Talk:Berwick-upon-Tweed

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"Sooth Berrick"[edit]

I don't know about the validity of the term "Sooth Berrick" itself but the spread of some dubious, supposedly Scots versions of place names (often for ones which are Scots anyway) has been concerning me for some time. I suspect that the reference given for Sooth Berrick derives its "Scots" terms, many of them dubious or at best minority alternative versions, from a 1993 source (a map) I regard as questionable and which I've posted about at WikiProject Scotland. Mutt Lunker (talk) 12:37, 13 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Local pronunciation would render itself somewhat as 'Sooth Berrick' however this is Northumbrian and not Scots, for example people in Gateshead, a good 70 miles to the south (or sooth) would say the same. KO (Punches) (talk) 22:23, 14 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

South Berwick[edit]

Was Berwick upon Tweed ever called South Berwick? historic documents are all in Latin and it was Berwick super Tweedum or just Berwick. North Berwick was only latterly called north after the English occupation of Berwick upon Tyne. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blairtummock (talk • contribs) 13:20, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Navigation Acts[edit]

Various of the Navigation Acts (specifically 1663 and 1696) refer explicitly to Berwick as somehow a special case for mention. There is nothing in this article to explain why, the border dispute was long over. Can a local historian rectify? --Red King (talk) 12:05, 23 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Dubious[edit]

Berwick was made a county corporate by 6 & 7 Will. 4 c. 103 s. 6:

And be it declared and enacted. That the borough and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, within the limits assigned to it by the [Municipal Corporations Act 1835], or hereafter to be assigned to it by authority, shall be a county of itself to all intents and parliamentary purposes, except only so far as relates to the return of a member or members to serve in parliament

Moule, Thomas (1837). The English Counties Delineated: Or, A Topographical Description of England. G. Virtue. p. 387. says...:

Berwick was formerly the chief town of the Merse or March, one of the most fertile districts of North Britain, which still is generally called the Shire of Berwick, and after the town had ceased to belong to Scotland in 1482, Berwickshire had for some time no settled county town; Dunse was sometimes used, and Lauder often, but finally Greenlaw on the river Blackadder, was confirmed by Act of Parliament as the head Burgh, in the year 1696. In the year 1551, Berwick was made a free town, and the county itself independent of both England and Scotland

...which to my reading asserts (perhaps incorrectly) that the 1551 treaty made Berwickshire independent of both England and Scotland, rather than that the 1551 treaty made Berwick-upon-Tweed a "county of itself". jnestorius^(talk) 11:43, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See also Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Municipal Corporations in England and Wales (1835)...

...Vol. I p.53 Table I which distinguishes between Berwick ("Not in any county") and the "Cities and towns which are counties corporate of themselves."
...Appendix Vol.III p.1434 et seq which confirms the town had no sheriff, the sine qua non of a county. jnestorius^(talk) 11:58, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Also R. v. Cowle 2 Burr. 834 cited by Blackstone's commentaries 2nd ed. p.98. jnestorius^(talk) 16:52, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]