The article below was written by Bob Steward, who was Deputy County Archivist for the county of Northumberland at the time when the Berwick Record Office was established; and has been reproduced by kind permission of the Friends of Berwick and District Museum and Archives.  This and a vast amount historical topics can be found on their website: http://www.berwickfriends.org.uk/history/

Given the town’s turbulent history, it is not surprising that no medieval records relating to Berwick-upon-Tweed’s administration have survived locally.  However, the town’s series of royal charters do survive (8 in all), the earliest dating from 1415. The town’s records, which date from 1505 to 2009, include minute books, accounts, correspondence and enrolment books.   The first enrolment book contains a Survey of the Town taken in 1561/2. The Guild of Freemen administered the town from its James I (James VI of Scotland) charter of 1604 until 1835, and their minute books, and the subsequent admission registers dating from 1835, record the admission of Freemen to the Guild to the present day. Through these books and registers, the descent of Freemen can be traced, back to a family’s original admission. (In 2010 women were admitted to the Guild for the first time.)  Berwick being a “County of itself” from 1835 until 1974, the Record Office holds records relating to its County status, including Quarter Session records, which predate 1835, until the Sessions’ demise in 1951. The Record Office also holds a range of privately deposited papers, photographs and tape recordings from the local area.

The Story of Preserving Berwick’s Records: 16th century – 1980

According to entries in the Borough Guild minute books, from 1556, each time a new Mayor was elected, a list of significant Borough documents (along with the Town’s Plate) was made, indicating the perceived importance of the Borough records to the civic authorities. This annual listing continued until the 1630s.

George Ridpath, in his 1776 Border History of England and Scotland, makes mention of unsuccessful attempts to consult the Guild Books, in the custody of the town’s Recorder.  Later, in the 1820s, there are references to the archives being used in Court cases by the Borough and the Guild minute books being rebound (in 1824). One of the last recorded actions of the Guild in 1835 is its ordering the printing of 600 Guild Rolls to be distributed to each Burgess.

The new Town Council, created by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, continued this interest in its records. In 1836 it set up a Special Committee on the Corporation Papers and appointed Berwick’s first named cataloguer of the Borough’s archives, John Rowland, to draw up a “Systematic Catalogue” of the Borough’s books and papers. The then Town Clerk, Mr Weddell, was a keen historian and had already obtained permission “to peruse and take extracts from the Books and Papers in the Archives of Berwick” for his proposed history of the town (Mr Weddell’s notes survive in the present Borough Archives).

The Special Committee was also asked to look out a proper place “for the purpose of keeping the old books and papers”. In 1840 the Corporation’s papers (amounting to several thousands in number) were used by the Corporation in a major lawsuit with the Freemen. In that year many of the records were sent “to a London workman for repair and preservation”.

There is reference in the Borough minutes to a Documents Committee reporting to the Town Council in 1898. Although its work is not recorded, yet there is a record of it acquiring a copy of a Report on the records produced on behalf of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in 1872 by a Reverend Joseph Stevenson (a copy of this very brief Report exists in the current Borough Archives). A more substantial Report was commissioned by the Royal Commissioners in 1901 and produced by their regular cataloguer, W.D. Macray.

The biggest crisis potentially to threaten the Borough records in modern times was the Government’s waste paper drive during World War II. Nevertheless, the Town Clerk asked advice from the Town Council on the removal of records to a place of safety during the War. It was resolved that a suitable place for the storage of the records be found, although no details are given in the minutes.

In July 1956, a chance inspection of the Borough’s charters by a member of the Sussex Archaeological Society led to the Town Clerk visiting the Public Record Office in London and subsequently being authorised by the Town Council to arrange for “the preservation of the charters”.

1958 was the year of The Public Records Act and also the establishment of the first Northumberland Record Office, based in the Moothall, in Newcastle upon Tyne, under County Archivist Hugh Taylor. In 1960 it was approved by the Lord Chancellor as a place of deposit under the Act. Berwick soon asked Mr Taylor to assist them in sorting and listing their records, but instead Mr Taylor suggested a Cambridge graduate, P. Rutledge, to undertake this work, whose costs were met in part by the Historic Manuscripts Commission. In 1960, Mr Rutledge’s list was produced and Mr Taylor suggested that Berwick’s records be transferred to the new County Record Office in North Gosforth, just outside Newcastle, but Berwick’s only response was to instruct its Town Clerk to obtain the advice of the British Records Association on the heating of the cells in Berwick’s Town Hall, where some of the archives were kept, “in an endeavour to preserve the records from further deterioration”. However, a microfilm copy of the early records was lodged at the County Record Office.

