#berwick castle

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Berwick Castle from the north in the 14th century.  The White Wall leads down to the river on the right.

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Berwick Castle (part I) – Structure

Berwick Castle was one of the most important castles in the borders during the Anglo-Scottish wars.  But what did it look like?

It was sited on a very natural strong defensive position on top of an isolated hill giving good views of the estuary and upriver.  Its relationship to the town is unknown as is that with the village of Bondington,  a settlement to the north where Castle Terrace is now located.  The ravine that forms Castle Vale Park once extended north under what is now the railway station the car park and the railway line.   

The Tappee Loch was a reservoir to the north east, created by the making of a dam to control the flow of water to a water mill, which was operating in 1120.  The main road out of Berwick, through Bondington and on to the borders ran over the top of the dam.  The road to Edinburgh ran due north, crossing Spades Mire at the entrance to Berwick Holiday Camp.   

Location of Berwick Castle.

Layout plan of Berwick Castle.

Undoubtedly built by King David soon after his ascent to the Scottish throne in 1124, the first reputable mention of Berwick Castle dates to about 1160.   

Malcolm King of Scots had committed a man to be imprisoned in darkness in Berwick castle, and ordered that no small care be taken for his keeping.  He compassed him about with every vigilance on the part of the servants in whose custody he was, and allowed nothing good to be done to him of any sort...  The King, enraged against him with the fury of a great indignation, also had him constrained with divers bonds of iron.  For he had him thrust into a prison darker than other prisons, and had him shackled with great weights of iron.  For the prison, from its gloomy and tangible darkness was called Cole, because nothing was left there save shame and the blackest horror... 

He has a vision of St Cuthbert and is magically transported through the walls and finds himself in Norham.  Its a great story, and gives the impression of a fairly substantial building.   

A prisoner in an oublier.

The best early description of the castle is an inventory of contents after the death of one Sir John Potthow in 1292.  Its quite lengthy; it lists each room and its contents and even at this stage one gets the impression that the place is a little shabby around the edges.  It lists everything in great detail.  Notably, at a time when we have so much stuff, it’s interesting to note how little there is in each room.   

This inventory however is a mere snapshot and does not tell the whole story.  It lists all sorts of foodstuffs being stored in the castle.  Berwick was a major link in Edward’s supply chain to his troops in Scotland; it was used as a central storage and distribution point.  But that’s another story for another blog post soon.

After the 1292 inventory, the best written description is made by Christopher Morris and Richard Cavendish in 1538.  It is basically a very long surveyor’s report the like of which you would have done when buying a house.  It takes us around the medieval walls, naming the towers and their dimensions and what condition they are in (usually ruinous) and the distances between them.  It then goes on to do likewise for the castle.  The measurements it gives for the walls tallies with the evidence on the ground. Using this and other sources we can begin to build up a picture of what the castle looked like. 

Impression of Berwick Castle in the 14th century looking from the east. The Douglas Tower is in the foreground. (© Jim Herbert)

The Douglas Tower, named after James Douglas, who took the town for the Scots in 1337, later renamed the Percy Tower, was an outer entrance tower that stood at the junction of Railway Street and the top of the road leading down to Castle Vale Park.   

It is first mentioned in 1303 as an external stone turret outside the outer gate.  It was at least three floors high, and connected to the town walls by means of a barbican which enclosed its drawbridge, like that at Alnwick.  Beyond the Douglas Tower was a bridge of some sort, probably timber in which two drawbridges were set at one time.  

Crossing the east ravine. (© Jim Herbert)

The mediaeval visitor then reached the main entrance known as the Donjon the twin-towered main gate to the castle. Remains of the south tower exist including the lower terminal of an arrowloop at the side.  

The south tower of the main entrance donjon.

From 1372: 

And in payment made to Master John the carpenter for making a new gate of timber called the Chinggilyat at the entrance to the castle below the constables hall, and making another new gate with boards, namely deals, at the west entrance to the castle, and putting two other gates above the barbican of the same west gate, 60s. for the task. 

