Nipper Fairnell's Berwick-Upon-Tweed

Berwick-upon-Tweed is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2½ miles (4 km) south of the Scottish border. It is roughly 56 miles east-south east of Edinburgh, 65 miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne and 345 miles north of London.
Berwick-upon-Tweed had a population of 11,665 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001. A civil parish and town council were created in 2008.
Founded as an Anglo-Saxon settlement during the time of the kingdom of Northumbria,the area was for over 400 years central to historic border war between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, and several times possession of Berwick changed hands between the two kingdoms. The last time it changed hands was when England retook it in 1482. Berwick remains a traditional market town and also has some notable architectural features, in particular its defence ramparts and barrack buildings.
Berwick's strategic position on the Anglo-Scottish border during centuries of war between the two nations and its relatively great wealth led to a succession of raids, sieges and takeovers. William I of Scotland invaded and attempted to capture northern England in 1173-74. After his defeat, Berwick was ceded to Henry II of England. It was later sold back to William by Richard I of England in order to raise funds for his Crusade. Berwick had become a prosperous town by the middle of the 13th century. According to William Edington, a bishop and chancellor of Scotland, Berwick was "so populous and of such commercial importance that it might rightly be called another Alexandria, whose riches were the sea and the water its walls". In 1291/92, Berwick was the site of Edward I of England's arbitration in the contest for the Scottish crown between John Balliol and Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale. The decision in favour of Balliol was pronounced in the Great Hall of Berwick Castle on 17 November 1292.
In 1296 England went to war with France, with whom Scotland was in alliance. Balliol invaded England in response, sacking Cumberland. Edward in turn invaded Scotland and captured Berwick, destroying much of the town. Edward I went again to Berwick in August 1296 to receive formal homage from some 2,000 Scottish nobles, after defeating the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar in April and forcing John Balliol to abdicate at Kincardine Castle the following July. An arm of William Wallace was displayed at Berwick after his execution and quartering on 23 August 1305. In 1314 Edward II of England mustered 25,000 men at Berwick, who later fought in (and lost) the Battle of Bannockburn.
Between 1315 and 1318, Scottish armies, sometimes with the help of Flemish and German privateers, besieged and blockaded the town, finally invading and capturing it in April 1318. England retook Berwick some time shortly after the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. In October 1357, a treaty was signed at Berwick by which the Scottish estates undertook to pay 100,000 marks as a ransom for David II of Scotland, who had been taken prisoner at the Battle of Neville's Cross on 17 October 1346.
In 1461 Berwick was ceded to Scotland by Margaret of Anjou on behalf of her husband, Henry VI, in return for help against the Yorkists during the Wars of the Roses. Robert Lauder of Edrington was put in charge of the castle. He was succeeded in 1474 by David, Earl of Crawford. On 3 February 1478, Robert Lauder of The Bass and Edrington was again appointed Keeper of the castle, a position that he held until the last year of Scottish occupation, when Patrick Hepburn, 1st Lord Hailes, had possession.
Berwick had a mediaeval hospital for the sick and poor which was administered by the Church. A charter under the Great Seal of Scotland, confirmed by King James I of Scotland, grants the king's chaplain "Thomas Lauder of the House of God or Hospital lying in the burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed, to be held to him for the whole time of his life with all lands, teinds, rents and profits, etc., belonging to the said hospital, as freely as is granted to any other hospital in the Kingdom of Scotland; the king also commands all those concerned to pay to the grantee all things necessary for the support of the hospital. Dated at Edinburgh June 8, in the 20th year of his reign."
In 1482 Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) recaptured the town. Over the course of a little more than 400 years, Berwick had changed hands more than a dozen times.

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