BerwickA Garrison Town

The Golden Age

Out of the twilight
There is no reliable record of a township at the mouth of the River Tweed before the 11th century, but it is likely
that a settlement existed here at least from Roman times.
The name most probably comes from Old English Bere-wic, meaning Barley Farm. Barley has been a staple
crop of the district for hundreds of years and large quantities of barley and malt are still shipped from Berwick
each year.
Some 20 miles to the south of Berwick is Bamburgh, royal capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria
which, at its greatest extent during the 7th century AD, stretched from the Humber to the Forth.
In 1018 Malcolm II, King of a new, fledgling Scotland, defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham, a few
miles upstream from Berwick. As a result, the region to the north of the Tweed was ceded to Scotland and the
river was recognised as the border and any settlement at Berwick became part of the Scottish realm .

A Royal Burgh
Berwicks importance as a commercial centre was established during the reign of King David I (112453), who
made Berwick a Royal Burgh in 1136, granting its citizens a high degree of self-government to encourage economic
development.
Trading in wool and other goods generated a considerable revenue for the merchants and the Burgh. By 1286, the
town was paying over 2,000 each year in customs revenue to the Scottish Exchequeralmost more than that paid
by the rest of Scotlanda sum equivalent to a quarter of the customs revenue of all the ports in England.
Many foreign merchants set up homes and businesses in Berwick. Flemish wool merchants traded from their Red
Hall and merchants from Cologne had their White Hall in the Bridge Street/Sandgate area.
One contemporary chronicler was so impressed by Berwicks size and prosperity that he remarked it might justly be
called another Alexandria.
Exports
Wool
France and Flanders
Hides and pelts
France
Salmon, herring and cod
France
Barley and flour
Germany and Flanders
These and other cargoes were also traded up and down the east
coast to Scotland, East Anglia and London.

Imports

Above:
Right:

Trade routes with Berwick

Alexander III penny minted in Berwick

Spices
Cloth
Wine
Iron
Timber, flax and linen
Metalware and leather goods
Fish and furs

Mediterranean Sea, Flanders

Flanders
France
Sweden
Baltic states
Germany
Norway

Making a mint
King David I was the first Scottish monarch to mint coins, first in Carlisle in 1136 but in Berwick soon afterwards.
It became probably the most important source of Scottish coinage.
It continued to be used by the three English Edwards in the 14th century and was independent of the Royal Mint
in London, using its own dies and punches. It has been estimated that in 1310, some 1,200lbs of metal was used on
coin production at the Berwick Mint.

Coins continued to be produced in Berwick as late as the reign of James III (146088).

The Guild
From the time of David I, successive kings of Scotland and
England granted charters to the Burgh of Berwick-uponTweed.
A Royal Charter brought many benefits to the burgesses,
freeing them from feudal dues and obligations, allowing
them to hold a weekly market and annual fair, giving
them a monopoly over business conducted in the town
and enabling them to profit from tolls charged on
goods coming through the port and town.
Charters imposed duties as well as giving benefits. For
instance, the burgesses were responsible for the upkeep
of the port, bridge and town defences.
The Burghs merchant and trade guilds were also
established under the terms of the Royal Charter, as was
the office of Mayor. Berwick was, in fact, the only Scottish
town to have a mayor rather an a provost.
At first there were several guilds, as in most towns, but by The ancient arms of Berwick-upon-Tweed
1249 these had amalgamated into the one guild, governed
and regulated by the Statute of the Guild. This also
allowed the Guild to govern the town.
The bear and tree symbol is said to have been first used on official seals in 1212. The earliest known example is
on one of the Coldingham charters dated 1250. It is a rebus; a medieval visual pun on the towns name. The tree is
specifically a wych elm, so it reads bear-wych.

The Crown of Scotland

Berwicks Golden Age effectively ended with the death of Alexander III in 1286 after a riding accident. After the
death of his only descendant, his seven-year-old granddaughter Margaret, the Maid of Norway, Scotland
entered a period of uncertainty.
In 1292, the nobility of Scotland and England
assembled in the Great Hall of Berwick Castle to
debate who should be the next King of Scotland. This
became known as The Great Cause. Presided over
by King Edward I of England, the council considered
the claims of thirteen rivals. In truth there were only
two serious contenders for the Scottish throneRobert
Bruce and John Balliol. After much debate, the
decision was given in favour of the Balliol.
However, Edward asserted feudal lordship over Balliol
who dutifully swore fealty. The Scottish nobility rose
against Baliol, who in 1295 signed a treaty with the
King of France, the origin of the Auld Alliance.
This act of defiance enraged King Edward and in 1296,
he marched north to invade Scotland, starting with
John Balliol swears fealty to Edward I.
the massacre of the inhabitants of Berwick, on the
campaign that gained him the nickname Hammer of
the Scots and began three centuries of Anglo-Scottish conflict.

