Berwick-upon-Tweed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Berwick-upon-Tweed | |
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| Population | 26,000 (2001 Census) |
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| OS grid reference | |
| District | Berwick-upon-Tweed |
| Shire county | Northumberland |
| Region | North East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BERWICK-UPON-TWEED |
| Postcode district | TD15 |
| Dial code | 01289 |
| Police | Northumbria |
| Fire | Northumberland |
| Ambulance | North East |
| UK Parliament | Berwick-upon-Tweed |
| European Parliament | North East England |
| List of places: UK • England • Northumberland | |
Berwick-upon-Tweed [bɛ.ɹɪk-], situated in the county of Northumberland, is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the river Tweed, situated 2.5 miles (4 km) south of the Scottish border.
In 2001 the town had a population of 11,665. The Berwick borough population is 25,949. The population has remained roughly constant since 1911 or so. It is the administrative centre of the borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which had a population of about double that. Berwick town is an unparished area, the least populated one in England.
Although in that region the Tweed forms the border between England and Scotland, and the historic heart of the town of Berwick is located on the northern, Scottish, side, the modern (post-1482) boundary diverts itself around the town to keep it in England. The town proper lies on the north bank and to the north of the River Tweed, and was formerly the county town of Berwickshire in Scotland, with which it still has strong economic and retail ties. Apart from the town proper, some nearby hinterland is also included in England and was considered part of the borough, which had an area of about 25 km².
Berwick is a market town and, if it is taken to include the village of Tweedmouth on the southern bank of the Tweed (which formed part of the borough), a very modest international seaport. For a period of 300 and more years from the mid 11th century the town was an extremely important strategic asset in the wars between England and Scotland. The architecture of the town reflects its past, in particular in having one of the finest remaining defensive ramparts (of 1555, though much repaired in the late 18th century), and in the Barracks buildings, begun in 1717 and the first such buildings in Britain. Nikolaus Pevsner writes that "Berwick is one of the most exciting towns in the country, with scarcely an irritating building anywhere, and the most intricate changes of level."
Including Spittal, Tweedmouth, and Ord, the town's population in the 2001 Census was 11,665; this within a borough population of 25,949. 59.5% of the population are employed, and 3.6% unemployed. 19% are retired. [1]. Slightly more than 60% of the population is employed in the service sector, including shops, hotels and catering, financial services and most government activity, including health care. About 13% is in manufacturing; 10% in agriculture, and 8% in construction [2]. Some current and recent Berwick economic activities include salmon fishing, shipbuilding, engineering, sawmilling, fertilizer production, and the manufacture of tweed and hosiery.
It is unique for an English town in that its football team, Berwick Rangers, plays its matches in the Scottish Football League and its Rugby Union team, Berwick RFC play in Scottish Rugby Union's BT Premiership 3; owing to the south-west to north-east direction of the border, it is located further north than several Scottish league clubs including Gretna, Queen of the South (Dumfries), Stranraer, Ayr United and Kilmarnock.
The local dialect, known as 'Tweedside', is a combination of Lowland Scots and the Northumbrian accent.
The A1 passes through Berwick.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early history
The origin of the town's name is probably Norse, or Anglo-Saxon, with the second element "wick" either coming from "vik" meaning a bay, or a "wic" meaning a settlement. The first element is also ambiguous, and may refer to either barley (baer) or the headland ("bar") which cuts across the Tweed estuary.
It has been suggested that the Romans may have some kind of port here. Roman control of the regions north of Hadrian's Wall, such as Berwick, would have been intermittent.
In the post-Roman period, the area would have been inhabited by the Brythons of Deira-Bernicia, who were in turn conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, who created the kingdom of Northumbria. The area was then settled by the Norse, mainly Danes.
In 1018, Northumbria north of the Tweed was ceded to Scotland, after the Scots defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham, which occurred a few miles west of Berwick.
[edit] Middle Ages
Berwick's strategic position on the English-Scottish border during centuries of war between the two nations and its relatively great wealth led to a succession of raids, sieges and take-overs. Between 1147 and 1482 the town changed hands between England and Scotland more than 13 times, and was the location of a number of momentous events in the English-Scottish border wars. One of the most brutal sackings was by King Edward I of England in 1296, and set the precedent for bitter border conflict in the Scottish Wars of Independence.
