand
gunnes and hakbutes," till the battle was lost,
when " they pluct in ther peces, lyke a dog
his taile, and couched them-selfes within all
muet ; but by and by the hous was set on
fyre, and they, for their good will, brent and
smoothered within."4 Some time soon after
1631 Robert Fawside sold the estate to an
Edinburgh merchant named Hamilton.5

*Cast. & Dom. Arch. i, p. 413.

1 Cal. Docts. iii., No. 35 ; 2 Reg. Mag. Sig.
i., App. i., No. 45 ; 3 Ibid. No. 436 ; 4 The
Expedicion into Scotlande 1544 by W. Patten
in Dalyell's Fragments of Scottish History
p. 74 ; 5 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxiv., p. 377.

ix. S.W. (Edin. : iv.a S.W.) 3 May 1920.

124

194. Tower, Tranent.-Off Church Street,
Tranent, is the ruin of a tower, which to-day is
utilised as a stable and hay loft. On plan it is
L-shaped, the shorter limb being formed by a
square tower, which projects southward from
the south-west angle of the main block and
houses a wheel-stair. The overall dimensions
are 24 feet 10 inches from north to south by
36 1/2 feet from east to west. The building is of
rubble and has been harled. It is three
storeys in height, and the basement only is
vaulted ; the roof is covered with pantiles
and the gables are crowstepped. The windows,
which are unusually small, have chamfered
jambs and lintels. On each floor are two
intercommunicating chambers, from the wes-
tern of which the stair enters. The stair
ascends from ground to the third floor, above
which level the tower contains a dovecot with
stone nests. The west room on the first floor
has a large built up fireplace in the gable with
aumbry recess adjoining and a stone sink with
slop drain in the south wall. The tower may
date from the late 16th century.

ix. N.W. (unnoted). 6 April 1920.

195. Bankton House.-Bankton House,
better known perhaps as "Colonel Gardiner's
House" from its ill-fated owner who fell at the
Battle of Prestonpans (1745), is a late 17th
century mansion (fig. 20) standing in a park
rather less than a quarter of a mile south-east
of Prestonpans station. It is oblong on plan and
contains three storeys beneath the wall head ;
within the roof were two garret storeys. The
high pitched gables are curved geometrically.
The basement storey is partly sunk, so that the
pedimented entrance at first floor level is
reached from a flight of steps which crosses
a " dry area." To the south lies a large walled
garden, now under plough, with a square
Belvidere or garden house at either end of the
north wall.

Bankton House was originally known as
Olivstob and was purchased by Col. Gardiner
from one of the Hamiltons. It was afterwards
owned by Andrew Macdowall, Lord Bankton.
In 1852 it was destroyed by fire, but was
restored and is still in use as a farmhouse.

ix. N.W. 23 March 1920.

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

Douglas Montgomery, Bizzy- Moderator

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