THE GREAT CAUSE

129192
FAMILY TREE OF THE COMPETITORS FOR THE CROWN OF SCOTLAND
Duncan I
r. 103440

Malcolm III

Donald III

r. 105893

r. 109394 & 109497

Domnll Bn

1+Ingibjorg (widow of Thornn, Earl of Orkney)

2+Margaret (daughter of Edgar Aetheling, Anglo-Saxon claimant of English throne)

Duncan II

Edward

k. 1093

r. MayNov 1094

Edmund

thelred

(shared power
with Duncan III)

(probably alive post

1097)

r. 109497

Edgar

r. 109497

r. 10971107

d.1107

Alexander I

David I

r. 110724

The MacWilliam claimants

Guthred k.1212
Donald bn k.1215

r. 112453

Mary

Bethoc
daughter

Edward I,
King of England

Hextilda
daughter

Matilda
+ Henry I,
King of England

Henry, Earl of Northumbria

d. 1152

+ Ada de Warenne

Malcolm IV

William I

r. 115465
(aged 12 in 1153)

r. 11651214

the Maiden

Ada

Margaret

Aufrica

Marjory
+ Alan Durward

Isabel

Patrick

Eustace

William

Ermengard

William

r. 121449

r. 124986

Alexander

David

d. 1284

d. 1281

Margaret

Patrick

William

Aufrica

d.1283

Margaret

Ada

William I
Count of Holland

Alicia

Richard

Henry Hastings

Floris IV
Count of Holland

Henry

Isabel
+ Robert de
Bruce (IV)

John

d. 1273

William II
Count of Holland

Dervorguilla
+ John Balliol

Robert

Nicholas Patrick
de Soules Galithley

William
de Ros

d. at Orkney
26th Sept. 1290, aged 7

Line leading to
Legitimate line
Illegitimate line
Kings of Scotland
Competitor from illegitimate line
Competitor from legitimate line
Other competitor
+ = married to
r. = reigned
d. = died
k. = killed

William
Comyn

d. 1290

+ Eric II,
King of Norway

Margaret
the Maid of Norway

Marjorie

Margaret
+ Duke of Brittany

d. 1216
Isabel

Henry
Galithley

Alexander II

Alexander III

Ada
+ Floris III
Count of Holland

David,
Earl of Huntingdon

the Lion

Agatha

Patrick,
Earl of
Dunbar

William Roger de
de Vesci Mandeville

d. 1269

John I
Balliol

r. 129296
d. 1314

Robert de
Bruce (V)

Floris V
Count of Holland

Robert
Pinkney

John Comyn
+ Eleanor Balliol
(sister of John)

d. 1273
Robert (VI),
Earl of Carrick

Robert I

John Comyn
The Red Comyn

Robert the Bruce

(aged 16 in 1290)

k. 1306

r. 130629

David II

Edward I
Balliol

r. 132971

(contested

STUARTS

r. 133256
d. 1363

John Hastings

THE ANGLO-SCOTTISH WARS

BERWICK CASTLE
Berwick Castle was probably originally built by David I in about 1120 upon a (then) isolated hill to the north of the
town. Unlike most castles, Berwick was never a family seat; it was always a place of administration.
As well as initiating the town walls, Edward I made various modifications to the castle. The White Wall leading to
the river was certainly one of his works and it is likely much more was done.

In 1344, we learn the walls were 50 feet height, 12 feet

at the foundation and 8 feet at the kernels [crenelations]
in breadth. Throughout the 14th century,
strengthening of the walls continued and bratticing was
added to the outside of the walls to better defend the
base of the walls.

Artists impression of Berwick Castle in the 14th century

looking from the east, showing the entrance from the
Douglas Tower to the Donjon.

Despite attempts to maintain the castle, changing

technology meant that by the 16th century, the castle
was obsolete Despite this it was still being used until the
17th century.

Constable Tower

THE MEDIEVAL WALLS

When Edward I attacked in 1296, Berwick was protected only by a ditch and an earth rampart topped by a wooden
palisade. It is popularly believed that this ditch is Spades Mire but the evidence for this is not conclusive and this
may be a later structure.
Edward stayed in Berwick for a month. Within a week, he ordered a stone wall to be built encircling the town with
a ditch 24m (80 feet) wide and 13m (40 feet) deep on the north and east sides of the town. The King himself was
said to have wheeled the first barrow-load of earth. This would have had an embankment surmounted by a quickly
erected wooden palisade which, in time, would be replaced by a stone wall encircling the town.
Work progressed slowly and by the time Robert the Bruce captured the town in 1318 the walls were not yet built
between the quayside and the castle and in most places were barely 3m (10 feet) high. This was remedied by Bruce
and between 1318 and 1350 the town walls were raised to a height of 10m (30 feet).
Seventeen semi-circular towers, five main gateways (and other,
lesser gateways) were eventually built around the 4km (2
mile) circuit. Parts of the 14th century wall and ditch can still
be seen near the Holiday Centre and Magdalen Fields Golf
Course. Black Watch House Tower, the only surviving semicircular medieval tower

Black Watch House Tower, the only surviving semicircular medieval tower

Medieval Walls
1
2
3
4
5
6

Berwick Castle
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j

Donjon
Constable Tower
Postern Tower
Chapel Tower
Buttress Tower
White Wall
Angle Tower
Bakehouse Tower
Bonkhill Tower
Gunners Tower

Roads
Possible road layout
Area of town occupation

7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23

Douglas Tower
St Mary Gate
Broadstairhead Tower
Tower (later Bell Tower)
Wallace Gate
Bell Tower
(later Lords Mount)
Murderer Tower
Middle Tower
Red Tower
Cow Gate
Tower
Tower
Tower
Conduit Tower
Windmill Tower
St Nicholas Tower
Black Watch House Tower
Watch House Tower
Plommers Tower
Coxons Tower
New Tower
Water Gate
(later Shore Gate)
Briggate

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF WAR

It is said Berwick is the most fought over town in Christendom save Jerusalem. Sometimes the castle fell but not the town;

sometimes the town but not the castle. In all there were 17 exchanges but it is generally accepted that both the
castle and town of Berwick changed hands between Scots and English thirteen times.
1174 English

Treaty of Falaise. Berwick, along with Stirling, Edinburgh, Roxburgh and Jedburgh castles, is part of a
ransom to free the Scottish king, William I who was captured at the Battle of Alnwick in 1172.