The name Chinggilyat may be translated as Chinkle Gill Gate, referring to sound of the stream or gill that ran down the ravine under the bridges. So the Constables Hall was above the main gate.  Above it was the armoury and above that, the ordnance house, all in all, probably five floors high. This accords with other evidence suggesting the walls were about 50 feet high.   

Between 1297 and 1371 there are constant reports of repairs to brattices. Brattices are wooden hoardings that project out from the top of the wall to better defend the base of the wall by dropping things through holes in the brattice floor.  The wooden bratticing was constantly being repaired but after 1371, nothing.

Reconstructed bratticing at Caerphilly Castle in south Wales.

In 1303, Richard de Bremesgrave is ordered among other things to have a stone brattice at the outer gate of our said castle completed.  This sounds like machicolations at the Donjon; overhanging corbels with gaps between them - a common feature of castle defences, serving the same function as brattices.  It may be that a gradual programme of replacing the timber bratices with machicolation was in progress.   

Stone bratticing or machicolation.

The best remaining part of the castle is the Constable Tower also known as the Garderobe Tower.   The garderobe, a medieval toilet, is a prominent feature on the outside.  Also seen are the lower terminals of arrowloops.   

Constable Tower showing the garderobe on the left.

Inside the tower we can see a beautifully preserved medieval doorway that has been blocked by rubble.   Another door leads to a very well preserved spiral stair.  

Inside the Constable Tower, looking to the garderobe entrance.  Note the corbelling above.

Above the garderobe door is corbelling upon which the joists of a wooden floor rested and from this we can tell how high the floors were - about 2.7m. Another arrowloop can be seen to the right of the door, but can you see how it is facing inside the higher wall behind?   This means the spectacular wall behind Castle Vale House is not original although the castle’s masonry has been reused.   Recent investigations at the base of the south wall have uncovered some interesting features that may or may not be part of the Postern Tower which was east of the Constable Tower.  

East of that, near where the railway viaduct joins the hill, was the Chapel Tower.  From the 1538 survey:

Item, between [the Postern] Tower and the Chapel Tower is the distance of twenty and three yards.  And so sore decayed as at every wind it doth shake so dangerously as no man dare adventure to lie in the lodging of the same of the over part, and by all likelihood will fall to the ground right shortly. 

Next to this tower was (sort of obviously) the chapel.  It was built with a campanile or bell tower, had windows and was roofed using shingles - wooden tiles. It was connected through an arched passage to the Kings chamber.  Inside this room, we are told, Robert the carpenter was employed in 1367 to repair all the defects of the King's chamber and to fit the chamber with 200 wainscots (oak panels).  The chamber was roofed over with lead.  

West of the Chapel Tower there was a semicircular buttress tower built to support the south wall behind the Black Hall which had kitchens attached to it.  The tower may have been a later addition; the term "buttress" suggests the shoring up of the walls which seem to be constantly in need of repair. 

The Cavendish survey tells us that in the south-west corner was what was known in 1538 as the Captain’s lodgings.  A map from 1561 and a topographic map of a slightly later date show what appear to be residential buildings in this corner.  However, these are part of a rebuild that may have occurred when the West Gun Tower was added in the early 1540s. 

Detail from a map of Berwick (CPM 1.23) showing the castle. The east entrance bridge can be seen at the top right of the picture.

After Edward I invaded the town in 1296, he built the first set of walls around the town and may have made many modifications to the castle.  After all, this was a mere 20 years after his attack, and consequent programme of castle building, in Wales.  

One addition we know of for sure is the White Wall or Break-y-Neck Steps.  This structure butts up against the south-west corner of the castle.  Halfway down can still be seen protruding corbels.  These supported a small defensive turret which probably also served as a checkpoint for goods and people coming to the castle from the jetty at the bottom. 

The White Wall looking down to the Henrician Water Tower.  Note the corbels to the left.