Berwick's position under Scottish rule tended to be much more prominent, for example, in the 13th century Berwick was one of the most wealthy trading ports in Scotland, providing an annual customs value of £2,190, equivalent to a quarter of all customs revenues received north of the border. A contemporary description of the town asserted that "so populous and of such commercial importance that it might rightly be called another Alexandria, whose riches were the sea and the water its walls". [3]. Amongst the town's exports were wool, grain and salmon, while merchants from Germany and the Low Countries set up businesses in the town in order to trade.
The Scots also had a mint at Berwick, producing Scottish coinage. In contrast, under English rule, Berwick was a garrison town first, and a port second. In around 1120, King David I of Scotland made Berwick one of Scotland's four royal burghs, which allowed the town's freemen a number of rights and privileges.
Berwick had a mediaeval hospital for the sick and poor which was administered by the Church. A charter under the Great Seal of Scotland, confirmed by King James I of Scotland, grants the king's chaplain Thomas Lauder of the House of God or Hospital lying in the burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed, to be held to him for the whole time of his life with all lands, teinds, rents and profits, etc., belonging to the said hospital, as freely as is granted to any other hospital in the Kingdom of Scotland; the king also commands all those concerned to pay to the grantee all things necessary for the support of the hospital. Dated at Edinburgh June 8, in the 20th year of his reign.
[edit] Struggles for control
In 1174, Berwick was paid as part of the ransom of William I of Scotland to Henry II of England. It was sold back to Scotland by Richard I of England, to raise money to pay for Crusades. It was destroyed in 1216 by King John of England, who attended in person the razing of the town with some barbarity.
Eddington remarks "Berwick, by the middle of the 13th century, was considered a second Alexandria, so extensive was its commerce". However, Berwick appended its signature to King John Balliol's new treaty with France, England's old enemy, and on March 30, 1296, Edward I stormed Berwick after a prolonged siege, sacking it with much bloodshed. His army slaughtered almost everyone who resided in the town, even if they fled to the churches. Some eight thousand inhabitants being put to the sword. "From that time", states Eddington, "the greatest merchant city in Scotland sank into a small seaport."
Edward I went again to Berwick in August 1296 to receive formal homage from some 2,000 Scottish nobles, after defeating the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar in April and forcing John I of Scotland (John Balliol) to abdicate at Kincardine Castle the following July. (The first town walls were built during the reign of Edward I.) The "homage" was not received well, and the Ragman Roll as it was known, earned itself a name of notoriety in the post-independence period of Scotland. Some believe it to be the origin of the term "rigmarole", although this may be a folk etymology.
An arm of William Wallace was displayed at Berwick after his execution and quartering on 5 August 1305. In 1314 Edward II of England mustered 25,000 men at Berwick, who later fought in (and lost) the Battle of Bannockburn.
On 1 April 1318, it was captured by the Scottish; Berwick Castle was also taken after a three-month siege. The English retook Berwick some time shortly after the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. In October 1357, a treaty was signed at Berwick by which the Scottish estates undertook to pay 100,000 marks as a ransom for David II of Scotland, who had been taken prisoner at the Battle of Neville's Cross on 17 October 1346.
In 1461/2 Berwick was recovered by the Scots and Robert Lauder of Edrington was put in charge of the castle. Scott relates: "About 1462 Berwick Castle was put into the hands of Robert Lauder of Edrington, an important official and soldier in Scotland at that time. Lauder kept his position uninterruptedly until 1474 when he was succeeded by David, Earl of Crawford. In 1464 Robert Lauder was paid £20 for repairs made to Berwick Castle."
On February 3, 1478 Robert Lauder of The Bass and Edrington was again appointed Keeper of the castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed with a retainer of £250 per annum. He continued in that position until the last year of Scottish occupation, when Patrick Hepburn, 1st Lord Hailes, had possession.