1189 Scottish

Richard I sells Berwick for ten thousand marks (6,666) to fund the crusades.

1296 English

Edward I besieges the town by land and sea. After a failed assault by sea, Edward attacks the town from
the north, slaughtering the inhabitants. It is said the streets ran red with blood.

1297 Scottish

Town falls to William Wallace after the Scottish victory at Stirling Bridge. Castle retained by English.

1298 English

Scots abandon the town upon hearing of English army advancing north.

1318 Scottish

At the third attempt, Bruce takes Berwick through the treachery of Peter de Spalding who allowed the
Scots over the walls at the Cow Gate for 800. The Castle held out for 11 weeks before falling through
lack of supplies. Peter de Spalding was killed by the Scots whom he had aided.

1333 English

Siege of Berwick and Battle of Halidon Hill by Edward III. The Great Siege of Berwick began on 4th
April. It is said Berwick was the first town in the country to be besieged by cannon. The English army:
...made meny assautes with gonnes and with othere engynes to the toune, wherwith thai destroiede meny a fair hous...
Eventually, the Governor agreed to surrender the town if it was not relieved by 20th July. A relief force
arrived on the eve of the deadline and attempted to break through the encircling English army. A battle
was fought on Halidon Hill, just to the north of the town. The Scots were heavily defeated and Berwick
surrendered on the following day, as agreed.

1355 Scottish

Thomas Stewart, Earl of Angus takes the town by scaling the walls at night. As in 1297, the Scots failed
to take the castle.

1356 English

Edward III returned from France and marched northwards to the Border. Facing overwhelming odds, the
Scots abandoned Berwick.

1378

French? Berwick castle taken by about 48 Scots who tunnelled their way in. The Constable, Sir Robert Boynton,
was killed when he attempted to escape by leaping from a window. The Scots declare allegiance only to
the King of France!

1378 English

After a short siege, the Earl of Northumberland aided by the Scottish Earl of Dunbar retake the
castle. The first Englishman through the breach was Harry Hotspur, the 12 year old son of the Earl of
Northumberland.

1384 Scottish

Scots bribe the Warden of the castle (the Deputy-Governor of Northumberland) to give up Berwick to
them.

1384 English

After a short, unsuccessful siege, the Earl of Northumberland buys back Berwick for 2000 marks.

1405 Scottish

The Earl of Northumberland hands Berwick to the Scots in exchange for his assistance during the
rebellion against Henry IV.

1405 English

Henry IV retakes the castle by siege.

Scottish

Margaret of Anjou, Henry VIs wife negotiates with James IIs widow, Mary of Gueldres, over the gift of
Berawick for Scottish assistance against the Yorkists

1482 English

Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) besieges and takes town for the final time.

16th Century developments

Countermures and murderers
In 1482, the Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) captured Berwick for the last time, but the threat from the
Scots did not diminish.
The Battle of Flodden in 1513 may have been the catalyst that saw a programme of works improving the, by now,
outdated medieval walls. In 1514 an earthwork called a countermure was built up against the back of the masonry
walls to reinforce the relatively thin masonry against cannon bombardment. This was the full height of the walls
and 6.510m (2030 feet) wide. A secondary ditch was dug behind the walls to provide the earth.
The open backed towers were adaptedthe towers were lowered somewhat and filled with earth leaving a vaultcovered ground floor which acted as a gun chamber providing lateral fire along the face of the curtain walls. These
were accessed by tunnels through the countermure.

Cross-section through modified medieval tower and countermure.

1. 13th century ditch; 2. 13th century semi-circular tower; 3. Outline of town wall; 4. Gun chamber with lateral gun ports;
5. Countermure backfilling tower; 6. Access tunnel; 7. Access bridge over secondary ditch
This is described repeatedly (with small variations in detail) in a survey of 1533, A declaration of the circuit of the walls
of the town and castle of Berwick. A typical description is that of the Broadstairhead Tower on the north wall:
And the entry into the said tower forth of the town through the countermoore containeth in length 32 foot and in breadth
4 foot and is made of stone and lime, and overheled with timber, which timber is now sore rotten, wasted and fallen down,
by occasion whereof the countermoore descendeth, falleth down and stoppeth the entry. And the same tower containeth in
wideness within, where the gunners should occupy their ordnance, 12 foot, and the main wall of the same tower outward
6 foot in thickness, which tower makes no defence but by the ground along the wall of either side, and the over part of the
same tower is filled with earth and dampned.
Where the towers were too small to hold cannon, covered gun platforms called murderers were built forward of the
original tower to facilitate this lateral gunfire.

Bulwarks
The 1520s saw various piecemeal improvements
continue. The castle walls were countermured and
bulwarkslarge earthwork defences upon which
cannon would be mountedwere built outside
the walls to protect vulnerable areas like gateways
and towers; one outside Lords Mount, one (now
disappeared) outside the Cowgate and, best preserved,
the Great Bulwark in the Snook. Another bulwark,
but made of stone, was built projecting into the river
outside Coxons Tower. It is possible the New Tower
was built about this time as, like the adapted towers
and murderers, it was built as a gun chamber providing
lateral fire.
However, as may be gleened from the description of
the Broadstairhead Tower (above), by 1533, these early
16th century adaptations were in a terrible state of
repair. In the early 1540s, probably as a result of the
survey, Henry VIII strengthened the castle with the
West Gun Tower and the riverside Water Tower, and
in the vulnerable north-east corner of the town, built
Lords Mount.