At the end of 1970, there was correspondence with the new County Archivist, Robin Gard, on the possible establishment of a Berwick Record Office. On 1st April 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 came into force, which established District and County Councils with separately defined responsibilities, and so ended the rights of historic Boroughs such as Berwick to manage their own records as they saw fit. The Act required Local Authorities to make “proper arrangements” for any documents that belonged to them or were in their care. For the purpose of the Act, Northumberland County Council was deemed the sole archive authority. 

As a show of independence by the new Council, now known as ”Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council” (and  now including the former Rural Districts of Belford, Glendale and Norham and Islandshire), one of its first acts was to confirm the loan of certain of its records to a translator“for incorporation in the eventual publication of the Charters” (as previously arranged by the old Borough Council in November 1972).  From 1972, the County Archivist, Robin Gard, had tried to encourage the Borough Council to reconsider the idea of a Berwick Record Office, but the old Council in May 1973 had started negotiations with the Department of the Environment (DoE) regarding the formation of a History Centre at the 18th century Barracks.

This proposal, comprising museum, specialist library and a record office, was supported by Berwick-upon-Tweed Civic Society and the Chairman of the County Council. In 1977, Berwick Council sought advice from the County Council in a project under the Government’s Job Creation scheme to sort and catalogue the council’s old files and books, which were scattered around the Borough, partly in the old Butter Market under the Town Hall and in the cells.  Although Mr Gard had expressed a willingness to undertake this task himself, he recommended a recent Edinburgh University history graduate and local woman, Margaret Rennison, initially to undertake the task.

The Job Creation programme, which ran from 1977 to 1978, under the title of Cataloguing and Filing of Records of Historical Interest, sorted out the records and produced a more detailed catalogue of its findings. In 1978, the records were moved from the cells in the 18th century Town Hall to the 19th century prison cells in the Council Offices at Wallace Green.  Later in that year, Robin Gard again argued for “appropriate record storage accommodation” with a qualified archivist providing supervised access to the records and reported that the County Amenities Committee had agreed to the appointment of an assistant archivist on the County Record Office’s staff with special responsibility for the records of Berwick and north Northumberland, to take effect from 1st January 1979. This was to be Margaret Fox (née Rennison).  Progress now began on providing facilities for the accommodation of, and public access to, the records. After a period of protracted discussion, including another feasibility study to make use of the Barracks, the Borough Secretary confirmed arrangements for the County Council’s occupation of the cells and surrounding area in the Borough Council’s offices in Wallace Green. This was to formally commence from 1st July 1980. In addition to Berwick’s own archives, microfilm copies of records relating to the Berwick area, e.g. the census and parish registers, and the records of the former northern Rural Districts (see above), were transferred to the new Berwick Office, along with a microfilm reader supplied by the County. It was agreed that the new Office would open to the public one day a week and that Margaret Fox, assisted by other members of staff, would travel up from the County Record Office in North Gosforth to provide the service.

Berwick Record Office – 1980 onwards

For the next six years from 1980, correspondence and meetings continued about proposals to use the Clock Block in the Barracks as a Berwick Heritage and Interpretation Centre, which would include Berwick’s Record Office. This proposal was supported by Robin Gard who had always regarded the use of the cells in the Council Offices in Wallace Green as an interim measure. In October 1983, following a negotiated lease with the DoE, it was reported that it was Berwick Borough Council’s intention to re-locate the archives from the cells to the Clock Block in the Barracks, along with the Borough’s museum and art gallery. Following an inspection of the area proposed for archive accommodation Robin Gard deemed it as unsuitable, and despite pressure from Berwick Borough Council, the County Amenities Committee backed Mr Gard in his decision. This was probably the only issue regarding their archives which the Berwick local authority had lost over the centuries, although on the vital matter of retaining local control over their records, they had succeeded.

In 1987 Robin Gard retired and was succeeded as County Archivist by Annette Burton, who took up the matter of improved accommodation and by September of that year was in detailed discussion with the Berwick authorities on converting two cottages adjoining the Planning Office for a new Berwick Record Office. At the end of January 1990 the new purpose-built Berwick Record Office was operational, the records having been moved from the cells over that month.

