Twixt Thistle & Rose

Conserving the Berwick Borough Archives (Twixt Thistle and Rose)

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Scheduling repairs

As part of the Twixt Thistle and Rose Project we must identify and schedule for conservation any items that require physical repairs. This could mean simple patching repairs to a paper document, relaxing and flattening parchment deeds or taking apart and restoring a full volume.

H1/4 Bridge Account Book 1622-1635 – broken binding and paper very weak
Part of the binding of the same volume – a recycled latin manuscript – a technique commonly used by bookbinders
The parchment cover of the same volume of Bridge Accounts is stiff, holed and badly damaged

The primary purpose is to ensure that the record can be read without further deterioration but it is also important to retain as far as possible the original character of the document or volume.

Visiting the conservation workshop

Last Monday, Linda and I visited the company that have carried out conservation work for the Berwick Record Office for about 30 years – Riley, Dunn and Wilson. This firm has been in the business of printing, book restoration and bookbinding since 1909 – they were originally based in Edinburgh.

Before we travelled, we photographed the items in their current state and created a repair schedule that summarized the individual treatment each item required.

The marbling on the cover of this volume (H 2/42 Guild Annual Accounts 1761-1762) is in a very poor state but must be retained as there is information written on the reverse. A new cover will be made.

We took a few volumes and a bundle of large parchment deeds with us so that an estimate of costs could be made before commissioning the work. We discussed the repair appropriate for each item, whether there were loose items inside a volume (if so, how they should be treated), what kind of bindings should be provided and whether protective boxes should also be supplied.

A bundle of parchment deeds. The parchment has become very hard making it difficult to read the individual documents. The parchment will be relaxed and the documents flattened – retaining the original label that shows they are part of a series.

We were also able to see the bookbinders and paper repairers at work – both fascinating, almost entirely manual, occupations. The firm also carries out heritage digitization – an alternative means of providing access when physical repair is impossible or there is expected to be very heavy use use of the original, repaired or not.

Riley, Dunn and Wilson – testing the acidity of paper

Before…

Some time ago the first Guild Enrolment Book was repaired and this photo shows what it was like before the conservation work started – badly eaten away and unfit for public use.

B 6/1 The First Guild Book of Enrolment 1570-1636 before repair

…and after …


B 6/1 The First Guild Book of Enrolment 1570-1636 after repair


In-house conservation

Basic conservation work is also undertaken by the Archives team. For example, cleaning dust and dirt from paper and parchment, boxing and wrapping documents or volumes and monitoring the strong room constantly for changes in humidity or the presence of pests. Project volunteers can be involved in cleaning or re-boxing some of the records. Please email us if you are interested (ttar@northumberland.gov.uk) or attend the sessions we will be holding at the Archives on the 23rd and 26th March.

A French Prisoner at Berwick upon Tweed (Twixt Thistle and Rose)

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Message from the past

When checking some of the unlisted boxes that will be included in the new catalogue I found this message from myself from 1984! No excuse this time….

Transporting the prisoner to Edinburgh

The box is full of a mixture of records – mainly Quarter Sessions papers – and among them was this little note from the Town Clerk about transporting a captured French Prisoner to Edinburgh. There is no date on the document but the watermark on the paper is 1804 – that means it must have been written after that date but, intriguingly, close to the battle of Trafalgar and the events that led up to it.

Rescued by the Smack Britannia

It is a draft letter to the Provost of the City of Edinburgh which is why it is undated and unsent. It tells us that

“A short time ago Persons who had been found unboard a British Vessel which had been captured by a Privateer belonging to the Enemy and recaptured by the Smack Britannia of thes Port and some other Vessels belonging to Leith and Berwick were landed here from the Britannia. One of them appeared to be an American, having since offered to serve in His Majesties Fleet was sent forward to Leith to be put on board one of His Majesties Ships there, the other I now take the liberty to send to Edinburgh for the purpose of being lodged among the other Prisoners of War at that place and I have to request that your Lordship will be pleased to give the proper Directions for his being received on his arrival – He will go by the Edinburgh Waggon tomorrow morning and will arrive in Edinburgh on..“

The smack Britannia is listed in Fuller’s History of Berwick (1799) and belonged to the Old Shipping Company. The Berwick smacks that navigated between Berwick and London, he says, are universally admitted to exceed that of any other in the known world for “safety and expedition”.