Aerial view of the Great Bulwark in the Snook. The central

depression of the gun platform can still be seen.
Windmill Bastion is to the left. To the right, the ridge and
furrow strip farming of Magdelene Fields is visible.

Lords Mount
Lords Mount was one of a series of works built in the
1540s. This mighty emplacement was to strengthen
the exposed north-east corner of the towns defences.
By 1542, 1,000 labourers were at work building the
5m (20 feet) thick walls of this strongpoint. Though
originally designed by Henry VIII himself, Lords
Mount is an approximation of his plan, redesigned by
the mason on site through a lack of funding to match
the Kings expectations. It was a self-contained structure
containing a well, ovens, a fireplace, latrines and
lodgings as well as the six casemates for cannon.
Within 25 years the new work was made obsolete by
the construction of the Elizabethan fortifications.
The upper open floor, where the heavier guns were
mounted, was removed and the ground floor filled in
with earth. The site was excavated in the 1970s.

Lords Mount

The New Fort

The continual collapse and patching of the walls,
especially at the castle was becoming too onerous and it
was decided to abandon the castle. Work on the New
Fort (or Edward VI Citadel), built across the south-east
walls, began in 1550.
This was to be a huge rectangular construction with
arrow-shaped bastions in each corner, towering over the
town. By 1553 it was only half-complete yet thought
usable: officers were appointed and ordnance supplied.
Work continued and by 1557, nearly 20,000 had been
spent on raising the fort.
However, the threat offered from a new French fort
at nearby Eyemouth and the loss of Calais in France,
work was abandoned and plans were initiated to
start afresh with a new set of wallsthe Elizabethan
fortifications.

Part of the bastioned outer defences of Carisbrooke Castle on the

Isle of Wight, added in 1597. This gives an idea of what the
New Fort would have looked like.

The eastern bastions can be seen in the earthworks

outside the Elizabethan walls and the path from the
walls curving past the Lions House to Ravensdowne
follows the line of the south-west bastion.

The Bell Tower

In the 1560s there were four bell towers in Berwick,
one in each quarter and it is likely that this had always
been the case. Where three of them were located is
unknown but in the north, the medieval bell tower was
replaced, in the 1540s, by Lords Mount. An existing
medieval semi-circular tower was adapted or replaced
by a new bell tower which straddled the medieval wall
west of Lords Mount. This and the curtain walls were
lowered in height from 10m (30 feet) to 5.5m (17 feet)
during the construction of the Elizabethan walls.
Inside our Bell Tower, the remains of its predecessor
can be seen. Outside, doorways on either side indicate
the height of the lowered sentry walk. The present Bell
Tower was built in 1577.

The Bell Tower

...the day watch tower is rebuilt in rough stone in eight cantes [sides], 26 feet high above the walls, and 14 feet in timber
above the same stone a work, surmounting the old tower six feet in height.
This wooden structure can be seen in a 17th century painting in Berwick Town Hall and is undoubtedly the
campanile in which the alarm bell was housed.

16th Century Adaptations

1 Water Tower

6 Bulwark

2 West Gun Tower

3 Murderer

7 Great Bulwark
in The Snook

Roads

4 Bulwark &

8 New Fort

Possible road layout

9 Fishers Fort

Lords Mount

5 Murderer

10 New Tower

Area of town
occupation

THE elizabethan walls

Following the fall of Calais, Englands last foothold in France, in 1558 and the more immediate threat posed in
1557 by a fort being built just nine miles up the coast in Eyemouth by the Scots aided by French troops, English
military minds turned to the continuing problem of Berwicks defences.
No more piecemeal improvements: Berwicks new fortifications would incorporate the most modern military
design from Italybastioned fortification.
The total cost eventually amounted to nearly 128,650 making these the most expensive works undertaken by the
Crown in the whole of Elizabeths reign.
Despite the huge amount of effort and money expended, the defences were never completed. According to the
towns Governor in 1598 they were, a meere showe and opinion of a stronge thinge. It was perhaps fortunate that this
unique defence system was never put to the test.
Whereas the medieval walls were built in an organic manner, the positions of towers governed by changes of
terrain as much as anything else, the Elizabethan walls demanded a higher degree of geometric planning to be
effective.
Construction of the new fortifications was supervised by Sir Richard Lee, the most eminent military engineer in
England at the time. In 1560, Giovanni Portinari, and later, Jacopo a Contio, both renowned consultant Italian
engineers, were brought in to advise. There were constant disagreements between Lee and the Italians about the
details in construction which probably led to the many mistakes in construction.
The Italians recommended building the north wall out to the cliff to prevent incursions down the east flank but
the expense was prohibitive. In 1565, a compromise ditch, the Covert Way, was dug from near Brass Bastion to the
cliff, terminating in a raised earthwork redoubt.
Lee intended the curtain rampart to continue across the town, linking Kings Mount with Megs Mount (the Cat
Well Wall) but by 1570, the original threat of attack had diminished and the costs were spiralling well above budget.
As a cost-cutting measure, the design was altered; Kings Mount was moved slightly further south than originally
intended, and joined on to the medieval riverside walls.
In truth, the walls were never completed and many believe that, for all their formidable appearance, they would
have proved ineffective had an attack by the Scots been mounted.

Aerial view from the north east of Berwicks Elizabethan fortifications, showing Brass Bastion in the foreground.

Curtain Wall
The stone curtain wall was to be over 6m (20 feet) high with 7m (20 feet) of earth piled up against the inner side,
consolidated by internal buttresses. A cobbled sentry path ran inside the top of this wall, a short stretch of which
can be seen above the west flanker of Brass Bastion.
Inside of the sentry path, an earth rampart should have risen another 5.5m (17 feet), topped by an earthwork
parapet to protect the defending soldiers from enemy fire. This height was never reached.