The wall was 94 yards long, projecting into the river and terminated in a square tower. It formed both a harbour and a barrier from upstream attack.  It can be seen in this detail of a map drawn by Rowland Johnson in 1561 and some idea of the harbour can be gained from this detail of Samuel and Nathaniel Bucks view of Berwick in 1745.

Detail from South Prospect of Berwick-upon-Tweed by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, 1745 showing the White Wall extending into the river.

In the early 1540s, Henry VIII thickened the lower part of the wall where it levels out at the river bank and added the Water Tower.  This was part of the same programme of works that saw the West Gun Tower added to the castle and Lord’s Mount in the north-east corner of the town walls.  It retains many features of a gun tower including the smoke vents.  The chambers either side of the Edwardian postern where the New Road passes through are not dungeons, as is often thought, but gun casements.

The semi-circular West Gun Tower built near the top of the White Wall, modified much of the area in the south-west corner of the castle.  The West Wall was thickened on the inside.  A flight of steps leads from the rear of the tower into the Captain’s Lodgings.

The Cavendish survey was surely was what prompted the additions to the defences.  It tells us that: 

...of the same west side and that part of the wall is an iron postern to issue forth of the castle into the fields.  Without the saide postern is a barmekin of stone for the defence of the postern and of that part of the castle.  The most part whereof is decayed and fallen to the ground, and so lieth open. 

The barmkin in the record is probably a refering to a barbican.  The lie of the land suggests that then as now, this was accessed from the slope that runs up the hill under the west wall and so the barbican outer entrance would have been at right angles to the West Postern Gate like one at Beaumaris in Anglesey  Wales.  An arched corridor led from the West Postern to inside the castle.   When the West Gun Tower was built, an intramural passage connected into the West Postern. 

An ordinary looking door from the railway yard in the West Wall leads into a passageway that was the West Postern.  This can be seen on the outside as a blocked arched doorway that now has an iron grill in it.

West Postern by the West Gun Tower.

Thousands of passengers are under the impression from the sign above the station steps that the platform stands on the site of the Great Hall.   It was however next to the West Postern, described thus in a list of repairs in 1361:  

The kings great hall in the castle which is 100 feet long by the long hundred and 55 feet wide.  [It] used to be roofed with double boards of Estland; but most of the great timber of the roofs is decayed by age and weather. 

Reconstructed Great Hall at Caerphilly, Wales.  It is a similar size to that at Berwick.

Moving on northwards we come to an angle in the west wall.  The 1538 survey tells us of a wall going down from here to the stank northward.  Because boundaries rarely change, it is likely that the existing wall dividing Coronation Park and Tommy the Miller’s field is this same wall.  This print from 1790 shows the White Wall, the west gun tower, the west postern gate the boundary wall and the stack of stone that still exists; the Bakehouse Tower.  Between the Bakehouse Tower and West Postern is another tower that is something of a mystery.

View of Berwick Castle 1790 showing the tall stack of the Bakehouse Tower, the wall descending into Tommy he Miller's field, the mysterious tower in the wall angle the West Gun Tower and White Wall.

There was a small watchtower built in the angle of the west wall in the autumn of 1372, but this is likely to have been a relatively insubstantial affair.  It’s not mentioned in the 1538 survey nor does it appear on the 1561 map or the Gough painting.   It must be a later addition as behind a remaining mass of stone infill protrudes a line of facing stones. Since by this time the castle was almost redundant, the intriguing possibility is that it was added by George Hume, the Earl of Dunbar, who built a palace on the site in 1604.  More about that in another blog post. 

The Bakehouse Tower gives us the location of the bakehouse, brewery (they were always located next to each other) and probably other ancilliary buildings and windmills!

