Weekend Break

DH and I have just come back from a few days away in Berwick on Tweed, a very old, walled town in the North East of England.  In fact, it is the most northern town in England and has often been the subject of violent border disputes between the Scots and English in previous centuries, so much so that at various times the border has been moved to put it into either Scotland or England.  These days it is firmly in England even though many Scottish towns are situated South of it.  Such are borders!  

Berwick is a very beautiful town, we found, and it has some beautiful buildings, many of them Georgian.  You can walk around the fortifications that date to various periods of history and you can feel the power of the history all around you.  You almost expect to see a Napoleonic soldier marching down the main street.

 You may gather from this photograph that much of the town lies within and below the walls.  Parts of the walls are huge constructions with passageways cut through them to allow access and to allow the soldiers to burst out and fend off attacks.  

This huge door in the walls gives access to the quayside.  It must stand at least 15 - 20 feet tall!

Berwick's other claim to fame is its three bridges

The further bridge carries the railway and the middle concrete bridge carries the modern road.  The beautiful stone bridge in the foreground now carries traffic in one direction only and at one time carried all the traffic from London to Edinburgh!  Imagine it filled with horses and coaches, it must have been chaos as traffic increased and the motor car began to become popular.

This fortified wall is just past the railway bridge.  Imagine running up that flight of stairs when an attack starts!  The mere thought makes me dizzy!

These allotments must be a bit tricky to work on the slopes behind the stone wall.  At least they are sheltered from the strong winds that were blowing during our visit.

Needless to say I found plenty of textures and patterns to inspire me as we walked about.  These flowers formed part of the decoration on the outside of a building.  They may just find their way into some artwork, suitably altered of course.

This shape is part of what used to be a gun emplacement. 

I have to confess I brought a little of this rusted chain home with me, well, it was just laying in the gutter!

I had forgotten till I got to Berwick that the artist, LS Lowry, loved Berwick and visited often, in fact he nearly bought a house there.  This lighthouse appeared in one of his paintings and in pencil sketches.  There is a Lowry trail around Berwick highlighting the locations that he painted from and, having been to The Lowry gallery in Salford and seen some of his sea paintings I felt they were brought to life by standing where he had stood.  Although he is known for his paintings of "matchstalk men" Lowry also painted very atmospheric paintings of the sea and emotive portraits.

If you ever have the chance to stay in Berwick we can recommend the Bed and Breakfast we stayed in.  (No affiliation).  

This is us chilling out after a very long but very pleasant day on Lindisfarne meeting up with blogging friends.  But you're going to have to wait for that cos I'm off to bed!  Night night!

PS Excuse the pink jammies! ;o) I like my comfort, so much for style! lol