[edit] English rule
In 1482 the town was captured by Richard Duke of Gloucester, the future King Richard III, although not officially merged into England. England has administered the town since this date.
In 1551, the town was made a county corporate. In 1603, Berwick was the first English town to greet James VI of Scotland on his way to being crowned James I of England - upon crossing Berwick Bridge, that King is supposed to have declared the town neither belonging to England nor belonging to Scotland but part of the united Crown's domain.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, vast sums — one source reports "£128,648, the most expensive undertaking of the Elizabethan period" [4] — were spent on its fortifications, in a new Italian style (trace italienne), designed both to withstand artillery and to facilitate its use from within the fortifications. Although most of Berwick Castle was demolished in the 19th century to make way for the railway, the military barracks remain, as do the town's rampart walls — one of the finest remaining examples of its type in the country.
In 1639 the army of Charles I of England faced that of General Alexander Leslie at Berwick in the Bishops' Wars, which were concerned with bringing the Presbyterian Church of Scotland under Charles' control. The two sides did not fight, but negotiated a settlement, "the Pacification of Berwick", in June, under which the King agreed that all disputed questions should be referred to another General Assembly or to the Scottish Parliament.
Holy Trinity Church was built in 1650–52, on the initiative of the governor, Colonel George Fenwicke. Churches of the Commonwealth period are very rare. The church has no steeple, supposedly at the behest of Oliver Cromwell, who passed through the town in 1650 on his way to the Battle of Dunbar.
[edit] Modern history
In 1746 the Wales and Berwick Act (since repealed) was passed, which deemed that whenever legislation referred to England, this encompassed Berwick. Berwick remained a county in its own right however, and was not included in Northumberland for Parliamentary purposes until 1885.
The Reform Act 1832, which dealt in large part with the problem of rotten boroughs, reduced the number of MPs returned by the town from two to one.
On 1 April 1974, the current borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed was created by the merger of the previous borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed with Belford Rural District, Glendale Rural District and Norham and Islandshires Rural District.
[edit] At war with Russia?
There is a curious apocryphal story that Berwick is (or recently was) technically at war with Russia.
The story goes that since Berwick had changed hands several times, it was traditionally regarded as a special, separate entity, and some proclamations referred to "England, Scotland and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed". One such was the declaration of the Crimean War against Russia in 1853, which Queen Victoria supposedly signed as "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions". However, when the Treaty of Paris (1856) was signed to conclude the war, "Berwick-upon-Tweed" was left out. This meant that, supposedly, one of Britain's smallest towns was officially at war with one of the world's mightiest powers– and the conflict extended by the lack of a peace treaty for over a century.
The BBC programme Nationwide investigated this story in the 1970s, and found that while Berwick was not mentioned in the Treaty of Paris, it was not mentioned in the declaration of war either. The question remained of whether Berwick had ever been at war with Russia in the first place. The true situation is that since the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 had already made it clear that all references to England included Berwick, the town had no special status at either the start or end of the war.
Nevertheless, in 1966 a Soviet official waited upon the Mayor of Berwick, Councillor Robert Knox, and a peace treaty was formally signed. Mr Knox is reputed to have said "Please tell the Russian people that they can sleep peacefully in their beds." To complicate the issue, some have noted that Knox did not have any authority with regard to foreign relations, and thus may have exceeded his powers as mayor in concluding a peace treaty.
[edit] Places of interest
- Berwick Barracks, now maintained by English Heritage, and built between 1717 and 1721, the design attributed to Vanbrugh.
- The ramparts or defensive wall around the town centre
- The Old Bridge, 15-span sandstone arch bridge measuring 1,164 feet in length, built between 1610 and 1624, at a cost of £15,000. The bridge continues to serve road traffic, in one direction only. The bridge was on the main route from London to Edinburgh and was ordered by James VI of Scotland.
- The Royal Border Bridge, designed and built under the supervision of Robert Stephenson between 1847 at a cost of £253,000, is a 720-yard-long railway viaduct with 28 arches, carrying the East Coast Main Line 126 feet above the River Tweed. It was opened by Queen Victoria in 1850.
