Twixt Thistle and Rose is a project funded for one year by Archives Revealed to make the records of Berwick-upon-Tweed more widely accessible.
Twixt Thistle and Rose refers to the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed which sits on the Border between Scotland (Thistle) and England (Rose). The phrase- as Twixt Rose and Thistle – has been often used to describe Berwick. For example, it was the name of a public house in Walkergate (now the Cobbled Yard – the windows are etched with the symbol) and it featured on a railway poster of Berwick around 1920 “The Mecca of All Seeking Health and Pleasure”.
If you are interested in volunteering please email us at ttar@northumberland.gov.uk. We’ll add you to the mailing list and you’ll be invited to come along to one of the introductory sessions we plan to hold in March.
Berwick had it’s own Police Force until the 1920’s
One group of records that we hope to make better known is the series of Police Posters and Informations that date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These were sent to Berwick Police Station to alert the local constabulary about a variety of criminals or absconders from the Army or Workhouses.
Currently the records are boxed, arranged in bundles and are clean and dry. However, they require some conservation work to prevent deterioration with use and they are in need of detailed cataloguing. This is an ideal project for volunteers!
Police Posters and Informations, reference M16/1-17
Although the notices were received from elsewhere they may be the only surviving copy. They provide lots of information about all aspects of life at the turn of the twentieth century including attitudes to vagrancy at the time. If you like detective work, volunteering could give you a chance to investigate the background to the story or what happened next.
12 year old child “used to being on tramp”
They used the technology of the time – photography and telegraphy – to convey detailed descriptions of criminals or items stolen
Photographs of wanted men, 1896Telegram issuing order to check premises and carriers for stolen pigeons
There are scams that seem very modern – such as a the circular from the Hawick Police reporting a false collecting agent for Miss Stirling’s Orphanage operating in the area. Miss Stirling was a well known philanthropist in Edinburgh who pioneered the sending of pauper children to Canada. Her Charity was involved in a scandal that revealed the lack of supervision of her child migrants after they were placed abroad.
False charity collections in Hawick
There are instances of local crimes such as the malicious damage of salmon nets in Spittal. The wording of the poster and the offer of a reward strongly suggests that this kind of activity was perceived as economic sabotage.
Malicious damage to nets at Sandstell Road, Spital
There are also dramatic depictions and accounts of individuals wanted for serious offences. The artist’s sketch in this poster – raising the alert for a man wanted for an horrific murder – alongside the detailed character note creates a very sinister image!
Wanted – Donald McDonald – for Murder
And postcards were used to inform the constabulary when a search could be called off.
Job done – thanks!
This is just one small example of the wealth of information found in the Berwick Borough collection. If you feel inspired to help please get in touch.
It’s a popular belief that the older the record the more interesting it is – but records from any era can contain unique information that conjures up the times in which they were written.
Last week, as I was looking through some of the Urban Sanitary Authority records, I came across a rather plain notebook [Reference LB 27/2]. This outwardly prosaic book begins with detailed, handwritten water usage charts and is described in the Archives handlist as “An analysis of water supplies 1899-1944 (also contains an Old Bridge road traffic census of 1922)”. This is an accurate description of a large part of the book but, on inspection, it contains much more. It is a fascinating Day Book – a bit like Project Managers diary – that draws you into the mind of the writer with every turn of the page.
Traffic Census on the old bridge, Berwick-upon-Tweed 1922
The Urban Sanitary Authority was the product of a series of Public Health Acts in the first half of the nineteenth century that were passed to control and combat deadly diseases such as Cholera. Many of the statutory duties of the Urban Sanitary Authority eventually passed to the Town Council as clean streets, good housing and plentiful, pure water became the standard measures of civilization.
The Council Buildings on Wallace Green that were originally converted for the Urban Sanitary Authority
The Tweed is tidal and its water saline so Berwick, throughout its history (and as the records testify), was reliant on wells for its water supply. Ensuring water was fit to drink was a common concern. On establishing the Urban Sanitary Authority responsibility fell upon the Borough Surveyor and the Inspector of Nuisances to identify or create healthy water sources and to ensure that they were kept free of contaminants.
Excavation tables, 1914
When I began to leaf through the pages of this volume I quickly noticed the writer was a skilled draughtsman who also liked to record informal notes about the works being undertaken. I had the sense that this was someone who took pride in and enjoyed his work. As a result, I wanted to know more about him. His technical drawings have an accomplished artistry that put me in mind of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. It’s pure speculation, but the first comprehensive translation of those Notebooks was by Richter in 1888. I wondered if the Borough Surveyor might have seen them as a young man and felt he was part of a long line of inventors and engineers. Archives can be dangerously thought provoking!
