Slitrig Crescent

About Slitrig Crescent

Slitrig Crescent (known as "the Crescent"). which was built when the burgh was extended in I799. it was the first street in Hawick to have gas light.
Walking along Slitrig Cresent. you will see Mill House which has a central pilastered doorpiece (the shallow rectangular column that projects slightly from the wall. topped with a classical style capital) and a simple elegance. This house was associated with the corn mill (the three-story building in Mill Path, now converted into housing) which was known as Hawick Mill. Further along the Crescent, the buildings have simpler local detailing and are largely constructed using local whinstone.
In l868. the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland describes the Crescent as "a snug and almost romantic position, a curved and beautifiJlly edificed terrace called the Crescent".
Almost opposite the Kirkwynd Bridge is John Laing of Hawick's factory. When David Laing of Dicksons & Laings (see Vlfrlton Mills) died, his sons went their separate ways, with Walter staying at Wilton Mills and John striking off on his own to start this firm. Right next to the factory is an impressive three-storey building, Slitrig House, which was the home of John Laing. He gradually built the factory on land he owned around the house from I83I. Unlike his fellow manufacturers, who liked to live ‘near the shop'. Mr Laing decided to live right beside it.
The house eventually passed into the ownership of the Red Cross until it was bought back and became the offices for the factory in the mid- 1980s.