- The Royal Tweed Bridge, built in 1925 and in its time having the longest concrete span in the country at 361 feet, was originally designed to carry the A1 road across the Tweed; the town now has a road bypass to the west. In the early 2000s, its fabric was renovated, the road and pavement layout amended, and new street lighting was added.
- The Union Bridge (five miles upstream), the world's oldest surviving suspension bridge.
- The Guildhall, built in the 1750 in a Classical style, and formerly housing the town's prison on its top floor.
- Berwick Parish Church, unique for having been built during the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell. The building, constructed around 1650 using stone from the 13th century Castle (parts of which still stand by the railway station), began as a plain preaching box, with no steeple, stained glass or other decorations. Much altered with a conventional interior layout, contents include a pulpit thought to have been built for John Knox during his stay the town.
- Dewars Lane runs down Back Street just off Bridge Street, and was once painted by LS Lowry[5]
[edit] People
- Berwick was the first parish in which John Knox, the 16th-century Scottish religious reformer, who founded the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, was appointed a preacher in the Church of England.
- Mason Jackson, engraver, was born in Berwick in about 1820
- Alan Beith is currently the Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed.
- John Campbell Renton of Lamberton and Mordington (b. 1814), Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed.
- Alexander Knox, Canadian actor, died at Berwick in 1995
- Eric Lomax, famed author of The Railway Man, lives in Berwick.
- L. S. Lowry holidayed in Berwick regularly, and painted a number of pictures of the town and beaches. [6]
- Wendy Wood, controversial founder of the Scottish Patriots was arrested on more than one occasion for moving the border signs to the old bridge over the Tweed.
- The classic sitcom Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? also featured an episode where the 'lads' visited Berwick. Significantly, in it the two Northern Englishmen refer to Berwick as "Scottish".
- Trevor Steven, (born Berwick-upon-Tweed, September 21, 1963) was a highly-regarded England footballer who shot to fame with the all-conquering Everton side of the 1980s.
- Peter Ramage lived in Berwick for the majority of his childhood. He is now a professional football player for Newcastle.
- Henry Travers, born in Berwick in 1874, was a character actor best known for his roles in Hollywood film productions, most famously as Clarence the angel in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
- Antony Lambton, Lord Lambton, was the controversial Tory Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed from 1951 until 1973.
- Gavin Kerr lived in Berwick for most of his childhood, went on to play professional rugby for Leed Tykes and now the Border Reviers, a regular in the Scotland Rugby Team has 36 caps and 1 try.
- Craig Smith lived in Berwick for most of his childhood, went on to play professional rugby for the Edinburgh Gunners (now just plain Edinburgh), a regular in the Scotland Rugby Team has 18 caps.
See also Berwick Castle for Governors of the castle.
[edit] Local language
Berwick is an area rich in a diverse and varied form of dialect or, as detractors put it, slang. People from Berwick and its surroundings have a unique sound to their voice. The language is essentially a mixture of Scots, Geordie (both of which have had a long exchange of words), and British English.
Below is a sample of the words used in Berwick. Many are of Romani origin, such as Gadgie (originally a non-Romani), jougal and jiga; many are common to the borders dialect, and to Geordie and Pitmatic:
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[edit] References
- Berwick-upon-Tweed, The History of the Town and Guild, by John Scott, London, 1888.
- The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, edited by George Burnett, Lord Lyon King of Arms, Edinburgh, 1886, vol.IX, 1480-1487, pps: 63/4. 81, 145 & 157, record that payments were made to Robert Lauder of The Bass as Captain and Keeper of the castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1480 and 1481.
- Castles and Historic Homes of the Border by Alexander Eddington, Edinburgh & London, 1st edition 1926; 2nd edition 1949, pp:58-9.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Lowry Trail around the town
- Images and the history of Berwick's shipbuilding
- Explore Berwick
- Images of the 'Berwick Bounds' English-Scottish border
- A tale of one town - 2004 BBC news story concerned with a tongue-in-cheek debate about whether Berwick should be part of England or Scotland.
- Berwick Photos
- A photographic tour of Berwick
- We can learn a lot from Scotland's "lost limb"