The Counterscarp
Another wall, or counterscarp, should have been built on the outer side of the ditch. Its purpose would have
been to protect the masonry of the main rampart from direct enemy cannon fire such that any shot landed in
the earthwork above the sentry path. This was never begun thus leaving the main masonry wall vulnerable to
bombardment.

The Ditch
Outside the walls on the northern and eastern side of the town there was a water-filled ditch approximately 60m
(200 feet) wide. This would be filled from nearby springs to a depth of about 1m (3 feet). Not hard to cross it may
be thought, but a hidden trench called a cunette, 4m (12 feet) wide and 2.5m (8 feet) deep, was dug in the middle
part of the moat to further hinder an enemy wading across or bringing siege equipment close to the walls. The
water was kept in place by stone damsbatardieauone of which remains in place at the north-east angle of Brass
Bastion. Like their medieval counterparts, it is thought that sluice systems could control water levels between the
sections of ditch.
5
1

Schematic cross-section through Elizabethan walls as originally conceived by Sir Richard Lee (not drawn to scale).
1. Counterscarp; 2. Ditch; 3. Cunette; 4. Masonry curtain wall with sentry walk; 5. Raised earthwork with sentry walk.

The Bastions
The bastion, an arrow-head shaped strongpoint, was a type of fortification developed in Italy early in the 16th
century. Though not the first examples to be built in England, Berwick had the most technologically advanced and
comprehensive set of rampart and bastion defences in the Kingdom and are the only example of bastioned town
walls.
Fire could be directed against the enemy from a bastions outer faces, while artillery mounted in the bastions
flankers provided covering fire for the outer faces of, and the curtain wall between, the bastions. This would be
grape-shot, carefully aimed so as not to hit the opposite flanker!
The f1ankers were to have been two storeys high, with guns mounted at both levels. Spiral stairs in the flankers
lead to the upper floor but this was never completed. Indeed, the flankers had to be extended and widened to allow
more room for the guns.

Counterscarp
Water-filled ditch
Bastion
Curtain wall

West flanker of Brass Bastion

looking towards Cumberland
Bastion showing direction of
lateral defensive cannon fire.

Plan of part of the walls showing

direction of defensive cannon fire.

Gunpowder and shot were stored in recesses in the stonework beside the gun platforms in the flankers. The large,
brick-arched recesses at the rear of the f1ankers in Brass Bastion were merely bridges to widen access to the main
bastion upper level (this having been narrowed due to a last-minute reorientation of the bastion position and shape.
Four of Berwicks bastions are topped with earth mounds, called cavaliers, which were added during the period of
the Civil Wars in the 17th century providing higher-level artillery positions.

3
7
2

6
5

Elizabethan
defences
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Megs Mount
Cumberland Bastion
Brass Bastion
Windmill Bastion
Kings Mount
Cat Well Wall
Covert Way
Redoubt

Elizabethan walls
Proposed alignment of
Elizabethan walls

18th Century Military Berwick

The Barracks
Until the early 18th century, the towns soldiery was
lodged, or billeted in private houses and taverns.
Householders were given a small allowance which was
usually paid late and could never recompense for the
inconvenience and disruption to family life.
The town suffered enormous strain in housing
thousands of soldiers during the Jacobite Rebellion
in 171516. Although the building of a barracks
was first mooted in 1705, the insurgency prompted
the government to finally accept the need for proper
accommodation for the troops. Designed by Sir
Nicholas Hawksmoor, building of Englands first
purpose-built infantry barracks began in 1717 and they
were occupied in 1721.

Berwick Barracks
(Dr. Fuller, History of Berwick, 1799)

36 officers and 600 men could be housed in the two rectangular barrack blocks, each room accommodating a
section of 8 men. In some rooms, a corner was partitioned off with blankets to provide privacy for the few
married men allowed to have their families living with them. At first there were no proper cooking facilities. The
men prepared food in their rooms and the officers had their meals brought in from the town. The north end of
the east range was later converted into kitchens.
The Clock Block was added at the south end of the Barrack Square in about 1740. Originally used as a store-house,
it was converted in the 19th century for recreation.
The gate house displays the Arms of King George I.
A building in the square in front of the Clock Block was the soldiers wash-house and supplied water to the
Barracks.

Governors House
The Governors House stands on the east side of Palace
Green. It was built in 1719, at the same time as the
Barracks, and was the residence of the towns military
Governor and other senior officers of the garrison.
Palace Green had, since late medieval times, been an
area used for storehouses, a bakery and brewhouse
and other official buildings. There is a suggestion of a
palace being there since the 16th century, possibly on
the same site as the present building.
After the post of Governor was abolished in 1833, the
Governors House was used by officers until it was sold
off. Since then, the building has been used for a variety
of purposes including a school, a brewery and a garage.
It now houses private accommodation.

A view of the Governors Palace from the riverside walls.

(Dr. Fuller, History of Berwick, 1799)

Military Hospital
In 1730 a private house in Ravensdowne, close by the Barracks, was requisitioned to serve as a military hospital.
This must have proved inadequate as in 1745, a neighbouring plot was requisitioned to build a new hospital. This
housed a small surgery and beds for 24 invalids. Some of the original surgeons cupboards were discovered when
the building was being converted into flats in the 1980s.

