Town in Northumberland, England
Berwick-upon-Tweed
An English town whose football team plays in the Scottish league, and which has been bounced between two kingdoms so often that nobody quite stops counting.
Key information
- County
- Northumberland
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Elizabethan town walls, three famous bridges, a border tug-of-war and a football club that plays in Scotland
- What locals are called
- Berwickers
- Famous people
- L.S. Lowry (regular visitor), Robert Stephenson (Royal Border Bridge), Queen Elizabeth I (the walls)
- Football clubs
- Berwick Rangers (Shielfield Park)
About Berwick-upon-Tweed
The town that kept changing sides
Berwick sits at the mouth of the River Tweed, about two and a half miles from Scotland. For centuries that made it one of the most fought-over places in Britain. It is commonly said to have changed hands between Scotland and England 13 times, before settling with England for good in 1482. In the 1200s it was one of Scotland's busiest ports, trading wool and hides across the North Sea, and was sometimes called the Alexandria of the north. Then, in 1296, Edward I stormed it. The sack that followed was brutal, and it kicked off the Wars of Scottish Independence. A grim detail from the era: Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, who had crowned Robert the Bruce, was held in a cage at Berwick Castle by Edward I's orders after 1306.
Queen Elizabeth's very expensive wall
When the old medieval defences stopped being any use against cannon, Elizabeth I's government built a new set between 1558 and 1570. The result is a ring of thick, low, angled ramparts with arrowhead bastions, designed to deflect cannonballs rather than hold out against ladders. It is among the best-preserved artillery fortifications in Europe, and you can walk the whole circuit on top of the walls, with the sea on one side and the rooftops on the other. The irony is that the Union of the Crowns in 1603 put England and Scotland under one monarch, and the walls never faced the great Scottish assault they were built for. Much of the old castle was lost in the 1840s, when the railway station was built on part of its site. Some of its walls survive beside the platforms.
Three bridges, three centuries
Berwick has a neat trio of crossings over the Tweed, each from a different era. The Old Bridge, a stone span of 15 arches, was begun in 1611 on the orders of James VI and I, who had united the crowns in 1603. It was substantially complete by 1624, with further work continuing until 1634. The Royal Border Bridge, a 28-arch railway viaduct designed by Robert Stephenson, was opened by Queen Victoria in 1850 and carries the East Coast Main Line high above the town. Alongside it, the Royal Tweed Bridge, a concrete road bridge, opened in 1928. Seen from the river, they make one of the best arrangements of bridges in the north of England.
The English club that wins in Scotland
Berwick Rangers play at Shielfield Park, on the English side of the border, but have been part of the Scottish football pyramid since 1951. Their finest hour came on 28 January 1967, when they beat Rangers 1-0 at Shielfield Park in the Scottish Cup, one of the great giant-killings in the competition's history. The town's other sporting echoes are quieter, such as the walls, the seafront and the river, where salmon netting on the Tweed has long been part of the working life of the town. Berwick also keeps up its ceremonial side, with its Riding of the Bounds and its freemen, a reminder that the town long had a distinct identity of its own, neither quite Scottish nor quite English.
Lowry, cockles and a barracks with a view
The painter L.S. Lowry loved Berwick. He was a regular visitor for years, staying in the town and sketching its streets, and a Lowry trail now follows his footsteps. Berwick Barracks, built between 1717 and 1721, is among the earliest purpose-built barracks in Britain. Before then, soldiers were usually billeted on local people, and complaints were many. For something sweet, try Berwick Cockles, hard peppermint sweets in red-and-white stripes that have been made in the town for generations. They have nothing to do with shellfish, and the town has been confusing visitors with them for years.