In the 7th century Northumbria was ruled by the pagan leader Oswald who, upon converting to Christianity, established, with the help of St Aidan, a monastery at Lindisfarne, the Holy Island.
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It probably was not much different in 1544 when the army of Henry VIII of England under the Earl of Hertford razed the Border Abbeys and caused destruction of dwellings in the village including Lessuden House, which was later rebuilt.
The viaduct was opened on 16 November 1863 to carry the Berwickshire Railway, which connected Reston (on the East Coast Main Line between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh) with St Boswells (on the Edinburgh to Carlisle "Waverley Line"), via Duns and Greenlaw.
In 1865 the magnificent Leaderfoot Viaduct of nineteen arches was constructed for the St Boswells Junction to Reston section of the Berwickshire Railway, a line which closed in 1948.