Would you like to volunteer?

We do not intend to employ a Press Gang but if you are interesting in joining us as a volunteer we will be holding a couple of short introductory sessions at the Berwick Archives (in Berwick upon Tweed Library in Walkergate) on Saturday 23rd March and Tuesday 26th March at 2 pm. You’ll have a chance to see what we are doing and see if any of the tasks suit you. You can email us on ttar@northumberland.gov.uk if interested in attending or for more information about the project.

Building Berwick Old Bridge (Twixt Thistle and Rose)

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Old Berwick Bridge has recently re-opened after essential repairs and a further £250,000 has been allocated for maintenance during 2019/2020. It is a well-used crossing of the Tweed, popular with visitors and locals alike and it has a very well documented history – including a record of all the names of the people who built it and what it cost.

Increase in costs for tide work

The old bridge has linked both sides of the Tweed at Berwick for about 380 years. According to Fuller’s History of Berwick work ended on the 24 October 1634 having taken “twenty-four years four months and four days”. The construction was a major feat of engineering – working around tides and the powerful surges of the river. Although at times convoluted, both the King and the Guild saw the building of permanent crossing of the Tweed at Berwick as a crucial investment and symbolic too.

Supplies of building materials for Berwick Bridge, 1613

The building of a stone bridge over the Tweed at Berwick marked the end of hostilities with Scotland on the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne in 1603. Berwick had been, for centuries, a town at war. From 1482 to 1601 it had a Governor appointed by the Crown and was occupied by a large garrison. The crown paid for repairs to the castle, the fortifications and the old wooden bridge (which was often washed away in floods) as it was a strategic military base.

Summary bridge accounts 1612-1613 (H1/1)

The Earl of Dunbar – George Home – who held a series of royal appointments in Scotland and England under James I/VI had been granted the fortifications of Berwick when the garrison was disbanded. He was instrumental in making the case for the building of a stone bridge, proposing how it should be funded and appointing, for life, the bridge surveyor and designer, James Burrell. Home’s funding scheme gave way to other arrangements but Burrell stayed the course.

Particular payments for work beginning the 11 May 1622

The “particular accounts” for the building of the bridge from 1611-1635 (H1/1-4) survive in the borough archives – volumes that Fuller cites extensively in his History of Berwick. The other side to the story is found in records held at The National Archives (such as The Exchequer Pipe Rolls – declared accounts for the building of Berwick Bridge ref: E 351/3585) as this was a crown enterprise. Indeed, the bridge building accounts held in the Berwick Archives might not be so”particular” had they – and the works – not been routinely audited by royal inspectors. These included the Bishop of Durham and the poet Fulke Greville in his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer (Source: The History of the Kings Works Vol IV (part II), Colvin et al pp.774-775, HMSO 1982).

Payment to Foulke Reynards Master of the good ship the “Boweringe of Stavering” for freight of oak trees, coal, oakum, holly wood, rope and steel from Newcastle to Berwick, to John Wylde the pilot from Newcastle to Berwick and to Henry Scott and his “fellowes for their pains and their bote” in helping the ship up Berwick River, 1614

The accounts describe materials used at different points in the construction, the use of oak from the royal estate at Chopwell near Blaydon, the freight of coal, oyster shells and stone by sea, and the people – men, women and boys (all named) – who built the bridge.

Timber from Chopwell Woods, 1613

The accounts for subsequent repairs by Guild and the Town Council are also held by the Berwick Records Office to 1835 as Bridge Account volumes, later as part of the annual reporting of accounts.

Today the bridge is the smallest of the three that span the Tweed at Berwick but in it’s day it would have made a significant impact on the landscape. It was clearly a source of civic pride as funds were routinely levied on the burgesses for it’s upkeep – in addition to the Crown costs of around £13,000 which is the equivalent of about £1.5 million today.

Illustration depicting the bridge about 1799 from Fuller’s History of Berwick
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