Stichill

Stichill is a village and civil parish in the historic county of Roxburghshire, a division of the Scottish Borders. Situated 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the Burgh of Kelso, Stichill lies north of the Eden Water and 5 miles (8.0 km) from the English Border at Coldstream. Stichill is mentioned as a manor of Sir Thomas Randolph, later the Earl of Moray, when in 1308 it was considered forfeited to Edward I of England and granted to Adam Gordon. Stichill is also mentioned in Kenneth Young's biography of Sir Alec Douglas-Home. 1513 Flodden Field : Sometimes they fought farther afield but always against the English. One Home was killed in a battle against Henry Percy (Hotspur) at Verneuil in France in 1424 under 'auld alliance' of Scots with Frenchmen. Nearer at hand was Flodden Field, a few miles south across the Tweed from the Home domain near Coldstream. On that drizzling wet day in September 1513 it was doubtless true, as Walter Scott wrote, that The Border slogan rent the sky ! A Home ! A Gordon ! was the cry.... but the third Lord Home's actions on the battlefield were open to misinterpretation. After an early successful skirmish against Lord Howard, Lord Home and his men retired from the field laden with spoils, leaving their King and hundreds of Scots to be slain and the battle lost. Home was severely criticized for running out. But did he? ' It is equally probable' his descendant Alec claimed at the annual Flodden commemoration 450 years later, ' that having fought the skirmish, Home interpreted his duty as advance guard to press on and secure for the Scottish army the ford at Coldstream which would guarantee its safety. ' Speech on 8 August 1968. 'If the descendants of the slain had erected a war memorial in stone the names of honour would be our own, ' he said. Indisputable, however, is the fact that three years later, the third Lord Home and his brother were hanged and their heads displayed on the Tolbooth in Edinburgh. The feuding Scots wrought their vengeance…