A review of the book, by Stephen Bunyan

This handsome volume tells the story of the Union Chain Bridge built to cross the Tweed by Captain Samuel Brown a few miles from Berwick on Tweed, between Horncliffe and Fishwick. The book does much more than that. It demonstrates how this bridge built in an unlikely location was to point the way to other important bridges, how a bridge which eventually seemed in a rural back water was eventually realised to have immense interest. It was close to the point of closure, but its huge significance was fortunately recognised. A group of friends was formed and much important support was secured and Roland Paxton became a patron. The Bridge
Samuel Brown [1774-1852] had developed the use of iron chain for ships in the Royal navy and by 1811 they were in regular use. He patented the procedure in 1817.By 1819 he was able to use wrought iron. His original iron works was at Millwall but in 1818 he opened a second works at Pontypridd [or Newbridge] and it was from there that the iron came for the Union bridge.
By 1819 Brown had the contract for the bridge and with John Rennie as consultant and responsible for the masonry started to build the bridge. He decided to use chains with eye bar links This cost £5,000 whereas a masonry bridge would have cost £20,000 and would have required piers in the water.
The bridge was recognised in the Guinness book of records in June 2020 as the world’s oldest road suspension bridge and can still carry vehicular traffic. Its formal opening in 1820 was a major event with a large and distinguished audience and Brown demonstrated its capability by driving a loaded carriage as well as twelve heavy carts of stones over it. Its purpose was to convey Northumberland coal and salt to Scottish farms.
The bridge had an important effect. It inspired Telford in his construction of the Menai bridge. Small built other bridges, eg at Kaleworth in 1830. By 1840 he had built twenty others and Brighton pier.
The Union Bridge inspired the construction in 1826 of an elegant pedestrian chain bridge at Melrose. It was built by J.S Brown [Redpath and Brown] and was designed by John Smith. It was restored in 1991.
The Union Bridge was identified as a building at risk and was closed to traffic in 2007. This caused local concern and a group of friends was formed supported by Roland Paxton and Brian Whittle.
Plans were put in hand for its restoration and matters are well advanced. It was decided to celebrate its bicentenary on 26th July 2020 with a symposium at Horncliffe. Plans were made and distinguished speakers were arranged but Covid 19 put paid to that. The talks by world experts were ready and Roland Paxton who had planned the celebration and driven the movement for restoration has created this excellent book which contains the papers which would have been given as well as the programme for restoration which has been put on hold.

The result is a volume which is a detailed account of international Bridge building up to modern times. The book is richly illustrated with material relating to the Union Bridge and other iconic bridges. The first printing was greeted with wide acclaim.

‘Spanning the Centuries ‘is available from the Friends, at £ 7. 50+£2 postage or from Grieve’s bookshop in Berwick. The Friends address is; Friends of the Chain Bridge, Horncliffe, Berwick on Tweed TD15 2XT
Stephen Bunyan

Born 5th October 1936 Died 9th March 2020; Principal Teacher of Physics, Antiquarian.

Rennie was the only son of James William Rennie Weatherhead and Isabella Craven Mitchell. James was a banker with the Royal Bank of Scotland and worked in Edinburgh where Rennie grew up. Rennie was proud of his connections with Musselburgh and Prestonpans.
James bought a second home in St Abbs where the family spent happy holidays and St Abbs became Rennie’s spiritual home for the rest of his life. Rennie was educated at Melville College [Since 1972 Stewart’s Melville] and at Edinburgh University where he graduated BSc.Hons on 3rd July 1958

He trained as a teacher at Moray House College. He taught at Peebles High School and St Dennis School. Rennie married Jean Robinson McLean on the 5th. August 1959 and they had two daughters Haydee born on 18 6 1967and Suilven born on 12 1 1969. Suilven has a son Brandon born in 2012.

Rennie’s sister Myrtle hosted a celebration of their diamond wedding on 3rd August 2019. In 1965 Rennie was appointed to the post of Principal Teacher of Physics in Dunbar Grammar School, the post he held for the rest of his career until he retired in 1988. He was a conscientious teacher and was highly respected by the pupils he taught.

Rennie joined and chaired Dunbar Interim Community Council in 1975 but did not stand for the Community Council in 1976. He was a member of East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society and was a member of the Council of the Society for several years. He contributed a number of articles to the Transactions. He and I encouraged Grammar School pupils to be involved in various projects e. g. the search for the Holy Well at Whitekirk and the Colstoun pottery kiln.