Annette Burton also proposed establishing a post of Archivist-in-charge at Berwick jointly funded by the County and Berwick Borough Council and Linda Bankier, a professionally trained archivist on the County Record Office staff, was appointed to this full time post.  So Berwick now had its own dedicated archivist, based in Berwick, rather than a member of the County Archives staff based in the County Record Office in North Gosforth with responsibility for Berwick, as had been the situation hitherto.

There is much still to be written about the progress which the Record Office has seen since 1990 under the guidance of the archivist Linda Bankier. This history, however, will conclude with the briefest recognition of its ever growing number of users and archival records (including major photographic collections), the range of special projects in which it has participated, the encouragement and training of volunteers which it has provided, and the widely appreciated contribution that it makes to local schools, exhibitions, and the cultural life of Berwick and the surrounding area. That story will be told on another occasion.

On the Eve of St John the Baptist, commonly called Midsummer Eve, it is usual in the most country places, and also here and there in Towns and Cities for both old any young to meet together, and be merry over a large fire which is made in the open street, over this they frequently leap and play at various games such as running, wrestling dancing &c., But this is generally the exercise of the younger sort; for the old ones, for the most part, sit by as spectators, and enjoy themselves and their bottle, and thus they spend the time til midnight, and sometimes till Cock-Crow”.¹

Bonfires have been an integral part of celebrations throughout Britain, for hundreds if not thousands of years, but early written evidence is scarce. 

“In 1502 the famous Italian scholar resident in England Polydor Vergil, had published De Rerum Inventoribus, an attempt to discover the origins of religion, law, science and social customs. As part of this he traced many religious and secular rites to pagan origins including Candlemas candles, feasting, New Year’s gifts, dancing, mumming, Maying, Christmas lords, Shrove Tuesday revelry, and midsummer bonfires. His purpose was not simply to instruct or entertain but to criticise and reform, pointing out that all these activities were capable of abuse, that dancing had become immoderate, and that the wearing of masks were inexcusable. The book went into thirteen more editions of the next hundred years, and supplied material for the direct and comprehensive attack upon Catholic ritual published by Thomas Becon in 1563. All of it, he suggested derived from the whims of individual Popes or from Paganism. The heathendom to which these writers referred was not the Celtic twilight beloved of nineteenth and twentieth century folklorists but that of ancient Rome, revealed in classical texts, and some of the lines of descent which they inferred seem very questionable”.⁶

Throughout the early part of the 17th century and especially during the time of the Interregnum, the English Puritans looked to the fathers of the Christian church for guidance on some of these ancient traditions. Statesman, William Prynne championed the words of the theologian Tertullian in his denouncement of bonfires:

“These bonfires that are kindled by certaine people on New Moones before their shops and houses, over which also the use ridiculously and foolishly by a certain ancient custom we command them to hence forth to cease” ⁹ 

William Prynne in his own pamphlet  goes further:

“the fathers, councells and fore-recited Protestant authors condeme all dinimations, morrice dances, bonefires, newyeers-gifts; the observation of newyeers day or the calends of January ” ⁷.

During the middle of the 19th century the tradition of these fires had all but disappeared, possibly due to a combination of industrialisation, changes in farming practice and a general move from the land to towns and cities. In 1846 The Illustrated London News published a poem “Midsummer – or St John’s Eve (As it used to be)”, with these two verses harking back to a different, if not imagined, time:

Light up the bonfires on the hills-

The altars of the sun;

Light up the fires, while city spires

Ring out their benizon.

And dance ye deftly round and round,

Each gleesome nymph and swain; 

Or through the fire-ordeal bound,

With laugh and fest amain.

Ay! Those were good and gallant times

When England’s King and Queen, 

‘Mid loud huzzas and merry chimes,

Rode to the jocund scene.

They came with all their brilliant Court,

And beauteous dames serene,

Nor scorn’d to grace the festive sport

Upon the blazing green.⁸

By the end of the 19th century the practice was continuing in small pockets, in areas still reliant on agriculture, or where new forms of entertainment had not usurped the older traditions. In an article for the Newcastle Courant in 1889, “The Folk-lore of Mid-Summer Eve by William Andrews wrote on the practice of lighting bonfires:

“This custom, which is a remnant of the old pagan fire worship, prevailed in various parts of the country, but perhaps lingered the longest in Cornwall… some midsummer rites are still observed in Ireland, we have from an eyewitness some interesting items on the subject. People assemble and dance round the fires, the children jump through the flames, and in former times ‘coals’ [Embers] were carried through the corn field to prevent blight.. In the Isle of Man, formerly on Midsummer Eve, lighted fires to the windward side of fields so that the smoke might pass over the corn. The cattle were folded, and round the animals, carried blazing grass or furzo, as a preventative against the influence of witches”.

