Border fortress town with a turbulent history
With three bridges dominating its seaward side, Berwick-upon-Tweed has been a fought-over, highly prized fortress through the centuries
ON A COLD, crisp November morning, a light mist rises from the River Tweed, which serves as a border between Scotland and England. It adds a slightly mysterious element to the view across the water, which is dominated by three bridges; one of them a magnificent 28-arch viaduct. They provide a spectacular arrival into what is the northernmost town in England. Arriving from the south, the entrance to historic Berwick-upon-Tweed is heralded by this trio of bridges: Berwick Bridge, also known as Old Bridge; the Royal Tweed Bridge, and the splendid Royal Border Bridge. The latter, designed by Robert Stephenson, delivers visitors by train.
These bridges clearly illustrate three different layers of history, but there are more layers to discover, for Berwick has a fascinating and bloody past, dating back to medieval times.
Turbulent history
Berwick Castle was founded by King David I of Scotland in the 12th century, perched atop a rocky outcrop overlooking the river estuary. Under the terms of the Treaty of Falaise, between the captive William I, King of Scots, and Henry II, King of England, the town and castle passed to the English in 1174. However, this particular period of English ownership was short-lived, as Richard I sold Berwick back to the Scots to help fund the Third Crusade.
While it was part of Scotland, Berwick was referred to as South Berwick to differentiate it from the town of North
Berwick, located approximately 40 miles further along the coast, in East Lothian. However, the English felt no need to make the distinction and simply called the town ‘Berwick’.
In 1292, the Great Hall of Berwick Castle hosted the English parliament and Scottish nobles, when King Edward I of England arbitrated between rivals John Balliol, Robert the Bruce, John Hastings and the Count of Holland, who each had a claim on the throne of Scotland. Edward announced in favour of John Balliol.
On 12 March 1296, King Edward I besieged the Scottish town of Berwick and gave the people three days to surrender. They refused to do so, resulting in Berwick being attacked by
the English, who killed many of the townspeople. Later that year, Scotland lost its independence, and leading Scottish nobles were forced to add their seals to an oath of allegiance to Edward, who had made Berwick Castle his headquarters during his invasion of Scotland. The following year, William Wallace attacked Berwick to win it back for the Scots. He won the town, but not the castle, and he had to withdraw, following the arrival of the English Royal army.
Towards the end of the 13th century, Edward I had the castle rebuilt and the town fortified. It is his ‘White Wall’ and ‘Breakneck Stairs’ that can be seen in the remains of the castle today, which is in the stewardship of English Heritage.
“Situated at the mouth of the River Tweed, near the border of two kingdoms, the town of Berwick suffered conflict throughout the medieval period as control of the town passed back and forward between England and Scotland until 1482,” says Paul Pattison, English Heritage’s senior properties historian. “Even after then, it remained an important English border fortress until the late 18th century. The threat of conflicts brought repairs and improvements, and have left us the great artillery fortifications, which were begun in 1558. These survive largely intact and make
Berwick one of the most important British fortified towns.”
Between 1296 and 1482, Berwick changed hands 13 times, finally being captured by Richard of Gloucester for the English in 1482. It has remained part of England ever since.
James VI of Scotland succeeded to the throne as James I of England in 1603, and Berwick Castle was sold to become a private residence. Due to the death of the new owner in 1611, the work was never completed, and it soon fell into disrepair.
Much of the stone used to build the Church of the Holy Trinity in Berwick was taken from the ruins of Berwick Castle. In 1641, King Charles I of England gave money to replace the old church, but the English Civil War between the Cavaliers and Roundheads broke out in 1642, and the church was not completed until 1652. The old wooded churchyard in which it stands is a nature reserve, and here the visitor will find graves of plague victims and Viking grave markers. The church was built without a tower and bells,
William Lisle Bowles, ‘The Tweed Visited’
so, in Berwick, the bells are rung from the Town Hall.
In the 1840s, the North British Railway demolished much of what remained of the castle to make way for Berwick railway station. Visitors to the station today will see that above the stairs to the railway platforms is a plaque commemorating the meeting between King Edward I and the rivals for the Scottish throne in 1292, and denoting that the platforms are in the place where the Great Hall of Berwick Castle once stood.
Scenic route into town
From outside the railway station forecourt, there is a steep path, which wends its way down towards the river. Here, the visitor can enjoy a leisurely stroll that takes in two scenic parks, the castle ruins and a stunning riverside walk before entering the town centre.
A chainsaw sculpture of the iconic Berwick Bear, which features in the town’s crest, indicates the start of the path and the entrance to Castle Vale Park with its charming lily pond. In summer, the park’s borders are filled with foxgloves and roses, but throughout the year, it provides a spectacular view of the Royal Border Bridge from its shelter and lookout point.
