What’s going for it? Walls and borders are so 2017, sadly, thanks to Trump, Brexit and the world’s current miseries. There has never been any escaping them in Berwick, mind you. This is the frontier town, the most fought-over in Europe, scrapped over by the English and the Scots, and it has the town walls to prove it. Elizabeth I built them (not herself, obvs), with her eye on the Scots’ Auld Alliance with the French. The Union of the Crowns rendered them superfluous a few decades later, although people have long memories round here; the Scottish Borders tourist board offered £8,000 for the place in 2002 and Berwick might have become a border town once more, had the Scottish referendum turned out differently. All that back and forth has left this beautiful, stern, pragmatic place a muddied patch. The townsfolk’s accent hovers between Borders and Northumbrian burr, and, trivia geeks, Berwick Rangers are the only English football team who play in a Scottish league. Fact.
The case against A little isolated, so it’s a good job it’s so delightful. I suspect the economy could do with more people staying, fewer passing through.
Well connected? Trains: twice-hourly to Edinburgh Waverley (40-49 mins); hourly, sometimes twice-hourly, to Newcastle (45-50 mins). Driving: Edinburgh and Newcastle 75 mins; 40 mins to Kelso; 25 mins to Coldstream.
Schools Primaries: Berwick St Mary’s C of E First, Berwick Middle, Holy Trinity C of E First, Tweedmouth West First and Spittal Community First, are all “good”, says Ofsted. Secondaries: Berwick Academy, alas, “requires improvement”.
Hang out at… The Curfew, a delightful micropub.
Where to buy Inside those hefty walls is a beautiful town, a little stony and stern, but full of 18th- and 19th-century architecture, centred on the gentrifying Bridge Street and Hide Hill. Ravensdowne is delightful. Just outside the walls are old stone terraces near the station around Brucegate and town houses on the water at Pier Road. For suburbia (why?) and beaches (ah!), head south of the Tweed to Tweedmouth and Spittal. Large detacheds and town houses, £350,000-£750,000. Detacheds and smaller town houses, £225,000-£350,000. Semis, £85,000-£260,000. Terraces and cottages, £75,000-£250,000. Flats, £70,000-£175,000. Few rentals: one-bed, maybe £400pcm; a three-bed house, £500pcm.
Bargain of the week Seven-bedroom Georgian town house, former B&B, needs work; £280,000 with aitchisons.co.
From the streets
Rob Lambourn “The finest Elizabethan ramparts in Europe, lovely Georgian architecture and an excellent weekly traditional music session at the totally unspoilt Pilot Inn.”
Nolan Dalrymple “The High Street leaves a bit to be desired, but West Street and Bridge Street are lovely, with great independent shops.”
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