Station was not merely almost the sole surviving structure from the Waverley Route, but that it was in its own right a building of national importance ranking in the town alongside the only other category A listed building, namely the Abbey. The listing of the building also paved the way for its eventual salvation.

I become a Station Master

By 1981 the dilapidation of the Station had already reached an advanced stage, but from the time British Rail sold the Station in 1982 until I acquired it in 1985 it rapidly fell into almost terminal decay. The slates from the platform canopy were stripped off, and parts of its structure had collapsed. The interiors were completely removed, leaving only the rotting remains of some floor beams and joists. There was just a decaying structural shell, with a roof whose eaves supports were so rotten that they were held in place more by force of habit than by the conventional rules of gravity.

Of course it is not every day that one is phoned up and asked if one wants to buy a railway station. (And as it happened in the course of time, it is not every day that an insurance broker is asked to insure one. He thought I had overindulged at lunch: “Which one do you have in mind, sir, Waverley or Haymarket?”)

I held many discussions with the then Director of Planning, David Douglas. He proved unremitting in his efforts to secure a future for the Station. We assessed the prospects. Meirose remained the focal point for tourism in the Borders, one of the mainstays of the local economy and with a substantial growth potential. Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford House, the source as we know it of all things “Waverley”, is just a mile away. It has averaged 80,000 visitors in recent years, and is the most favoured of Border attractions.

There are the Motor Museum, the National Trust for Scotland’s Priorwood Garden, and of course the Abbey. Then there are the River Tweed for fishermen, the Eildon Hills for walkers, the Southern Upland Way for trekkers. And near at hand the three other

Borders Abbeys (Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Kelso), Smailholm Tower and numerous stately homes.

Meirose is just a couple of miles each way from the A68 and the A7, two of the principal north-south, England-Scotland trunk roads for home and foreign travellers.

The need for a focal point for the Borders crafts industry had already been presented to the Regional Council by a group of leading local craftspeople, and after introducing

them to the potential of Melrose Station the fit seemed right. The promotion of an industry whose goals place quality high on its scale of values, in a building of great elegance, was appropriate. The relationship between the successful presentation of locally made craft products and tourism is direct, and again the portents were favourable. The conversion potential of the building itself was highly suited to such a promotional centre, and with the offers of financial assistance which David Douglas masterminded from the Scottish Development Agency, the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland, and the Borders Regional Council itself, the project soon demonstrated viability.

Melrose Station follows the contour lines at the foot of the Eildon Hills and was constructed on two levels. The lower, passenger entrance level, provided the accommodation for the station- master and his staff — which is why the building is often referred to as the “station house”. The railway track was at the upper level, and all

of the waiting rooms, ticket and booking offices and other operational rooms were sited off the platform. The two levels were connected by an open staircase through the middle of the building, a trolley path up the side, and an internal staircase (which no longer exists). By 1985 the platform, together with its canopy and the

Meirose Station, Roxburghshire before