It is 4+1⁄2 miles (7 kilometres) north of Lauder, and 20 mi (32 km) southeast of the centre of Edinburgh, yet in a quiet rural position.

This name for the parish appears to have come into general use in the district around the beginning of the eighteenth century but its ancient name was Childer-kirk and later Gingle-kirk.

A Roman camp, visible from the air, and recorded on Ordnance survey maps[2] has been identified nearby and may have been connected with the progress of the army of Septimius Severus in AD 209–210.

Saint Cuthbert, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne, was born in the vicinity in AD 635, and probably baptised his early converts at the nearby Holy Water Cleuch (spring).

As with all Scottish parishes its inhabitants were ruled by a combination of the Kirk Session and the Heritors, the latter being local landowners who were jointly responsible for funding all projects in the parish such as repairs or extensions to the church, the manse, the school, the churchyard, the schoolmaster's house, and even the river bridges, all out of their own pockets.