Nearby Coronation Park is steeply sloping, elegantly tumbling its way to the river. It can be entered from Castle Terrace at the top or via the riverside path at the bottom through Tommy the Miller’s Field. Entering the park from
Elizabeth I
the top, visitors are treated to a spectacular view of the river estuary and King Edward I’s White Walls.
Inside the park, at Gallows Knowe, is a plaque telling a gruesome tale from the past: the story of Grace Griffin, the last person to be hanged there, despite the judge telling the jury that there were good grounds for her release.
The park hosts a trail of charming, characterful wooden sculptures designed by local children and created by chainsaw carver David Gross. They make the perfect year-round attraction, as does Tommy the Miller’s Field, which leads onto the riverside footpath, taking walkers past the castle ruins and into the town.
Tommy the Miller’s Field is a semi-natural meadow, which is a haven for wildlife. Throughout the year, otters and seals may be spotted in the estuary, and kestrels and gulls can be seen and heard high above.
Walking this route to town is one of the best ways for visitors to see all three iconic bridges simultaneously. Designed by Stephenson and opened by Queen Victoria in 1850, the Royal Border Bridge is a historic Grade I listed railway viaduct. It is part of the East Coast Main Line route and has been crossed countless times by the most famous steam locomotive in the world, the Flying Scotsman, 126ft (38m) above the River Tweed. Today, the journey from London to Berwick takes approximately 3½ hours.
A short distance downstream is the Royal Tweed Bridge. When it was opened in 1928 by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, it had the longest reinforced concrete
“think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm”
arch in the UK. Now the main road into the town from the south, the bridge’s stylish cast iron lamp posts are frequently festooned with banners promoting forthcoming festivals, such as the Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival and Berwick Food Festival that take place in September, and the Berwick Literary Festival, which follows in October.
Berwick Bridge is an impressive, arched sandstone bridge, dating back to the early 17th century. Prior to the construction of this bridge, the Tweed was crossed at this point by using a succession of wooden bridges, but they were frequently destroyed by flooding or battles.
Walking the walls
Berwick has the only intact Elizabethan town wall in England, and it is one of the most fortified towns in Europe. An ideal way for visitors to familiarise themselves with the town and its unique, chequered history is to ‘walk the walls’; a circuit of approximately 1½ miles. The walk takes in walls built during three periods in history: the medieval wall, the Elizabethan ramparts, and the 17th and 18th century walls. When the Elizabethan wall was built, it was the most expensive building project of England’s Golden Age.
The ramparts were pedestrianised in the 19th century, and they can be accessed at several points around the town. Anyone can walk the walls for free, but to gain a true insight into the history of the town, guided walks are available. Local guides Derek and Hazel Sharman, from Time to Explore, have been giving tours of the town walls since 1988. “Our tour starts at Meg’s Mount, the first of five bastions on Berwick’s unique circuit of Elizabethan-period
fortifications,” says Derek. “This elevated location affords a superb panorama of the town, the coast and the three bridges which span the River Tweed. Here, we introduce the turbulent history of Scotland’s greatest seaport in its 13th century heyday and through the two centuries of border warfare that followed.”
From Meg’s Mount, the tour proceeds in a clockwise direction around the town’s fortifications to Scotsgate, the main entrance from the north through the Elizabethan walls.
The parapet on top of Scotsgate gives a view along the town’s main street, Marygate, as captured in a painting by L S Lowry during one of his many visits to the town. “Unlike Scotsgate, which is an actual gateway, many of the other ‘gates’ have their origin in the Norse word ‘gata’, meaning ‘street’,” explains Derek.
At the bottom of Marygate is the Neoclassical Town Hall; an impressive building, with a colonnaded facade and tall spire, built between 1754 and 1760 by the Guild of Merchants of Berwick-upon-Tweed. They governed the town from the Middle Ages until 1835. Inside the Town Hall is a guildhall, council chamber, court, prison and ‘drunk’s cell’.
From Scotsgate, continuing eastwards along the ramparts to Cumberland Bastion affords one of the best views of the Elizabethan fortifications. “It took 2,000 men 10 years to complete the 50ft-thick earth ramparts and five arrow-shaped bastions that were intended to defend Berwick against attack,” says Derek. The artillery positions, known as flankers, offer a gunner’s eye view.
Another viewpoint, Brass Bastion, offers magnificent views from its upper gun platform, northwards towards the Scottish border and the ruins of part of the town’s medieval walls, and southwards along the sandy beaches of Northumberland’s heritage coast as far as Holy Island and Bamburgh Castle.
