Ayton

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Ayton is a small town located in Berwickshire, in the southeast of Scotland today part of the Scottish Borders region. It is on the River Eye, from which it is said to take its name: Ayton means 'Eye-town'. It contains the former ancient tolbooth or town hall with a clock tower, a large branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and a Post Office, as well as hostelries and shops.

It is located near the East Coast Main Line railway line, which runs between London, King's Cross and Edinburgh, Waverley station, the closest station being Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The A1 (Great North Road) originally ran through the heart of the village, but during the 1980's a bypass was built to the East of the village. Ayton was the location of a coaching inn on the road between London and Edinburgh.

[edit] Ayton Castle, and church

The splendid ediface of Ayton Castle dominates the town and district. The previous Pele Tower (burnt down in 1834) upon which it was built had once been a stronghold of the Home family. The estate was subsequently purchased by William Mitchell (later Mitchell-Innes) of Parsonsgreen, Edinburgh, who had been born at Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, in 1778. William Mitchell was Chief Cashier of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1808 - 1827. After inheriting the Parsonsgreen estate, William Mitchell of Parsonsgreen is found as an extraordinary director of the bank, 1840 -1841. After further inheriting the Stow estates from a distant cousin, he hyphenated his surname and is found as William Mitchell-Innes of Parsonsgreen, an ordinary director of the bank, 1841-1853. Between these latter dates he acquired the Ayton estate, and he is recorded as William Mitchell-Innes of Ayton Castle, an ordinary director 1853 - 1859.

In 1851 William Mitchell-Innes commissioned James Gillespie Graham to build a new castle at Ayton in the Scots Baronial style in red sandstone. In 1860 architect David Bryce extended the drawing room and added a billiard room, with further additions in 1864-7 by James Maitland Wardop. Extensive interior redecoration was carried out in 1875 by Bonnar & Carfrae, still largely extant, with stencilled imitation silk damask. In addition to the elaborate offices and stables block, all in red sandstone, Ayton Castle boasts a beehive type dovecot of 1745, and a magnificent West Lodge in Scots Baronial with archway and screen walls in red sandstone. Mention must be made of the visit to the castle in 1873 by Mark Twain who insisted upon buying the Dining Room fireplace, which is now in the Mark Twain Museum, Hartford, Connecticut. The present castle fireplace dates from that occurrence.

Following William Mitchell-Innes's death at the castle in January 1860, it passed to his eldest son and heir, Alexander Mitchell-Innes of Ayton, & Whitehall (near Chirnside (1811 - 1886), a Depute Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Berwickshire. He continued the family's building works at Ayton by commissioning James Maitland Wardop to build a fine new parish church with a 36 metre spire, and stained glass windows by Ballantine & Sons.

Alexander Mitchell-Innes married (1) Charlotte (1818-1848), daughter of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall, 7th Bt. She died in childbirth having their sixth child. He remarried (2) Fanny Augusta (1821-1902) daughter of James Vine, in Puckaster, Isle of Wight. They had a further nine children. Inevitably there were inheritance disputes. Strangely, Alexander Harold Mitchell-Innes of Ayton & Whitehall was served heir of entail to his grandfather, Alexander Mitchell-Innes of Ayton & Whitehall, on 21 November 1892. In 1895 he sold the barony of Ayton, its castle and lands etc., for £90,000 to Henry Liddell-Grainger of Middleton Hall, Northumberland (1856-1905). Alexander Mitchell-Innes had apparently shared his entire estate with his very large family and they were accordingly all paid out following the sale of Ayton Castle. The family retained Millbank House and grounds, not far from the castle, as well as Whitehall Manor, near Chirnside, Berwickshire.

The Liddell-Graingers are still the proprietors of Ayton Castle, which is open to the public.

[edit] References

• The History of the Royal Bank of Scotland 1727-1827, by Neil Munro, Edinburgh, 1928.
• Borders and Berwick, by Charles A Strang, Rutland Press, 1994, pps: 21-2, ISBN 1-873190-10-7