Berwick-on-Tweed

Berwick-on-Tweed, a seaport town at the mouth of the Tweed, on the frontiers of England and Scotland, 58 miles ESE. of Edinburgh, and 67 N. by W. of Newcastle. The liberties of the borough, called 'Berwick Bounds,' have an area of 8 sq. m., and with Spittal and Tweedmouth, form the 'county of the borough of Berwick-on-Tweed.' Though long boasting to be neither in England nor Scotland, and still possessing separate quarter-sessions and commission of the peace, it is to all intents and purposes part of the county of Northumberland (the adjoining parts of which formed till 1844 a detached portion of Durham); especially since by the Redistribution Act of 1885 Berwick-on-Tweed ceased to send two members of its own to parliament, and was for election purposes merged in Northumberland. The town is engirt with ramparts of Elizabeth's time, and has large barracks (1719). Tweedmouth and Spittal (the latter a favourite watering-place), on the south side of the Tweed, have since 1835 both been included within the municipality of Berwick-on-Tweed. They are reached by a narrow stone bridge (1609-34) of fifteen arches; and the river is also spanned by Robert Stephenson's magnificent viaduct (1850) of 28 arches, 136 feet high and 2160 long. The public buildings include the town-hall (1760), with a belfry 150 feet high, the corn exchange (1858), and several churches, Presbyterian outnumbering the Anglican. The harbour has been improved by the construction of a wet-dock (1873-76), at a cost of £40,000; but its trade is not very great, the tonnage of vessels entering during a twelvemonth ranging between 30,000 and 40,000. Nor is the salmon fishery what it once was. For the manufacture of agricultural implements Berwick-on-Tweed stands high, and in Spittal there are several large artificial-manure works. Pop. (1841) 12,689; (1881) 13,995; (1891) 13,378. The history of the town is full of interest, especially in regard to Border wars and the struggles of English and Scots to possess the town, the siege of Edward I. in 1296 being especially terrible. Its authentic records begin in the 12th century, when it was one of the principal seaports in the kingdom. It was annexed to England in 1333, after the battle of Halidon Hill, and was finally ceded by Scotland in 1482. See John Scott's History of Berwick-on-Tweed (Lond. 1888).