holidays Ian Cylkowski holidays Ian Cylkowski

Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, Summer

Here’s the final collection of work from our week-long summer jaunt around Northumberland.

Here’s the final collection of work from our week-long summer jaunt around Northumberland.

Berwick-upon-Tweed is a town steeped in history and filled with curiosities. It’s England’s northernmost town, right in the northeastern corner of the country. In fact, it’s slightly further north than Copenhagen in Denmark as well as the southern tip of Sweden.

Berwick’s name comes from the Old English berewíc, meaning “corn/barley farm”, which I guess gives you an idea of the town’s origins. During a period of about 400 years, Berwick changed hands between England and Scotland a dozen times or so. Richard of Gloucester retook Berwick for England for the last time in 1482. More than 200 years later, the Kingdom of Scotland joined the Kingdom of England in 1707, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain, and ending the border quarrelling between the nations.

A persistent legend exists about the town “technically” being at war with Russia. The myth goes that because Berwick had changed hands several times, it was regarded as a special, separate entity, sometimes referred to in proclamations as "England, Scotland and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed".

For the declaration of the Crimean War against Russia in 1853, Queen Victoria supposedly signed the proclamation as "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions". When the Treaty of Paris 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 largest powers – and the conflict extended by the lack of a peace treaty for over a century.

In reality, Berwick-upon-Tweed was not mentioned in either the declaration of war or the final peace treaty, and Berwick-upon-Tweed was legally part of the United Kingdom for both.

Regardless, the town is fascinating and you can feel the dual-nationality personality of the place. During our wandering, a sea fret obscured most of the coastline, lending a misty foggy atmosphere to our photography.

All photos shot on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Samyang 35mm f/1.2, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and an adapted Pentax SMC 55mm f/2.0. Developed using RNI Film’s Astia 100f profile.

The Royal Tweed Bridge as the sea fret rolled in. It was constructed in the 1920s, designed to take on the increasing numbers of traffic away from the old Berwick Bridge, which had stood since the 1600s.

The nice thing about the Royal Tweed Bridge is you can get right underneath it and see its “guts”, so to speak. An incredible piece of engineering.

One of our favourite shops in Berwick, Slightly Foxed. The interior of the shop is almost made out of books, there’s so many.

The weird leaning/curved building is the old Granary, now serving life as the Granary Gallery.

An unusually empty Berwick, as we make our way towards the sea.

As we approach the North Sea, a look back reveals the three bridges of Berwick, which cross the Tweed.

Old riverside properties as the Tweed pours out into the North Sea.

We decide to venture out towards Berwick Lighthouse, England’s most northerly lighthouse. It was built in 1826.

Time to whip out my 9mm ultra-wide lens to capture the entirety of the lighthouse.

And lurking behind the lighthouse, a fisherman investigating opportunities in the North Sea.

We decide to exit the pier and continue up northwards along the Berwick coastline, see what’s what.

Welp, this was an unexpected find. The bloated carcass of a whale, long dead and washed up on the shore of Meadow Haven. I couldn’t tell you what type of whale it was.

Further up the Berwick coastline we came across an unexpected and delightful find: a raised platform of rocks and boulders known as Meadow Haven and Bucket Rocks. Let’s explore compositions!

I’m always fascinated by how geometric geology like this comes to be formed.

We pop up through the dunes away from the sea to find a way through the golf course and back into the town.

A lovely clump of Red Valerian amongst the reeds and sand dunes, Centranthus ruber.

Story time! As we made our way back through Berwick town, we stopped outside someone’s house to admire their front garden filled with flowers. Lisabet took some photos. As she did, an old gentleman enquired approached us to ask about our activity. After learning we were just admiring his garden, he simply invited us through to their back garden, which was even more fecund and filled with all sorts of flowers and vegetables. The “lady of house” was very enthusiastic about her gardening, and was more than happy to meet us and run through the garden with her. I snapped this quick portrait of her. What a wonderfully welcoming and friendly pair they were!

Her garden was, indeed, glorious.

After the Surprise Garden Tour we made our way towards the old town walls and military fortifications that surround Berwick-upon-Tweed. Local kids enjoy a game of footie sent against the 500-year old fortifications.

Walkways have been constructed around the old walls and fortifications, but there are still sections that have been preserved.

This area of the walls are known as the Elizabethan ramparts, which were essentially 16th-century upgrades to the existing 14th-century construction.

And back down the old cobbled street.

Read More