The Riverside Defences

Though the threat from Scotland was extinguished with the failure of the Jacobite Risings, France was a constant
enemy throughout the 18th century and an attack on the area remained a real possibility.
By now, the Elizabethan fortifications were badly
decayed and obsolete, and yet again, the defences had to
be greatly improved in the middle of the 18th century.
The ancient battlements around the lower part of the
town were replaced with new parapets and artillery
positions to guard the river-mouth and entrance to the
port.
In 1799, the walls were mounted with eight 24
pounders, six 12 pounders. sixteen 9 pounders and
twenty-two 4 pounders. There were also two 13 inch
mortars.
The Russian Cannon on Fishers Fort is a trophy from the
Crimean War of the 1850s and was finally installed in 1861.

A number of old cannon still stood on the riverside

walls until World War II when all but one were removed
as part of the Scrap Drive to recycle metal to meet
wartime needs.

The
Barracks
Military
Hospital
Gunpowder
Magazine
Main
Guard
Governors Fishers
House
Fort
Berwick-upon-Tweed
(Dr. Fuller, History of Berwick, 1799)

The Gunpowder Magazine

During the Jacobite Rising of 174546, Berwick had been threatened. Much of the garrisons gunpowder was
found to be useless because of damp in the various small stores around the walls and in the bastions. A new
ammunition store was needed. The Magazine, constructed in 175051, replaced an earlier, presumably inadequate,
magazine known to be on that site as early as 1682.
The Magazine is complete with its internal fittings, including a wooden hoist and the racks that once held the
powder-casks.
The new building incorporated precautions against
accidental explosion. All external woodwork, such as
the doors and their frames, are covered with copper
sheets to prevent their catching fire. To avoid sparks
being struck, no iron was used, wooden pegs being used
in place of nails.
Should there have been an accident, its thick walls
are strengthened with stout buttresses to force any
explosion upwards through the roof.

The Main Guard

The Gunpowder Magazine

Guard-houses were located close to the main gateways so that the soldiers could check all who passed in or out and
enforce the nightly 8pm curfew.
The Main Guard was the most important of these
guard-houses from which drummers beat the calls that
regulated the soldiers day.
As well as providing accommodation for the soldiers
on guard duty, the Main Guard acted as a form of
police station. In the centre of the building there is an
unlit cellthe Black Holewhere deserters, drunks,
vagrants or petty criminals could be locked up. Records
show that French prisoners-of-war were sometimes
housed temporarily in the Main Guard.
The sign in the portico of this building has led to the
popular belief that this building was dismantled and
moved to this location in 1815 from a site in Golden
Square.

A view of the High Street and Town Hall from the Main
Guard on the left (Dr. Fuller, History of Berwick, 1799)

In fact, the location of the Main Guard has moved several times. On a map dated 1682, it is marked close to the
site of the present Town Hall. By 1747, it had been moved further up the street to opposite West Street but by
1750 it had been removed to the east side of modern Golden Square.
However, the townspeople considered it an obstruction to traffic and in 1813, the Board of Ordnance agreed:
in consequence of a Wish expressed to the Barracks Department by the Inhabitants of Berwick that the Guard House in
the high Street should be removed to a less inconvenient Situation the Board had consented the Guard House being provided the
New Scite of the Building is upon an open Space near the Saluting Battery; but that the Board cannot permit the present Guard
House being pulled down until the Mayor and Corporation in their Official Capacities shall engage to build the new one of the
same dimensions, of the same Elevation, and equally servicable in every respect, upon the spot pointed out.
From this it is clear that the Palace Street Main Guard was a completely new building.

16th Century Adaptations

1 Water Tower

6 Bulwark

2 West Gun Tower

3 Murderer

7 Great Bulwark
in The Snook

Roads

4 Bulwark &

8 New Fort

Possible road layout

9 Fishers Fort

Lords Mount

5 Murderer

10 New Tower

Area of town
occupation

17th/18th CENTURY civilian Berwick

So in a little departure from the military aspect of Berwick, what was life like for the civilians in a garrison town at a
time when Berwick was making an economic resurgence?

South Prospect of Berwick-upon-Tweed by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, 1745. This stylised view of Berwick shows many of the
important buildings of the time.

The Town HAll

In the late 18th century, Berwick and its port regained
some of the prosperity lost during centuries of AngloScottish warfare. Much of the town was rebuilt in
this Georgian period of prosperity and the population
increased from 3,500 in 1700 to over 7,000 by 1801.
Until an elected local council was established in 1835,
the Guild or Corporation continued to govern the
Borough much as it had in the Middle Ages. The Guild
carried out most of the functions of a modern local
authority including provision of schools, street cleaners
or scavengers, fire engines, the towns water supply,
street lighting and road repairs.

Hide Hill showing the rear of the Town Hall. (Dr. Fuller,
History of Berwick, 1799)

There has been a Town Hall (or Town House) at the

lower end of Marygate since the 16th century at least. The present building was built by the Guild between 1750
and 1761. Its steeple rises to about 40m (150 feet) and contains a peal of eight bells, restored for the Millennium
celebrations.
At one end of the ground floor of the building is the Buttermarket (or Exchange), where eggs, poultry and dairy
products were sold and servants were hired.
On the first floor is the Guildhall, where the Freemen discussed and decided the towns affairs and where the
criminal court sat, and a function room for dances and other festivities.
The top floor housed the towns gaol for debtors and felons. From its barred windows, the prisoners were said
to have enjoyed the finest views from any prison in the Kingdom, though others condemned the squalor that the
prisoners were subjected to! The cell block has been restored and is open to the public regularly during the summer
months.
The Town Hall belongs to the Corporation (Freemen) Trustees, the descendents of the Guild, who still play an
important part in the life of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The Quay Walls

Berwicks sea trade grew during the 18th century, particularly in salmon and agricultural produce such as grain,
flour, malt and hens eggs. A dozen ships at a time could be seen loading at the Quayside. Many of the houses
on the Quay Walls were homes of merchants associated with the port. Behind them were large granaries and
warehouses linked to the Quayside by tunnels running through the fortifications.
A splendid Georgian house on the Quay Walls has been the Customs House since 1917. From 1825 until that date,
H. M. Customs occupied No. 13 Quay Walls. In the 18th century, the Customs House was located in Hide Hill.
Different duties were levied on the Scottish and English sides of the Border, and more than 30 officers of the
Customs and Excise based at Berwick were engaged in a constant war with gangs of smugglers. In 1846. when
the first railway train arrived from Edinburgh, passengers were checked by Customs men to ensure they were not
conveying illicit alcohol!

