Former Galashiels Combination Poorhouse, Kirkbrae

1859-60 · Kirkbrae · designed by James Campbell Walker · later Windyknowe Public Assistance Institution and Eildon View Home

A substantial survivor of Galashiels’ nineteenth-century welfare system. Built as a regional poorhouse, the institution later became public-assistance and residential-care accommodation; its principal building remains in use as Galashiels Nursing Home.

Last reviewed: 26 July 2026

Quick Facts

Why It Matters

The former Combination Poorhouse is an important building in the social history of Galashiels and the wider Borders. It records the nineteenth-century transfer of poor relief from older parish and kirk-session arrangements to a more formal civil system. Its remit extended well beyond the town: the Galashiels Combination brought together the parishes of Galashiels, Bowden, Melrose, Selkirk and Yarrow, with Caddonfoot joining around 1900.

The building also has architectural interest. It was designed by James Campbell Walker, who had trained in the offices of William Burn and David Bryce and became a specialist in poorhouses and other public buildings. The survival of the principal block, despite extensions and adaptation, gives Galashiels a direct physical link with a form of institution that has often been demolished or altered beyond recognition.

The Story

Scotland’s system of poor relief changed significantly after the Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845. Parochial boards were created to administer assistance, and poorhouses were established more widely. Relief was intended principally for people unable to support themselves through age, illness or incapacity, including orphaned children and disabled people. Many people continued to receive help outside an institution, but the poorhouse became a highly visible part of the new administrative system.

Galashiels Combination was formed around 1859. Rather than each participating parish maintaining a separate institution, the Combination served a broad district embracing communities in Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire. The poorhouse was erected in 1859-60 on the rising ground at Kirkbrae, then near the expanding edge of the town. Its elevated site made the long institutional building conspicuous in views across Galashiels.

James Campbell Walker supplied the design. National Records of Scotland preserves a remarkable volume of 27 architectural plans, sections, elevations and site plans relating to the complex, covering the period from 1859 to 1944. These records demonstrate that the institution was not a static building: it was planned, extended and adapted as welfare practice and accommodation requirements changed. Historical photographs indicate that the long principal block was extended at both its north and south ends.

The 1881 census brings the institution’s human history into view. It records a governor and matron, nursing and domestic staff, and residents of widely differing ages and circumstances. They included children, elderly people, domestic servants and labourers, as well as people recorded with disabilities. The list should not be reduced to a set of anonymous “inmates”: it represents individual lives shaped by poverty, bereavement, illness, disability, insecure work and the limited welfare provision of the period.

Administrative language changed during the twentieth century. After the reorganisation of local government and poor relief in 1930, the building became Windyknowe Public Assistance Institution. In 1950 it was renamed Eildon View Home. That sequence marks a gradual movement away from the explicit language of the Poor Law and towards residential care, although institutional continuities remained. By the late twentieth century the premises had been adapted as a care home for older people.

The building continues as Galashiels Nursing Home. Scottish Borders Council’s current care directory confirms the Kirkbrae address and its provision of residential and nursing care for older people. Continued care use is historically resonant, but the modern service should not be treated as a continuation of nineteenth-century poorhouse practice: governance, law, standards and the meaning of care have changed profoundly.

Poorhouse or Workhouse?

The historically appropriate Scottish name is poorhouse, and contemporary records call this the Galashiels Combination Poorhouse. “Workhouse” is often used informally, especially in modern family-history resources, but it can suggest the English and Welsh system too closely. The distinction matters: Scottish poorhouses operated under different legislation, and compulsory labour was not the defining basis of relief in the same way. This entry therefore uses “poorhouse” while recognising that visitors may search for the building as the Galashiels Workhouse.

Things to Notice

• The long principal range, whose institutional scale remains legible despite later alterations.
• The elevated position above the older town, chosen when Kirkbrae was less densely developed.
• The way later extensions lengthened the original main block.
• The relationship between the historic building and more recent care-home adaptations.
• The contrast with nearby Knowepark Hospital, a separate institution on Windyknowe Road that was demolished after closing in 1987.

Why It Matters Today

This is a difficult but essential part of the town’s heritage. The building can support honest discussion of poverty, ageing, disability, childhood, welfare administration and the stigma attached to receiving relief. Its continued use for care also creates an unusually long thread through Galashiels’ social history. That significance should be interpreted sensitively, without romanticising the institution or treating the people who lived there as curiosities.

Significance Scores

Scores follow the published significance-scoring methodology. They are interpretive judgements, not statutory designations.

Timeline

• 1845 – the Poor Law (Scotland) Act creates a new civil system of poor relief administered by parochial boards.
• c. 1859 – Galashiels Combination is formed to serve Galashiels, Bowden, Melrose, Selkirk and Yarrow.
• 1859-60 – the Combination Poorhouse is built at Kirkbrae to designs by James Campbell Walker.
• 1881 – the census records staff and residents and gives a total population of 28,944 for the participating parishes.
• c. 1900 – Caddonfoot joins the Combination.
• After 1930 – the premises become Windyknowe Public Assistance Institution.
• 1950 – the institution is renamed Eildon View Home.
• Late twentieth century to the present – the historic premises are adapted for continuing residential and nursing-care use.

Notes and Uncertainties

The broad chronology, architect and later names are securely supported by RCAHMS, National Records of Scotland and specialist poorhouse research. The full set of RHP30874 plans has not been examined for this review, so individual construction phases and internal features are not attributed to specific dates here. The precise date at which the modern nursing-home use began also requires confirmation. No individual HES listing was identified, but absence from the statutory list does not diminish the building’s local historical importance.

The former Combination Poorhouse must not be confused with Knowepark Hospital. Knowepark was a nineteenth-century private house acquired in 1933 for chronic-sick accommodation; it was a separate site farther west on Windyknowe Road and was later demolished.

Image and Licence Notes

Specialist sources reproduce valuable historical and modern photographs of the building, but no photograph with a sufficiently clear open reuse licence was verified for publication here. The Workhouses website is linked as a source so visitors can consult its images in their original context. A new photograph taken from public space, with care-home residents’ privacy fully respected, would be the preferred future illustration.

Related Places

• Knowepark Hospital
• Galavale House and Lodge, Former Cottage Hospital
• Central Galashiels Artisan Housing and Streetscapes

Sources

• RCAHMS, Historic Galashiels (2011) – formation of the Combination, participating parishes, architect, construction date and later names.
• National Records of Scotland place catalogue for Galashiels – RHP30874, a volume of 27 plans, sections, elevations and site plans of Galashiels Combination Poorhouse, 1859-1944.
• National Records of Scotland, Poor Relief Records research guide – the 1845 Scottish Poor Law, parochial boards, eligibility for relief and poorhouse-plan collections.
• Scotland’s People, The Kirk Session and the Poor – transition from church-administered relief to the civil system created in 1845.
• Peter Higginbotham, Galashiels Combination Poorhouse – site, building development, later uses, archival holdings and photographs viewed in their original context.
• 1881 census transcription for Galashiels Combination Poorhouse – staff and residents.
• Historic Hospitals, Scottish Borders gazetteer – Walker attribution, 1930 mapping and later conversion to elderly care.
• Scottish Borders Council, Galashiels Nursing Home – current Kirkbrae address and care use.