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Gardiner Terrace, PRESTONPANS, EH32 9ET

A row of dazzlingly whitewashed 20th century council houses lines the road opposite Prestonpans Station.

No big surface remains unpainted for long in Prestonpans. Advertisement inspired mural on the exit from the station.

Situated between Prestonpans and Tranent in East Lothian just off the Johnnie Cope Road. Bankton began life known as Holy Stop which, ultimately became Olivestob. There was an ecclesiastical establishment there from the 12th. to the 16th. centuries. Mystery descends when it comes to who and when owned the house after the Scottish Reformation with many families claiming occupancy at various times. The most famous owner of Bankton, in local terms at least, was Colonel James Gardiner who lived at the house from 1742 until his death in September 1745. Col. Gardiner was an officer with the government forces who faced the Highland rebel army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (the Bonnie Prince) on September, 21st., 1745, when he was cut down within sight of his home. He died the following day at Tranent Kirk manse and was interred in Tranent kirkyard.

Prestonpans railway station mural by Adele Conn.

Monument to a Colonel of Dragoons, killed at the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745. What is astonishing is that it was raised by public conscription in 1853, more than a hundred years after the event. "Nearly 80 of the royal army officers were taken prisoner, many of them wounded, but thanks to the intervention of the Jacobite leaders no more than seven were killed. Among them was Colonel Gardiner, whose end is dramatically described by Dr Doddridge. Shot in the left breast at the beginning of the action, and soon afterwards in the right thigh, the Colonel stood his ground after his squadron had fled, and seeing a party of foot still fighting without an officer to lead them, he rode up and called out to them, 'Fire on, my Lads, and fear nothing.' A moment later he received a deep wound in the right arm from a scythe-blade, and having been dragged from his horse, was struck a mortal bow on the back of his head by a Highlander with a Lochaber axe. Taking up his hat in his left hand the Colonel waved it to his servant as a signal to retreat, with the words, 'Take care of yourself.' On returning two hours later with a cart, the man found that Gardiner had been stripped of his outer clothing and boots, and robbed of his watch and other valuables, and having been carried in semi-conscious condition to the manse of Tranent, he died there the following morning. That Gardiner fought bravely there can be no doubt, but Doddridge's narrative, which was given him by the Colonel's servant, is almost certainly untrue. Apart from the improbability of a man in his state of health being able to retain his powers of movement and speech after being so severely wounded, the evidence of his relative Cornet Ker, who was posted 'very near' him, seems conclusive. According to him the Colonel fell from his horse after receiving two gun-shot wounds in the right side. Having no servant or spare horse in attendance he was unable to remount, and almost immediately afterwards was brought to the ground by six cuts in the head." -- K Tomasson, F Buist, Battles Of The '45, 1962

One of four lions on the Monument erected in memory of Colonel Gardiner who was killed at the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745.

"In the afternoon we rode by Prestonfield, and saw the place of battle [Prestonpans 1745], and Colonel Gardiner's house. The Scotch here affirm, that he fought on foot after he was dismounted, and refused to take quarter. Be it as it may, he is now 'where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest.'" -- John Wesley, 1751

Colonel Gardiner fell at the Battle of Prestonpans on September, 21st 1745. He lived at Bankton House. James Gardiner was born at Carriden in West Lothian in 1688 and joined the army at age 14 after his education at Linlithgow. He survived more than one near fatal injury during his career. He bought Bankton, then known as Oliestob (Holy Stop) in 1742 from the local Hamilton of Preston family. It is ironic that he was killed within sight of his home. Highland clansmen took him to nearby Tranent Church for medical treatment but he died and was buried in Tranent Kirkyard a few days later. He is well remembered in Prestonpans with streets named in his honour and another named in the name of his beloved house. James was married to Frances Erskine, a daughter of the Earl of Buchan. They had 13 children but only five survived into adulthood.

Railway posters at Prestonpans station. The extortionate fares had been simplified. -- 2016 Since this was taken fares have continued to rise well above inflation. Despite the service becoming increasingly inaccessible due to rationing by price, trains are now notoriously overcrowded and often refuse to pick up passengers at East Lothian stations.