In Northumberland however, this ‘Baal fire’ was taking place in the village of Whalton, and its name was a source of interest for many folklorists:

 “Readers of the Old Testament are well acquainted with the condemnation passed upon the worship of Baal, but some may be surprised to know that there is a custom in Northumberland of lighting Baal fires on St John’s Eve, which is a relic of ancient Baal Worship”.⁵ .

On 25 November 1903, the Reverend J. Walker, Canon of Newcastle and Rector of Whalton presented to the Society of Antiquaries the only known complete account on the practices surrounding the bonfire. Canon Walker had been an active participant of the festival during his time in Whalton, and had been unable to find any written discussion of the custom. 

Firstly, he said that the material for the bonfire needed to be properly sourced, the countryside and village was scoured for anything which may be of use; fallen trees, thinnings of hedges, whin bushes, any broken fences and pieces of kinding, obtained honestly, was used.

“On the evening of the fourth of July, a cart is borrowed and loaded with branches and [sticks], some of the men get into the shafts, more are hooked on by means of long ropes, and then with a good deal of shouting and horn blowing, the lumbersome vehicle is run down into the village.” ³

“Two [cart] loads of [branches], as a rule, are brought into the village, [and, always pulled] by hand; no horse is ever used. Then begins the building of the bonfire, which for some unexplained reason, is always constructed on the same spot. The site does not vary a yard from year to year; and yet nobody knows why this particular place is chosen”.³

“Then with the building up of the pile of branches and [bundles of sticks], a remarkable scene takes place, the whole village grows interested, the old men and women, young men and maidens, and the children, begin to gather in groups and watch the proceedings, impatient till, as the twilight deepens and the pile has been carefully prepared and examined, the word is given to ‘light her’. Then the children joining hands will form a moving circle round the burning pile. This is not as much observed as it was some twenty-five years ago. Still you may see the children racing round the fire with rather more formality than might be seen perhaps at an ordinary bonfire”.²

“Meanwhile the groups of people gather nearer the fire, and presently as the fire begins to burn and the flame mounts higher till it illuminates the whole village, a fiddle or some other instrument is heard and the young people begin to dance in the near neighbourhood of the fire. I have heard that then it was not unknown for some to leap over the fire…There is always, too, a quantity of ‘sweeties’ and ‘bullets’ scattered and scrambled for by the children”.²

“Old men over 80 years of age have told me that they never knew the fire omitted or the custom fail. There is a tradition that twice the fire was postponed to the next evening because of the ‘great rain’ but it was never omitted – and these old men, asserted that they had received the same story from their elders, [though] oddly enough, I have never come across a written record or printed account of the custom. There was some opposition to it within my own memory, but the fire was lighted all the same. The old thatched cottages have disappeared, more modern dwellings have been built, migration and immigration take place, but whatever the changes, this custom survived”.²

What needs to be remembered is that the photographs taken by Sir Benjamin Stone, though impressive, give a slightly inaccurate view of the festivities. These captured images took place as part of a daylight dress rehearsal, as the lighting of the bonfire and the subsequent dancing took place in the evening. 

The Canon also mentioned that although, to his knowledge, the custom did not take place anywhere else, he had been told by the late Mr Thomas Arkle of Highlaws that the tradition had taken place at Elsdon and Belsay, but not for a number of years.

What is remarkable about this tradition is that it still continues in a form today; Old Midsummer Eve is still marked in Whalton with a bonfire, albeit smaller, and performed in daylight, but it is a testament to the people of Whalton to to commemorate the tradition which was an important part of the folk life of the village, and to continue its now unique custom in Northumberland.

References

1 Observations on Popular Antiquaris. John Brand, 1777.

2 Archaeologia Aeliana – The Midsummer Bonfire at Whalton, Reverend J. Walker, Honourable Canon of Newcastle and Rector of Whalton, 1903.

3 Sir Benjamin Stone’s Pictures – Records of National Life and History – Festivals, Ceremonies and Customs” 1906.

4 ZRE from the uncatalogued Renwick papers – courtesy of the Renwick family.

5 The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs – by T. Sharper Knowlson, 1910

6 The Rise and Fall of Merry England – by Ronald Hutton, 1994

7 Histriomastix part I page 36 – William Prynne, 1633

8 The illustrated London News 27th June 1846.

9 Tertullian (circa 155-240? AD) – Canon 65.