In 1335, two years after the Siege of Berwick and ensuing Battle of Halidon Hill, two windmills and two water mills were brought to Berwick from Newcastle for the use of the garrison and later, in his survey, Cavendish bemoans the lack of one: 

And forasmuch as there is not within the said castle neither brewhouse, mill, garners for keeping of store of corn nor house to keep any ordnance, so as if any hasty danger should come unto the same castle, or that the town should be won, as God forbid, or if the inhabitants should rebel against the captain, all the King's ordnance saving such as are standing upon the waIls of the castle should be in enemies hands, the mills and brewhouse, and the captain his store of corn, being in garners within the town, barred from the castle, to the great danger of the same and the strength of the enemies.  For the avoiding of which dangers it was very necessary and expedient that a mill with a brewhouse, a garner and a house for the keeping of the ordnance were made and set up within the said castle.

Pin windmill depicted in a mediaeval text.

In the middle of the north wall was Bonkhill Tower.  It had a 16 foot internal diameter with 9 foot thick walls.   When in Scottish hands, the upkeep of the towers was done using a sponsor-a-tower scheme.  Local villages were responsible for the upkeep of their tower, hence Cympringtour, Hiltontour and Lethamtour along the south wall, Langtontour, Fouldentour on the east and Bonkiltour and Morthingtontour, which are on the north wall.  Bonkhill Tower is the only tower whose Scottish name prevails.   

Detail of drawing by Francis Place, 1701 showing the north wall of Berwick Castle.  The Bakehouse Tower is on the right and the Bonkhill Tower is in the centre.  To the left is a remaining tower from the Jacobean palace and the wall leading off to St Mary Gate.

Which brings us full circuit to finish at Gunners Tower in the north-east corner.  A wall, uncovered by excavations in the car park in 2002, connecting it to the St Mary Gate, the main entrance to the town.   

The overall impression one gets from the 1538 survey is that the castle is in a ruinous state.  It had far outlived its useful life as a defensive structure.  The walls had been lowered substantially and a countermure earthwork built up behind the west and north walls.  Few of the buildings mentioned in earlier inventories remained; in a topographic drawing from the 1560s a knotted garden has been created where the Black Hall had stood. 

Topographic view of Berwick Castle from the east c1560-70.  The knotted garden and Captain's Lodgings are clearly seen.

In the 1550s an attempt was made to build a replacement for the castle – the New Fort or Edward VI Citadel.  This was soon abandoned and the Elizabethan Ramprts built as a solution to the town’s defence.

The castle was rebuilt as the Earl of Dunbar’s palace between 1604 and 1611 but was abandoned once more when he died.  Stone was taken to build Holy Trinity Church in 1650.  More stone was no doubt robbed out for other building projects in town over the years.  So by the time the North British Railway was being planned, there was little of the original castle left.  The only part that was substantially destroyed was the North Wall but one has to have a little sympathy with the engineers as where else would you put the line?  any further to the west and Cow Hill would be in the way.  Further east and you have to demolish houses.  And it has to be the right height to connect to the North Eastern Railway being planned to come around the cliffs above Spittal.

Chateau de Berwick by Francois Alexandre Pernod, c1830.  A romantic view of the north wall of the castle.  Comparing this to the similar view by Place it is interesting to note how much the castle had deteriorated.  This is what was demolished by the building of the railway.

So that’s the structure of the castle.  Further chapters will discuss the history of sieges and other events, the Jacobean palace and castle life.

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The Real Heroes of History

Being St George’s Day, I thought I would scour my files and come up with some Berwick connection with tales of dragonslaying.  Unfortunately, Berwick seems to be a bit thin on the ground for heroes.  Or is it?  

Let's celebrate the "heroic" builders who laboured on Berwick's defences in the past, and so I give you an extract from a record about repairs at Berwick Castle using the very flimsy excuse that the mason’s contract started on April 23rd!  This is typical of the kind of record a researcher like me has to wade through in order to find bits and pieces about the structure of Berwick Castle.  It also gives us some insight into the workforce involved.

The story so far.

Edward III has taken Berwick in 1333 after a long siege culminating in the Battle of Halidon Hill.  In 1355, Thomas Stewart, Earl of Angus sails down the coast, disembarks to the north of the town and scales the walls by Cowgate at night.  The Scots attack the castle and succeed in taking the Douglas Tower but fail to take the castle.

