NEW COMPOSITION
1st Matt Seattle The Guidwife o’ Jethart
2nd Pete Stewart On Pirnie Braes
3rd Julian Goodacre The Winner

Matt explains: “Last May (2018) while my wife Irene and I were walking along Jedburgh High Street we bumped into Dawn Bird, the landlady of The Canon pub which hosts the best traditional music session in the Borders (Mondays, 8:30 pm till late). I introduced Dawn to Irene as "the guidwife of the Canon", we had a wee bit blether, and moved on. But the "guidwife" (i.e. landlady) stuck in my mind and niggled; there's a Gudewife of Peebles (Nathaniel Gow), a Goodwife of Morpeth (A N Other), so why not a Guidwife o Jethart? And all with different spellings (c.f. Jedburgh, Jeddart and Jethart, all names of the same place).
Once I'd I found the first four notes, the rest of the tune arrived easily. I knew it was a keeper, and as it stayed within the 9-note scale it was also the best candidate of my recent tunes for the composition entry to the annual LBPS competition

On Pirnie Braes

Pete explained that while exploring early maps of the Pencaitland area he learnt that the woods through which he regularly walks had once been (and to some still were) known as Pirnie Braes - pirnie, he said, is a Scots word for a wooden bobbin (among other meanings), and that the braes (along the banks of the Water of Tyne) had once been home to pirnie-makers.

Pete explained that while exploring early maps of the Pencaitland area he learnt that the woods through which he regularly walks had once been (and to some still were) known as Pirnie Braes - pirnie, he said, is a Scots word for a wooden bobbin (among other meanings), and that the braes (along the banks of the Water of Tyne) had once been home to pirnie-makers.

The Winner

Julian confessed that his tune had been slyly titled; he informs us he will be submitting one next year titled ‘The Third’