Town in Scottish Borders, Scotland
Hawick
Say it "Hoik": a Borders mill town where hundreds of riders gallop out at dawn behind a flag, and where rugby, cashmere and an ancient war cry run the show.
Key information
- County
- Scottish Borders
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 14,300 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Knitwear and cashmere, rugby, the June Common Riding
- What locals are called
- Teries (from the town's war cry, "Teribus")
- Famous people
- Robert Pringle, Jim Renwick, Colin Deans
- Football clubs
- Hawick Royal Albert
About Hawick
Why the whole town gets up before dawn
Every June, Hawick wakes to the sound of drums. Before sunrise, flute and drum bands march through the streets rousing the town, and the day ends with hundreds of riders streaming across the hills on horseback. This is the Common Riding, and for Hawick people it is the high point of the year. Its story begins in 1514. After the disaster of Flodden the year before, which left so many of the town's men dead, a band of Hawick youths is said to have ambushed an English raiding party at Hornshole, just down the Teviot, and carried home their flag. A replica banner is still carried today by the Cornet, a young unmarried man chosen for the honour, who leads the ride-outs round the town's boundaries. The festivities come with their own traditions: early breakfasts of curds and cream laced with rum, a lot of singing, and a week of events led by the Cornet and his supporters, the Callants. Exiles come home from around the world to join in.
A war cry nobody can quite explain
The Common Riding song is "Teribus ye Teri Odin", and Hawick folk sing it as a point of honour. Nobody can say for certain what the words originally meant. One popular theory ties them to the Norse gods Tyr and Odin, which would make the chant far older than the 1514 skirmish. The word has given the town its nickname. Hawick people are the Teries, and the rugby team's supporters shout "Teribus" with the same conviction. Then there is the name itself. It is written Hawick and spoken "Hoik", a trap that has caught out many visitors reading the road signs.
The town that dressed the world in wool
Hawick sits where the Slitrig Water meets the River Teviot, and those fast Borders streams powered its mills. Stocking frames arrived in the town in the 1700s, and hosiery grew into a major industry. Knitwear took over from there. Some famous labels began here. Pringle was founded in Hawick in 1815 by Robert Pringle, and the diamond-pattern argyle jumper made the name world-famous. Lyle & Scott, founded in 1874 by William Lyle and Walter Scott, followed, along with a long line of cashmere and lambswool makers. Many of the grand mills still stand along the river. The industry is much smaller than in its heyday, but Hawick cashmere remains a byword for quality and the town still takes pride in it.
Rugby is practically a second religion
Hawick Rugby Club, the Greens, play at Mansfield Park, and the club has been one of the powerhouses of the Scottish game for generations. The Borders are rugby country, and Hawick may be its beating heart. The town has produced a long line of Scotland internationals. Centre Jim Renwick was a mainstay of the 1970s and 80s, and hooker Colin Deans was another Hawick player who rose to captain his country. In the Borders, the sevens season is a rite of spring and summer, and Hawick takes a full part in it. For football there is Hawick Royal Albert, though on a Saturday afternoon in winter the oval ball is far more likely to draw the crowd.
A tower that survived the burning
Hawick has been fought over many times. English raiders, led by the Earl of Sussex, burned the town in 1570. The stout Drumlanrig's Tower, a Douglas stronghold, is among the oldest buildings to remain, and sits at the heart of the old town. On the edge of the town stands the Mote, a grassy medieval mound where Common Riding ceremonies are held. At the top of the High Street, the Horse monument, unveiled in 1914 for the 400th anniversary of Hornshole, shows a mounted rider with the captured flag and doubles as a war memorial. Wilton Lodge Park, along the Teviot, holds the town museum, gardens and riverside walks.
The town the railway forgot
Hawick once stood on the Waverley Route, the main line linking Edinburgh with Carlisle. The line closed in January 1969, part of the Beeching cuts, leaving the town without a passenger railway. When the Borders Railway reopened part of the old route in 2015, it stopped short at Tweedbank. Hawick, the biggest town on the old line, stayed off the map, and locals have campaigned for the track to come back ever since. It has bred a stubborn independence. This is a town that does things its own way, from the way it says its own name to the way it rides out on a June morning.