The next year, Edward takes the town once more and embarks on a major programme of repairs and improvements.  Five years later in 1361, work is still progressing

Now read on…

Particulars of the account of Henry Lord Percy for receipts, outlays, costs and expenses incurred by him on the repair of divers houses, walls and other necessaries in the King's castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Masons wages.  

And on the wages of Robert de Roucebi, mason, and his three fellows working on the walls of a bakehouse and a furnace in the same, and on the repair of the Douglastour and the King's chamber and other towers and houses in the castle, together with the raising of a wall on the south side the castle, between 23 April and 1 October following, for twenty weeks, Robert receiving 4s. a week and each of the other masons 3s.4d. a week, £14.  

And on the wages of John Quarreour and his two fellows clearing a quarry in the the town there to have stones, and breaking stones in the same, for thirteen weeks, receiving among themselves 9s.4d. a week, £6.1s.4d.  

And on the wages of three masons working on raising divers walls on the western and northern sides of the castle where there were brattices, between 6 September and 20 November following, for eight weeks, receiving among themselves 9s.8d. a week, 77s.4d.  

Total £23.13s.8d.

Mason checking wall level.

Mason beginning to shape a stone at his banque.

From this we find that workmen were brought from all over the country.  Roucebi is probably Rauceby, a small village in Lincolnshire.  The Douglas Tower was at the top of the private road to Castle Vale.  It was part of the town walls but was also formed a forward defense to the entrance to the castle.  The bakehouse was in the north-west corner where the tall stack of stone stands tall.  The King’s chamber was roughly where the viaduct makes landfall. 

Quite where the quarry in the town was is a bit of a mystery though.  The Fell sandstone that much of the mediaeval walls are constructed, can be seen in outcrops above the New Road near the castle but there is no evidence of quarrying.  To the west is limestone - itself important for making mortar.

If you want to find out how castles are built get over to Burgundy in France where they are building a new "mediaval" castle.  Check out this website for some great information and more great pictures of true craftsmen keeping tradition alive.

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The anniversary of the sacking of Berwick by Edward I in 1296

An article in the Berwick Advertiser this week reminded me that today is the anniversary of arguably the most significant event in Berwick’s history; the sacking of the town by Edward I in 1296.  It might be said that had it not been for this and the ensuing Anglo-Scottish wars which saw the demise of the town’s economy, Berwick might have become the capital of Scotland.

One might say that Berwick, or at least the land north of the Tweed, became “Scottish” when Malcolm II won the Battle of Carham in 1018 and brought the area of Northumberland north of the Tweed into his fledgling nation.

Berwick famously changed hands some thirteen times during it history but not always by force.  In 1174 Berwick Castle (along with those at Roxburgh, Edinburgh, Stirling and Jedburgh) was handed over to the English as part of the Treaty of Falaise, the ransom demand to return William I to Scotland after his capture at the Battle of Alnwick.

In 1189,

Richard King of England surrendered to him Roxburgh and Berwick castles, freely and absolutely; and he quitclaimed to him and all his heirs for ever, for himself and future King's of England, all allegiance and subjection from the realm of Scotland.  And for this recovery of his castles, and the quitclaim of fealty and allegiance for the realm of Scotland, and for having the King's charter for this, William King of Scots gave Richard King of England ten thousand marks sterling…

The word quitclaim is important here.  Basically Richard is selling Berwick and Roxburgh (near Kelso) back to William for about £6,666 and saying that any claim of overlordship he or any future king of England had over Scotland is no longer valid.

The idea of Scotland being subservient to England had been longstanding.  in 937, Athelstan defeated Constantine II of Scotland. 

Constantine is said to have “grovelled” before Athelstan, recognizing him as overlord.  It is suggested that Constantine’s brother Malcolm, came to a similar agreement upon his succession in 943.  Thirty years later, Edgar of England forced an admission of subservience from Kenneth II.

