Eckford Church Watch Tower (Ghoul Tower)

You would think once you've died and been buried everyone would finally leave you alone, but apparently even that wasn't guaranteed in Eckford in the early 1800s.

Body snatching was a bit of a problem at the time, with freshly buried corpses being dug back up and sold to medical schools for anatomy lessons. So after spending all that money on a funeral, families also had the added worry of someone turning up later with a shovel and nicking Uncle Keith.

So the solution to this grave issue at Eckford was to build this little round watch-house in the churchyard, known locally as the Ghoul Tower. Basically a security hut for dead people, where watchmen could keep an eye on newly dug graves in case any resurrectionists turned up looking for stock.

But they weren't just sitting in there with a flask and a packet of biscuits either. Local history records that the watchers had a flintlock musket, which was kept in the church for many years, although by 1999 it was apparently no longer there.

They did at least have a fireplace to keep themselves warm while guarding the recently departed. You can still see it inside and I managed to get a photo through a crack in the door.

There is also a cracking local tale about a Kelso man called James Goodfellow who supposedly spotted body snatchers at work in the churchyard. He scared off their pony, hid the body they'd dug up behind a gravestone and then decided the obvious next move was to climb into the empty coffin himself

The body snatchers eventually returned, picked up the coffin and headed towards Kelso before one of them apparently noticed that their recently deceased passenger felt remarkably warm.

So James revealed himself. At which point I imagine a couple of body snatchers achieved personal bests over 100 metres and James was absolutely delighted with himself.

The little watch-house is still there in Eckford churchyard today, although these days the residents are trusted to stay where they're put.