Berwick-upon-tweed

Introducing Berwick-upon-tweed

This salt-crusted fortress town is England’s northernmost city and the holder of two unique honours: it is the most fought-over settlement in European history (between 1174 and 1482 it changed hands 14 times between the Scots and the English) and its football team, Berwick Rangers, are the only English team to play in the Scottish League – albeit at the low-level 3rd division in 2006–7.

Although it has been firmly English since the 15th century, it retains its own peculiar identity, as though the vagaries of its seesaw history have forced it to look inwards and not trust anyone but its own – you need only walk its massive ramparts, built during Elizabethan times and still virtually complete, to understand the town’s insularity.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009