Composers at Woodlands

Berwick Rangers Football (Soccer) Team

by Joe_Green

If it's your kind of thing, Berwick has a local football team called Berwick Rangers. They play in the Scottish 2nd Division and are currently 2nd in the league, (that's a promotion spot!!!) and 24th nationally if you want some perspective. It's about £10 to get in which is a scadal, cause I'll be honest this isn't world class football. In fact Scotland only has 2 genuinly major (i.e European Class) sides, Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers! But this is a proper league side non-the-less and if you brave the weather, you can join another 450 or so fans every other Saturday (when they're playing at home) and cheer them on. Best idea is to bring something warm, unless it's summer. If you've got a football strip, bring that!! (although if you're a novice on who's who in scottish football check with someone who knows first. Turn up in Rangers or Celtic top and immidiately you've signed yourself up as an ally of half the fans and a mortal enemy of the other half). Otherwise, bring yourself, a loud voice, and a tiny bit of football knowledge so you're not totally bored.

Berwick

by sambarnett

Pictured:The Royal Border Bridge

   With its location on the English - Scottish border, Berwick became one of the most heavily fortified towns in all of Great Britian. Over the centuries control of Berwick passed between both nations, each adding more defences. By the 14th century the town was under English control, but an invasion from the north was always a fear. Old defences were reinforced and new walls and ramparts were built.

   Fortunately for today's visitor many remants are still visible in there orginal form. The castle on the River Tweed dates from 1160 while many of the town's wall and ramparts were built between the late 15th to eighteenth centuries.

   Beautiful pathways lead from the town down to the river, where one can walk along the banks and fully admire the old castle, the bridges and the rolling, green countryside. The town itself is very walkable, small yet bustling, beautiful and friendly. It is well worth a day.

   Berwick's main attraction are the army barracks, constructed between 1717-21, the first of their kind in Great Britain, and now operated by English Heritage.

   'Picture if you can a room with beds 18 inches apart ... On and in the beds are men, some lying full dressed on the beds in a semi-drunken stupor occasionally muttering curses, others smoking and snoring, try and picture this and you will have some slight idea of the misery endured by a steady young man in the army in hundreds of barrack rooms in the country.'
- unknown mid 19th century solider