So this history would have been at the forefront of Edward’s mind when in 1291 (following the deaths of Alexander III and Margaret) the Guardians of Scotland asked for his help in settling the dispute between the claimants to the Scottish throne.

At first Edward refused to have anything to do with it unless his overlordship was recognized.  Indeed, he demanded that the Scots prove him wrong!  This dispute became known as the Great Cause.  Between 1291 and 1292, Edward held court at Norham Castle listening to the different claims.  There were 14 claimants in all, including Edward I, but in truth there were only three serious contenders; John Comyn, John Balliol and Robert Bruce.

  Norham Castle

  On 17th November 1292, Edward announced his decision in the chapel at Berwick Castle.  This was John Balliol who clearly had the better claim.  The Bruce campaign subsequently called this into doubt saying that Edward had chosen Balliol because he was a weak charater who would be easy to manipulate, but in truth, the Scottish throne would have come with strings attached, whoever had won.

John Balliol pays homage to Edward I

Edward styled himself as Lord Paramount of Scotland and demanded homage from Balliol.  This repeated humiliation led the Scots nobility to form a new panel of Guardians and entered what was to become the Auld Alliance with France.

And it is this that infuriated Edward and led to his invasion of Scotland, starting with Berwick.

Berwick Castle as it might have appeared in the 14th century.

Stevenson, in Documents Illustrative of the History of Scotland describes the army as consisting of five thousand horsemen and thirty thousand footsoldiers crossing the Tweed  on Wednesday 28th March at Coldstream and camping at the priory.  He summoned the burgesses of Berwick to attend him and discuss the town’s surrender.  No-one came.  By Friday 30th March Edward was encamped near the nunnery at the foot of Halidon Hill.  Twenty four ships were anchored in the estuary.  Thinking they had seen the signal to attack, they entered the harbour and fighting ensued.  Four ships were burnt and the rest escaped on the turning tide.  Their plight triggered the attack from the north.  

We are told that Edward entered the town with ease crossing a defensive ditch that had been made which may (or may not) be Spades Mire.  (This one’s a whole different story!)

The numbers of people slaughtered vary from 7,000 to 25,000.  These figures are greatly exaggerated.  Berwick had been the most important town in Scotland, with more money entering the Scots exchequer than that from all the other Scottish towns combined, but that was from exports.  It has been estimated that the other important towns at the time - Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Perth would have had populations of only 2,000.  It may be that Berwick had a higher population, perhaps 5,000, but then, it is unlikely everyone was killed.

Edward stayed in Berwick for a month.  He ordered a stone wall to be built encircling the town with a ditch 80’ wide and 40’ deep on the north and east sides of the town.  This was to have an embankment surmounted by a quickly erected wooden palisade which would be replaced in time by a stone wall encircling the town.  However it was many years before this was completed, ironically, by Robert Bruce (grandson of his Great Cause namesake).

Section of Edward's walls and ditch The Bell Tower is a later modification dated 1577.

Today many people view such an act as barbarous.  And indeed, it was, but one cannot compare such a thing to massacres of modern times where the perpetrators know about different rules like the Geneva Convention.  One must remember that, by the rules of war in Edward’s time, he had no option but to attack Berwick.  He had offered the burgesses an opportunity to surrender the town; they declined to take up that offer.  What was Edward to do? Walk away? Perhaps not be quite so nasty?  Perhaps that, but these were generally violent times anyway and the massacre in Berwick was to send a signal to the rest of Scotland.

And thus began the Scottish Wars of Independence.  Berwick continued to exchange nationality but the Scots were never able to retain it for long; 15 years until the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333 and between 1461 and 1482 during the Wars of the Roses.

So perhaps we should take a moment today to reflect on what happened and what might have been, perhaps discover the remains of the castle or the mediaeval walls that Edward built but let us not hold grudges.  This happened 700 years ago and as they say, the rest is history.

Happy Easter.