After his retirement Rennie developed his interest in the early church in Northumbria and became an expert on the history of St Ebba and the church at Coldingham. The Society visited Coldingham on 6th September 2018.The visit was organised by David Philip but despite being in a wheel chair. Rennie led the group round and spoke about the history of the church. He had brought some of his artefacts to illustrate the history.
Rennie is survived by his wife Jean, his daughters Haydee and Suilven, his son in law Colin, his grandson Brandon and his sister Myrtle.

Stephen Bunyan 11th March 2020

Ailsa Maxwell MA; B 16 December 1922 d 10 February2020 aged 97. Ailsa Maxwell was a Historian, Enigma Code Breaker and long time member of the society with her husband Stuart who died in 2012.

She is remembered with affection. Stephen Bunyan

The following is taken from her  obituary in the Scotsman on Friday 6^th March

Ailsa Maxwell was an unsuspecting Edinburgh ­University student when she was invited to an interview at the Foreign Office for a ­mysterious job. She had just completed the first year of an economics degree with distinction and had intended to join the Wrens when she was summoned in the summer of 1943. They could not divulge what or where the job was but told the 20-year-old it was ­important work for which she was considered suitable. She accepted and less than two years later found ­herself witness to the one of the most momentous events of the ­Second World War – the ­German surrender.

Her appointment had been to the top secret ­British codebreaking establishment, Bletchley Park, known as Station X, in Buckinghamshire, where she worked in the machine room of Hut 6 ­helping to crack the German Enigma code. The encryption changed on a daily basis, resulting in an enormously complicated operation to decipher it and the vital messages being transmitted by the enemy. Maths genius Alan Turing developed Bombe machines, improved by fellow codebreaker Gordon Welchman, to decrypt Engima’s secret ­settings. They were the forerunners of today’s computers and ­Maxwell’s role was to compile bombe menus from “cribs” – clues to guess what the settings of the machine could be – and to check ­their output.

Maxwell worked alongside Asa, later Lord, Briggs, who became a renowned social ­historian, and both were on overnight duty when the unconditional surrender ­message from Hitler’s successor, Grand Admiral Dönitz, was received early on May 7, 1945, in clear, uncoded text.

Like everyone at Bletchley, she had been required to sign the Official Secrets Act and kept that vow of silence on her work for more than 30 years. The codebreakers’ operation was declassified in the mid 1970s but she admitted: “It took a bit longer for me to talk about it.” More than 70 years later she saw the 2014 film The Imitation Game and observed it was a reasonably accurate portrayal of the Bletchley story.

She left Bletchley almost immediately after VE Day, in May 1945, returning to Scotland to help with the general election and to finish her degree. She was working as a research assistant at the Department of Health for Scotland when she married her husband Stuart Maxwell, deputy keeper at Edinburgh’s National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, in 1953.

The couple had two sons and when her children were older she worked, as a researcher in Edinburgh University’s economic history department, on a 10-year project leading to the publication of Michael Flinn’s Scottish Population History from the 17th Century to the 1930s. The pioneering study of demographic history won the Saltire Society’s Agnes Mure Mackenzie prize. Later, she continued working in the capital’s Register House and, with her husband, undertook research into the history of Scottish silversmiths and goldsmiths, helping him ­prepare for the Society of ­Antiquaries of Scotland’s renowned Rhind lectures in 1975, when he ­presented a groundbreaking series of papers on Scottish silver. They also collaborated on transcribing the diary of George Home from Berwickshire, published as An Album of Scottish Families 1694-96, by Helen and Keith Kelsall in 1990.

The couple lived in ­Edinburgh’s prestigious Dick Place for 65 years, ­during which time she helped to establish the Samaritans ­service in the capital, volunteering for many years and taking on overnight telephone shifts.

Mrs Maxwell, whose ­wartime achievements are commemorated on Bletchley’s Codebreakers’ Wall, was ­resolutely modest about her time at the Government’s Code and Cypher School, which had once been the world’s best kept secret.

Predeceased by her husband, she spent her last 18 months in a care home in ­Portobello, and is survived by her sons Ian and Sandy and granddaughters Anna and Rowan.

As we enter or complete a decade depending on your point of view it seems a good time to give an update. The Traprain treasure was found in 1919 and it aroused tremendous interest. Traprain Law was part of Whittinghame estate. Soon afterwards A. J Balfour [created earl in 1922] and his sister suggested the formation of an Antiquarian Society which was done in 1924.

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