Common Good? What’s all that about?
Evidence suggests many Peebles residents know little or nothing about Common Good.
A poll conducted around the town by members of the Peebles Common Good Forum revealed that, although most people had heard of the Peebles Common Good Fund, only a handful could name any of the Fund’s assets.
Despite several newspaper reports, magazine articles and even a BBC Scotland television documentary over recent years relating to the Fund, there seems to be only partial and thinly spread knowledge about this important local asset.
This exhibition seeks to raise awareness, inform, encourage greater engagement with the work of the Fund and to celebrate the rich inheritance we all continue to enjoy in our town.
Common Good? What’s all that about?
What is Common Good?
Common Good is uniquely Scottish. Its origins go back more than 600 years to the establishment of Scotland’s Royal burghs in the 15th century.
The idea was that revenue from land, property and other assets owned by each of the 196 royal burghs across Scotland should be used for the benefit of all the inhabitants of a burgh or, in other words, be used for the ‘common good’. Funds were set up by town councils across Scotland and money distributed to local causes and people in need.
Peebles is one of twelve former royal burghs in the Scottish Borders, each with their own Common Good Funds.
Over the past 20 years or more there have been lively debates about the legal definition of what is Common Good property and whether it has been correctly applied.
Under recent legislation, Scottish Borders Council is required to produce and maintain full registers of all Common Good assets and in 2023, at the request of Scottish Government and following a local consultation, the Council published updated, more accurate listings with maps on its website.
Image © Richard Welander
Image Courtesy of Live Borders Peebles Museum
George Meikle Kemp, a Peebles joiner and millwright, famously won the competition to design the Scott Monument. This 1930’s postcard shows his memorial at Moy Hall.
Image © Richard Welander
County Hall on Rosetta Road was built in 1935 as Peeblesshire’s County Council headquarters.
A category B listed building, it houses much of the Common Good art collection.