Berwick-on-Tweed

Northumbrian coastal town at the mouth of the river Tweed. Berwick was a disputed Anglo-Scottish border town and changed hands thirteen times before finally being recognized as English in 1482. The Elizabethan fortifications, built in 1558, followed the latest Italian system, and are the only surviving walls of their kind. Berwick has three very different bridges. The 17th-cent. Old Bridge is an elegant structure which took a quarter of a century to build. The Royal Border Bridge, an impressive railway viaduct, was designed by Robert Stephenson and built 1847-50. The Royal Tweed Bridge, of concrete construction, was built in 1928 to carry the main road north.