Notes on the Spa Well, Spittal whose source had changed course in 1919
The notebook is almost entirely the work of Robert Dickinson, Borough Surveyor from 1890-1929. There is an oil painting of him (seated at a desk with a notebook) by the artist Frank Watson Wood in Berwick Town Hall .
Settling wells at Bondington, Castle Terrace
He was a local boy, a son of Robert Dickinson, a boot and shoemaker from Tweedmouth, and his Scottish wife Lillias. I found the family in the 1871 census living in Marygate. In 1881 the family had moved to 26 Castlegate. Robert was 19 and is described as a Town Surveyors Assistant – already pursuing his future career. He is Town Surveyor in 1891 and living with his wife, Margaret, at 46 Ravensdowne. Ten years later, a widower, he lives at 6 Wallace Green – opposite the Urban Sanitary Authority buildings. His colleague, the Inspector of Nuisances, also lived in the same street! Robert was there still in 1911, seems to have retired about 1930 and died, in Berwick in 1951 aged 89.
Drainage at 20 Hide Hill
The book is mainly concerned with the works he commissioned or managed (some examples are included above) but he peppers it with facts prompted by curiosity or conversations. This includes a note that the specification for works was altered to preserve a Hart’s Tongue Fern found growing on the ramparts. He takes care to write down the botanical name of the fern – Scotopendrium Vulgaro – as given to him by Captain Norman.
Harts Tongue Fern protected
Robert also copies extracts from academic journals on geology, colleagues findings from surveys and estimations and a list and planting plan of the roses outside the Urban Sanitary Authority buildings in Wallace Green. He makes a sketch of the timber structure underneath the plaster finish in his office and makes notes on an the removal of an old dolphin recovered from the river.
Rose planting scheme, 1921
He is also interested in people – keeping lists of workmen employed and information about the introduction of the old age pension. He makes notes on those working in the Surveyors office – including some who joined up to fight in the Great War. The effects of war on prices, labour supply and so on are also recorded.
Thomas Evans – employment, wages and war record
Cover of a Wartime leaflet on the price of smithy work in the Berwick area
War Savings Shell erected near Scotsgate, 1920
This volume shows that a record has many layers – the information it contains, the person who created it, why they created it and why it was retained. A full description of content and context is essential when it is catalogued to make it available for the widest range of research.
Register of workmen
It would be fascinating to compare five centuries of civil engineering in Berwick and there is plenty in the collection to research this aspect of Berwick’s history. Robert Dickinson is just one in a long line of inspectors, surveyors and workmen striving to ensure Berwick functioned as a prosperous and healthy place. The Guild, through their Works Committee, carried out many improvements before the Urban Sanitary Authority existed. This last drawing refers to an old dolphin that was removed in the time of Robert Dickinson. Much earlier records also refer to the protection of the Quay and old Bridge by the placement and replacement of such defensive structures in the river.
Remnants of former Berwick Bridge, 1905
Robert’s work is also recorded in a series of records that were part of the Urban Sanitary Authority collection (summarized in the 1978 Handlist – E 1-30). Intriguingly, in volume E 7/1, there is a typescript report on road widening in 1912 at the junction of Chapel Street and Walkergate. It is signed by Robert Dickinson and it refers to the reconstruction of the Rose and Thistle Public House. If it is where we think it is (the present Cobbled Yard Hotel) – I am sitting opposite it as I write. More about that in a later post perhaps!
I’m Teresa Maley, Cataloguing Archivist for the Twixt Thistle and Rose project. I’ll be working in Berwick over the next year, primarily, to create an electronic catalogue of the Borough records. My first job, back in 1981, was with the Northumberland Record Office. In those days the Record Office sent an archivist to Berwick once a week to open the Borough Archives to the public. That was my first encounter with these records and the people who used them.
Day one on the project
MANAGING THE RECORDS
Linda Bankier – who is also an Archivist by profession – leads the Berwick Record Office team and has worked here since the 1980’s. The Record Office is based in the Library building in Walkergate. Largely through her efforts, the service has grown from a minimal presence to a full time Record Office for Berwick and North Northumberland. The collections have grown too. Linda is assisted, for part of the week, by Carole Pringle and Martha Andrews. The team prepare and run the busy search room on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the year as well as delivering a full programme of events and outreach activities.
