TNH – The Northern Hemisphere

Article featured in the latest issue of the Berwick Rangers Fanzine “From the Grove to the Harrow” October 2020:

As the train sweeps round at a rapid pace from Tweedmouth on its approach to Berwick Upon Tweed via the Royal Border Bridge which spans across the River Tweed the views of The Royal Tweed Bridge followed by the Old Bridge as the river joins the sea are stunningly breath taking something you have to visit first hand to truly appreciate.

On arrival at Berwick train station you are now greeted with the refurbished concourse area with its new ticket office and waiting room. There is also a new coffee shop with a small news agent inside for all your reading needs from the Berwick Advertiser to the latest detective novel.

The automatic doors slide open and you are hit by the crisp and fresh February Berwick air. Above the carpark the Castle Hotel looks down commandingly over the train station. The Castle Hotel is where LS Lowry stayed on his visits to the town in the mid 1930’s, one of his fascinations being with the Elizabethan walls that surround the town. You are in fine artistic company if you have a pint of Belhaven Best in the Castle. A perfect stop off after a reasonably long but always pleasant train journey from Leeds.

I am writing this as loose kind of travelogue with a doff of the cap to the late great Clive James as I make my way to Shielfield Park for the Edinburgh University home game last season. It was also the Berwick Rangers Football Club Community Open Day seeing a great increase in gate numbers.

I don’t proclaim to be a historian or a travel expert but I am going to try and give you some ideas and hopefully inspirations of some of my favourite places and parts in Berwick to date, there are still loads of places and things I want to do one being the full Lowry Trail, a coffee and a browse through the records in the Mule On Rouge on Bridge Street and a beer in the new beer shop and bar Hop and Bottle” opposite the Kings Arms Hotel which is also where I am staying for the night on this football trip. A colleague at work whose daughter used to live in Berwick and work in the Brown Bear before it was renovated stayed there for his 60^th Birthday and advised me it was haunted. I did hear some strange noises through the night but put it down to either the heating system, the floorboards in the corridors or my stomach after a 3 course Indian meal in the Magna Tandoori followed by a Stout night cap in the Curfew, let’s just say the short walk back to the Kings Arms took slightly longer than usual.

As I finish my Bell Haven Best in the Castle Hotel, I make my way with plenty of time down to the High Street on a cold February lunchtime. After a short walk I reach Scots Gate built in 1560 and was the gate out of town on the road to Scotland. You can also turn right here and follow the path to Megs Mount the bastion protecting the South West corner of town, there are some lovely views of the bridges and the river Tweed if you carefully amble down to the river side, there are some rather precarious steps though. When you eventually reach the bottom there is some not so historical spray painting of “HIBS” under the bridge, one would have to assume done by an out of towner!

I stay on the main street though and call into the Free Trade Inn which is a small traditional pub with a wooden screen separating the tap room off, there is an unusual wishing well in the men’s urinals. I say wishing well it’s just loose change in the bottom of the trough. The pub is full of Rugby fans so I have another quick Bell Haven Best, nip for a wee (sorry to much information) sling 20 pence into the urinal wishing well and make a wish that Berwick Rangers take all three points at 3pm.

My next stop is the wonderful Curfew on Bridge Street, as I make my way down the High Street with the tall Georgian Town Hall building dominating my eye line the snow begins to fall. Turning right at the bottom of the High Street down the steep hill to Bridge Street the snow starts to ease off and the sun pops its head out.

I have fond memories of a visit to the “Slightly Foxed” bookshop on Bridge Street. The owners friendly Labrador greeted us on arrival, it’s like Aladdin’s cave in there books everywhere on every subject imaginable. If you walk through to the back there are Chesterfield chairs and a sofa for you to relax on pick up a book and have a browse through while the low volume of music from one of the stunningly restored radiograms hums along in the background. If your senses can cope, I would recommend looking up from whatever book you have chosen and feast you’re eyes on the marvel of the hand painted domed ceiling above you, you leave the shop with your breath truly taken away.

I head past the Slightly Foxed this time and arrive at the Curfew with just enough time for a drink before heading up to Shielfield Park. There and fellow Black and Gold supporters in with their colours on show, the pre match tension and anticipation can be felt around the busy bar. Once at the bar my eye catches the black and silver can of the elusive Magic Rock Dark Arts Stout which is definitely one of my favourite stouts along with Gathering Storm which is a dark traditional stout from Leeds Brewery which I have sampled on many occasion at Brewery Tap near Leeds train station and Midnight Bell in Holbeck Leeds a stones through from the canal.

The Dark Arts Stout never fails to get the taste buds tingling, but the sun is shining so it’s a good time to make my way to the football ground, past the Barrels pub and over the old bridge to the other side of the Tweed I take some time to take in the views looking back across the river and they are stunning with the sun in the back ground, no one would have thought it was snowing 30 minutes earlier.

I walk on the low side past the harbour on Dock Road, loosing my bearings slightly but I finally reappear near the Angel Inn. The sky darkens suddenly and looks threatening, I really do need to get to the football ground now. Unfortunately, halfway up the main road the snow begins to fall yet again but in a matter of minutes it’s a blizzard. Woolly hat on and Jacket zipped up I tuck my chin into it put my head down and pick the pace up. I arrive just about in one piece, pay my money at the turnstiles, there is a certain buzz around the place and more families around than usual. I always have to visit the club shop, programme and team sheet purchased. I also buy a BRFC bobble hat as my woolly hat is now covered in snow, soaking wet and no use at all. I swap over hats and warm up ever so slightly. A smiling face of a fellow supporter looks and me and asks if I have come from the Antarctic?? I reply with a grin or is it a grimace “no, Leeds” for that brief cold moment the humour was lost on me.

Making a bee line for the Pop-Up bar which is situated at the top of the main stand I get a well-deserved pint just as the whistle blows for the first half to commence. I am pleasantly surprised to be joined in the small concrete bar area by the one of the new directors of the football club Dave Buglass who discusses his vision for the club going forward and how pleased he is with the turn out in such bad weather for the Community Day. I eventually just about thaw out and Berwick win 2 nil so a great day all round!

Its now September 2020 as I write this and the Lowland League fixtures have been published, the Gers have played a number of preseason friendlies which have included some of the exciting new player signings they have secured during the break. The standout games being the 1-3 win against Whitehill Welfare and the 7-0 win against Tweedmouth Rangers, so things are looking promising for the season ahead.

Grassroots football faces an uncertain future in the current climate with no supporters being allowed into the grounds, so I would urge and encourage any supporters who would normally pay at the gate on a Saturday afternoon to join the 1881 Club, this gives the football club a regular income stream which allows them to future forecast and enhance the match day experience for all involved and ultimately keep this great football club functioning, its not just about the results at 5pm on a Saturday the club provides so much more to the community as a whole and brings people together.

Michael Conboy