Cowport is the only gateway that remains substantially as it was in Elizabethan times. The name derives from its use as a route to take cows back and forth to pasture outside the town. Inside this narrow gateway are grooves visible in the walls where a portcullis would have been lowered to defend the entrance to the town. From Cowport, there is a splendid view of Berwick Barracks: England’s first purpose-built infantry barracks, built in the early 18th century to the design of architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture at the time and who also worked alongside Christopher Wren. The barracks
“Grim warders on each Border keep, To cry the foray when it nears— I saw the rough-clad troopers sweep, The moonlight gleaming on their spears”
Alexander Anderson, ‘When First I Saw The Tweed’
opened in 1721 and are now owned by English Heritage. The site houses The King’s Own Scottish Borderers museum, the Berwick Gymnasium Art Gallery and the Berwick Museum and Art Gallery, which houses a collection of fine art, including work by Degas, Boudin, and Daubigny.
“The town’s Elizabethan fortifications had an active history of defending Berwick that lasted almost 400 years,” says Derek. “The tunnels leading through the ramparts to the flankers at Windmill and the other bastions were used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War, when Berwick suffered 11 air raids that resulted in 25 civilian deaths and hundreds of other casualties.”
Sheltered behind the ramparts near Windmill Bastion is the Gunpowder Magazine. By courtesy of English Heritage, Derek’s guided tour includes a visit to explore the interior, which is not ordinarily open to the public. Dating from circa 1750, the building is full of fascinating detail: it was constructed with a raised floor to protect the gunpowder from damp, and a double-skinned roof to reduce the force of any accidental explosion. All the woodwork was put together using wooden dowels instead of iron nails, and the exterior of
the wooden door is faced with copper sheets to protect against fire; all very important, as more than 620 barrels of gunpowder could be stored here.
Beyond the Magazine, the Elizabethan section of the fortifications is left at Lord’s Mount, the fifth and final bastion. Proceeding down Kipper Hill brings the visitor to the Russian Gun, which provides an excellent location to take in views of the pier and lighthouse and along the coast towards Holy Island.
From here, the route follows the town’s medieval walls, which were strengthened in the 18th century with new parapets and gun platforms, and along Quay Walls, with its particularly attractive 18th century merchants’ houses. “Although Berwick is perhaps best known for its unique Elizabethan walls, its architecture is mainly of the Georgian period,” says Derek. Overlooking the historic quayside, this part of the town affords perhaps the most iconic view of the three bridges that span the Tweed at Berwick.
Passing by the end of the Old Bridge, the visitor comes to Bankhill Icehouse. This was used to store the 2,000 tons of ice needed each year to preserve the salmon caught in the
Tweed and carried to London in specially designed sailing ships, called Berwick smacks.
“The ice was originally collected from local lakes and ponds, but as the climate began to change in the 19th century, large quantities of ice were brought from Norway by sailing ship,” says Derek.
“The last iceship arrived in 1939. Some of the icehouses were still being used into the early 1950s. At the height of the trade in the early 19th century, as many as 200,000 salmon were transported in this way each season.”
Market town
It is not only history that draws tourists to Berwick. This traditional market town is also the perfect place for Christmas shopping, and visitors can find unusual ›
contemporary and antique gifts from its impressive range of independent shops along Bridge Street.
Selling a wide range of quality second-hand books, original vintage film posters and Lowry fine art prints is Slightly Foxed. And on the opposite side of the street is specialist cookshop Cookcraft Kitchen and the Little Vintage Shop, selling antiques, retro furniture and vintage goods, from cocktail glasses to typewriters.
Bridge Street is peppered with welcoming, independent restaurants and cafés, including The Mule on Rouge: a stylish café, deli and takeaway offering ethical and local produce. And, at the opposite end of Bridge Street is Audela, a café-restaurant serving contemporary British cuisine with regional ingredients.
Each Wednesday and Saturday, Marygate, in the centre of the town, is host to Berwick’s ancient Charter Markets, where visitors and locals can pick up a bargain from the many and varied stalls.
Seaside village
The coastal village of Spittal lies approximately 1½ miles away and is just a short trip over either of the road bridges. In the 18th century, holidaymakers visited here to drink from the spa well. The name of the village is thought to have its origins in a hospital dedicated to St Bartholomew, dating back to the 13th century or earlier, which was founded to care for lepers. There is no evidence of the hospital today or of the fortified tower, which written records suggest was built to defend it in 1369.
The clean and sandy Spittal Beach leads onto the Northumberland Coastal Path, a 62-mile journey, which heads south to Cresswell via a combination of beaches, tracks, footpaths, bridleways and minor roads. The route is generally level, with decent walking surfaces, although at this time of year, some sections of path can become muddy.
A walk along the Victorian promenade at Spittal, with its views across the sea to the town walls and Berwick lighthouse and pier, is a fitting way to end the day. ■