Schools
The Guild supported the towns Grammar School, where the most able children of burgesses were taught a strictly
academic curriculum.
In 1798, the Corporation Academy was built on Bank Hill, adjacent to the Grammar School. This new building
accommodated a mathematical school where about 60 pupils learned arithmetic, land-measurement and navigation,
in addition to the basic curriculum of reading and writing.
The old Charity School at the bottom of Ravensdowne was founded in 1725 by Captain James Bolton. In the
1795, 20 boys and 6 girls were educated and clothed by the Charity. They were taught reading, writing, arithmetic,
navigation and church-music. The old Charity school building can be identified easily by the inscribed plaque above
the door, giving the dates of the schools foundation and its re-establishment, in 1842, as the Boys National School.
It has been converted to dwellings.
There were also several private schools in the town during the 18th century, including a few establishments for girls.
Their pupils were mostly the children of the better-off non-Freemen in the town.

The Old Bridge

Berwick Bridge was built between 1611 and 1633 to replace the decaying wooden Tudor-period bridge. All traffic
was halted half-way across the bridge at a toll-gate which marked the boundary between the Borough of Berwickupon-Tweed and North Durham, the district to the south of the Tweed that was under the jurisdiction of the
Prince Bishops of Durham.
At the Berwick end of the bridge there was a fortified gate-house known as the English Gate which was rebuilt
in 1743. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, there was no longer a need for the towns gates to be locked and
guarded at night. and the English Gate was demolished in 1825.

Berwick Old Bridge. This painting, in the Kings Arms Hotel, dates from 181625 and clearly shows the English Gate.

Civil Wars and The PARISH CHURCH

Though England and Scotland became a united
kingdom in 1603, Berwick was again threatened by
Scots armies during the Bishops Wars of 1639-40, socalled because of King Charles attempted imposition
of an Anglican style hierarchy and new prayer book for
the Church in Scotland.
In 1639, the garrison and fortifications at Berwick were
strengthened and the King himself lodged briefly in the
town. Supplies were scarce and one witness recorded
soldiers snatching peoples dinners from them. The
emergency ended with a treaty signed by both parties at
Berwick and the armies were disbanded.

Berwick Parish Church

In a second Bishops War the following year, Berwick
(Dr. Fuller, History of Berwick, 1799)
was bypassed by another Scots army, which marched
south to defeat the Kings forces at Newburn on the Tyne.
During the Civil Wars (1642-52), Berwick had the dubious privilege of being occupied successively by the armies of
three sides the Scots Covenanters, Royalists and Cromwells Parliament, although the town suffered no major siege
or serious fighting.
Cromwells Governor in Berwick was Col. George Fenwick. In 1648, he gained permission to replace the
dilapidated old parish church with a new building large enough to accommodate the soldiers and townspeople.
Completed in 1652, its plain Puritan-style architecture is appropriate, as this is one of only a handful of churches
built in Cromwells time.
The church has neither bell-tower nor spire. Until the mid-20th century, the bells of the Town Hall were rung to
call the congregation to services.

The Berwick Smack

Fast sailing ships called Berwick smacks were built
locally for the salmon trade. The large hold could be
filled with fish, packed round with ice and some vessels
had water-filled tanks to carry live salmon or trout to
London.
The smacks also carried other goods and passengers
and voyage by Berwick smack was far quicker, and
usually more comfortable than the road journey by
coach to London.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Berwick smacks were
armed with cannon to act as escorts to convoys of
merchant ships. A number of smacks suffered attacks
by French privateers and warships, several being
captured with in a few miles of their home port.

A Berwick Smack.

The modern Age

Demiliterisation and Reform
From Tudor times, men were chosen by lot for the militia, to defend their county in the event of war. Fire beacons
were set up on hills and along the coast to give the alarm and muster the militia. A replica Tudor beacon stands
on Windmill Bastion. Corps of volunteers were also formed in times of emergency, such as the Napoleonic Wars.
Several volunteer companies were raised in Berwick in the 1790s, as well as units of yeomanry cavalry equipped by
local landowners.
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Berwicks defensive capabilities were reduced as part of national
remilitarisation. The volunteers were disbanded, the Barracks neglected and unoccupied for long periods and the
guns put into store at Leith in 1820. Gradually, the town walls were adapted for public promenade, houses were
built up to the riverside walls and the gates removed for traffic. The first pedestrian gate was added on the east side
of Scotsgate (which originally would have looked like the Cow Port) in 1815, and was widened to the present form
in 1858. The office of Governor was abolished in 1850. The Barracks were reoccupied by small units, from the
1850s until the l870s.
A new force of Rifle Volunteers was formed in 1859,
when there was again a perceived threat of French
invasion. Following a report by the Royal Commission
on the Defence of the United Kingdom, there was
a major programme of coastal defences in the l860s.
Berwick was considered of little strategic importance
and coastal defence was left to a small regular staff and
the part-time Northumberland Artillery Volunteers,
stationed in the Barracks in the l860s and l870s.
Armstrong gunshuge, breech-loading, rifled cannon
invented by Lord Armstrong, who was responsible for
the restoration of Bamburgh Castle in the late 19th
centurywere set up on Windmill Bastion for training
another local unit, the 1st Berwick Artillery Volunteers,
from 1890 until 1909. The bases for these guns can still
be seen today.