Researchers and Volunteers in the Archives
Activities include working with local schools, delivering talks to a variety of groups in the area, taking part in Heritage Open Days and other events and festivals in Berwick and North Northumberland. The Berwick Record Office is part of Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn so Linda and the team are also involved in projects organised further afield.
VOLUNTEERS, FRIENDS AND RESEARCHERS
The team has supported a number of local and national history projects that have revealed the richness and variety of the Berwick records – such as Peregrini, Berwick 900, Flodden 1513, Waite and Sea and and From Cholera to Comic. Many of the participants in those projects were keen to volunteer on subsequent projects or support the general work of the Berwick Record Office by transcribing, cataloguing or indexing records.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been meeting volunteers and have been impressed by the skill and dedication they bring to the tasks they undertake. Almost everyone seems to have had some experience of carrying out research before they volunteered – be it genealogical or historical. However, they are given training in palaeography and other aspects of archival practice by Linda to help them to read the records, understand and conserve them.
A list of work undertaken by volunteers would be very long so here is a flavour of what they do:
Indexing local newspapers extracting references to: nineteenth century Coroners reports (to fill gaps in the record series), Ships in and out of Berwick and their cargoes from the early 1800’s, Visitors to the seaside resort of Spittal in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – recording it’s changing character over those years and reports about the lives of local soldiers on home leave during World War I
Indexing and transcribing Board of Guardians records for Berwick, Glendale and Belford – opening up records about poverty and public health
Summarizing, indexing and typing up the Guild correspondence, enrolment books and minutes so that the early history, fabric and governance of the Town is better known
Creating a searchable database of Freeman’s Admissions as part of the Berwick Families element of the Berwick 900 project
Indexing, transcribing and cataloguing the records of the Quarter and Petty Sessions – a mine of information for social historians
Creating a database of the Town Council Planning registers – full of details about major and minor building works – built or not built!
Conserving and cataloguing the music cards of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers Band – providing an insight into popular and military musical taste in the twentieth century
Cataloguing and conserving the Berwick Photo Centre archive – a huge task but unlocking a wonderful resource for anyone interested in a visual record of Berwick, North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders from the 1950’s
A history, in it’s many guises, of the Berwick Corn Exchange
and, more recently, a database created from the card index of Holy Island residents compiled by Professor Sheddick which was a part of the Peregrini project.
Peregrini logo
I was interested to hear the reasons why people volunteer – one person wants to keep up their touch-typing skills now they have retired, another told me it was the joy of handling original documents and others described the thrill of the chase when following a single story through several sources. I also met several people who have carried out their own research – long term projects such as the history of the salmon fisheries on the Tweed or studies of individual buildings and people of the area.
Some of the work the volunteers have done is destined to be included in the new catalogue as it is within the scope of the project and, personally, I’m very pleased that my task will be much easier with such knowledgeable and friendly people on hand!
RECORD KEEPERS OF OLD
Berwick is particularly lucky to have a full and almost unbroken series of records from the sixteenth century onward. It is clear that, from earliest times, protection of their records was of high importance to the Guild and Town. I have started to look at the some of the earliest Guild Books (more about them next time) and was heartened, as an archivist, to see such a robust record keeping system documented, monitored and practiced. When a Head Guild met, the clerk noted down first those present but the next item of business was usually a list of charters and other writings of the town that were securely held in the “Town Chist”. The clerk recorded when a document was removed (the reason why and to whom given) and when it was put back.
A sixteenth century security measure
This prompted me to
think about another group of people that should be mentioned here and who are relevant
to this project – those writers and keepers of the records that set a precedent
for the custodians of today.
The series of records Berwick has inherited would not be so complete had the Guild been less vigilant in the protection of its rights. From earliest times, the Guild knew that the key to a solid defence of those rights was the existence of authentic, written records and so ensured they protected and were in possession of their archives at all times.
However, the clerks who penned the town records must have tired of copying sometimes and this week, as if to remind me they shouldn’t be forgotten, I came across some of their less formal writings and doodles.
“Vox audita perit, sed Litera scripta manet”
I was also intrigued by this little pencil sketch
Marginalia in Draft Guild Book 1784-1793 (B2/8)
It reminded me of the
sign manual that Scottish notaries were obliged to place on the instruments
they wrote as one part of authenticating the document. The sign manual was a pen
and ink seal unique to them. Alternatively, the doodle has the look of a coat
of arms or it might just have been added later by someone reading rather than
writing the records.