Gun drill by Berwick Artillery Volunteers on Windmill Bastion,

1906.

The Artillery Drill Hall

The Artillery Drill Hall was built in 1891 from by the
Newcastle architect James W Thompson for the 1st
Berwick-upon-Tweed Voluntary Artillery. It has a two
story castellated tower rising from the centre of the
building. On the ground floor is the drill hall flanked
by what were the sergeants mess room and the drill
instructors house.
In 1908, the Voluntary Artillery underwent another
change and became companies of the 7th Battalion,
Northumberland Fusiliers Territorial Force (the
predecessors of the Territorial Army). In the mid 20th
century, the public were invited to dances and boxing
matches and other entertainments. The Army and RAF
now have local cadet units based there at various times
in recent years as well as the TA.

Ravensdowne Drill Hall.

Fusiliers and Borderers

The town has a long association with two infantry
regiments.
The 5th Foot was raised in 1674, and given the title
Northumberland Regiment in 1782. It was granted
Fusilier status in 1836, and became a Royal regiment
in 1935.
A substantial reorganisation of the British Army took
place between 1873 and 1881, when infantry regiments
were linked for recruiting purposes with a particular
county or city. For a brief period in the 1870s, the
depot of the Northumberland Fusiliers was located in
Berwick Barracks.

7th Northumberland Fusiliers, Castlegate,

Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1909.

The 25th Foot (Kings Own Borderers), was raised in

Edinburgh in 1689. However, under the army reforms,
the War Office decided to move the 25th Foot to York,
as there were too many Scottish regiments.
A huge furore resulted. After considerable argument
and an appeal by the Regiment to Queen Victoria, the
government was forced to compromise. Following
reforms of the army in 1879, it was agreed in 1882
that The Kings Own Borderers (Kings Own Scottish
Borderers from l887) would continue as a Scottish
Lowland regiment and the Barracks were reoccupied
and became the regiments new Headquarters on the
grounds that at least Berwick had once been Scottish
territory!

25th (The Kings Own Borderers) Regiment of Foot c.1853

by R.Simkin

Hence, this small town has two local infantry regiments, suiting residents of Scottish and of English descent. Both
regiments have been granted the Freedom of the Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed, allowing their battalions to
march through the town with bayonets fixed and Colours flying.

World War II
During the summer of 1939, thousands of men arrived
in Berwick for training. Reservists streamed into
the Kings Own Scottish Borderers Depot and the
Territorials of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers were
mobilised. Berwick had never seen so many troops,
even during the 18th century heyday of the Barracks.
Huts were erected on The Parade and a huge Infantry
Training Centre camp soon sprang up on Magdalene
Fields.
Barbed wire entanglements were set up along the
Quayside, Dock Road, the cliffs and foreshore, and slit
trenches dug on the ramparts and bastions. Trenches
were dug across Magdalene Fields Golf Course to deter
landings by enemy invasion planes. Huge concrete
blocks were placed near the bridges.

Berwick Army Training Camp, Magdelene Fields.

In March 1941, a base for a RAF air/sea rescue patrol

was built at the Carr Rock to search for crews of
aircraft ditched in the waters off Berwick and Spittal.
Renewed invasion fears in 1942 led to a battery of two
6-inch coastal defence guns being built at Spittal. Light
anti-aircraft guns were emplaced on Berwicks walls and
a boom fitted at the Old Bridge to stop enemy craft
from passing upstream. Between July 20th 1940 and
February 10th 1942, Berwick, Spittal and Tweedmouth
suffered eleven air raids. 25 lives were lost and 47
people wounded: 25 houses were demolished and
almost 1,000 damaged.
Metals were essential to the production of war material
and in 1940, Berwick Council determined to scrap all
the old guns, save the Russian cannon.

Coastal defence gun at Spittal.

Last Years of the Garrison

After the War, the Barracks continued as Depot of
the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and thousands
of National Servicemen came for training until
conscription ended in the 1950s. The Berwick Depot
of the KOSB closed in 1964 and the Regiment returned
to its native Edinburgh.
When the Magdalene Fields Camp was closed, the
huts were cleared away to make space for hundreds of
caravans on the site of what is now Berwick Holiday
Centre.
The towns centuries-old role as a military garrison had
been brought to an end. However, the Regimental
Headquarters and Museum of The Kings Own
Scottish Borderers remain in Berwick Barracks.
In 1968, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers merged
with three other regiments to form the Royal Regiment
of Fusiliers. In 2006, the Royal Scots and KOSB
merged to form the 1st (Royal Scots Borderers)
Battalion of the new Regiment.

Major A B Cran leads the last passing out parade of the KOSB
from Berwick Barracks on 26th November, 1963.
(Courtesy of KOSB Regimental Museum)

BerwickA Garrison Town about the military story of Berwick, was writtenoriginally as an exhibition for Berwick
Civic Society. See it at the Main Guard, Palace Street, Berwick. Open every day except Wednesdays from 1st June
till 30th September http://berwickcivicsociety.org.uk/main-guard/
Jim Herbert is a local historian who enjoys researching Berwick history. For more Berwick history, visit my blog
Berwick Time Lines.
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