Missed it in plain sight

As mentioned, Friday is "landing day," more or less consumed by travel connections that move us from the transatlantic gate at Glasgow--whether by bus, or train, or an internal commuter flight--to the vicinity of where we plan to start exploring.  Typically, on landing day we "go long" and then work our way back to Glasgow over our two week sojourns.  Landing day is not necessarily a complete "write off" since views from public transport are often interesting.  But still...it's a staging day.  Logistics we'll call it.

April 1, 2023--Castle Vale Park on the Tweed at Berwick

Our Friday evening arrival at Berwick Station aboard the LNER (London North East Rail) via Scotrail through Edinburgh Waverley had us packing part way across town to Sandgate, where our hotel room and a delayed dinner awaited us.  Tired and hungry.  With what remained of landing day, our objective was to walk to the hotel, find someplace to eat, and then recover the jet lag. 

April 1, 2023--View toward Town Hall from Marysgate, Berwick

Under an intermittent drizzle, our walk took us through Berwick's Elizabethan walls at Marysgate.  A neat architectural site, we resolved to explore it the next morning with more light, a little rest and, we hoped, less rain.  We did...but not necessarily with less rain.

April 1, 2023--Berwick at Marysgate and Jubilee Fountain

April 1, 2023--Berwick

Honestly it was surprising how quickly we reached Marysgate on foot from the station.  Not at all far.  In total, the walk from the station to our hotel was perhaps 8/10ths of a mile...a mere 15 to 20 minutes.  Even the damp weather was no big a deal considering we were on the coast of the North Sea in late March.  Nothing our parkas couldn't handle.

An aside but locals quip (or perhaps snipe) that Americans will take a taxi even to go only a block or two.  While the implication is laziness, actually the affinity of American tourists to take a cab may be due more to their not bothering with any advance map work.  

Perhaps it's a Scout thing with me, but personally:  Be Prepared.  It is also surprising how much trouble just keeping that motto can avoid...and maybe even save some cab fare that might be better invested in a pint.  

April 1, 2023--Berwick

 

Ignoring preliminary orientation work is not exactly the smartest way to "vay-cay".  For one thing, it makes you lost as soon as you land.  Berwick has its share of quirks and box canyon alleys being a city that sits on top of a medieval town plan.  Even just knowing the names of the main streets in advance can help prevent confusion.  

Here, the word "city" is also key, especially for rural bumpkins.  Cities have many residents, not all of whom are generous with their directions should you find yourself lost without a clue in an unfamiliar foreign cityscape.  Berwick is not Chicago, of course; but still.  

Keep in mind your pack is obvious.  So too is the omnipresent cell phone.  Photo taking in the attire of a foreign tourist...usually signals the possibility of carrying a good bit of local currency.  So, just saying.  Do your due diligence.  Research your maps before you get in a place where you don't want to be.    

April 1, 2023--Tyme Bar & Grill

We reached the hotel after our cross town walk from the train station without incident and considered an adventurist culinary option.  Several local eateries and pubs were near the hotel.  The temptation was to do the "sturm und drang" thing, pub-hop and sling pints.  "We have arrived!"...as if locals are interested in that.  

For simplicity's sake (and the fact we were quite beat at the tail end of "Landing Day") we opted to dine at the hotel.  It was the right decision.  A pint or two in a local pub the next evening (after catching some sleep) is usually more conducive to a better time anyhow.  Premier Inn (Tyme Bar & Grill) has a decent menu, reasonably priced, and generally well-prepared.  They also have a few drafts on tap...and at the end of those pints, it's only an elevator ride up to the room.  A low stress way to end "landing day". 

April 2, 2023Tyme Bar & Grill

In our walk from the rail station to Sandgate (which also helped orient us in Berwick), one landmark was of particular interest--the Elizabethan gate (Mary'sgate) and the Jubilee Fountain.  Walking, we were watching for it as a way marker of sorts, confirming our footsteps.

Jubilee Fountain was erected at Marysgate to honor Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (60th anniversary of her monarchy).  Presented to Berwick June 20, 1897, the fountain is made of pink granite with bronze lion well heads.  By itself, Jubliee Fountain is worth a pause to view, to say nothing to its location at the Elizabethan fortifications and city gate (at Meg's Mount).   

April 1, 2023--Berwick Barracks Museum and Holy Trinity churchyard

A plaque states that the fountain was donated by Commander Francis Martin Norman, Royal Navy.  Commander Norman apparently was quite the public servant in Berwick.  Upon retiring from the Royal Navy, he went on to be the town's Sheriff, Mayor, Alderman.  He also established the Historic Monuments Committee, which was largely responsible for restoring Berwick's Elizabethan fortifications.  Present preservation of Berwick's historical walls and paths is thus owed in large measure to Norman.

April 1, 2023--Berwick at Marysgate bridge

The Jubilee Fountain is an example of our "missing it"...in plain sight.  We knew the fountain monument was there from our research.  What we missed was a key link to Berwick's history.  And because we missed it, we did not visit a site that we otherwise would have--namely, Holy Trinity Church.  One cannot see or know everything, of course.

April 1, 2023--Holy Trinity Church and churchyard, Berwick

The fountain's benefactor, Commander Norman, also had a memorial plaque at Holy Trinity Church in Berwick.  That was the link we missed.  Had we known (i.e. done a better job at researching), it is probable we would have connected that link and would have visited the interior of Holy Trinity Church.  For one reason, Holy Trinity was right on the walk path along Berwick's walls, and we were right there.

The church dates to 1641, when King Charles I allocated monies to replace Berwick's old medieval town church (c. 1190 A.D.).  The earlier medieval church in the current church grounds was pulled down after Holy Trinity was completed after 1652, from designs by the London stone mason John Young.  Holy Trinity was built from stone and timber pirated out of the ancient Berwick Castle (c. 1250 A.D.)

April 1, 2023--Berwick Castle ruin and Victorian rail bridge over Tweed

During the initial funding of the church, civil war broke out which pitted Charles I against the parliamentary armies of England and Scotland.  Charles I lost the war, and his head.

April 1, 2023--Berwick Walls path

Holy Trinity Church is a rare building.  One of only four significant churches built in the whole of Britain during the iconoclast Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate (Commonwealth) of England.  That alone makes Holy Trinity notable architecturally.  The Cromwellian regime, strongly puritanical, influenced British architecture.  Holy Trinity was no exception.  It was of simple design, to the point of being plain but with a mixture of Gothic and Classical styles.  So, also somewhat eclectic.  No ornamentation, no bell tower (the town hall bell summoned the people to church services).  Lacking a tower or spire, Holy Trinity seemed "boxish" and uninteresting, at least from our perspective above it on the Berwick wall path.  We did not walk down to visit it, even though we were right there.  That was our mistake.  The interior is said to be remarkable.  And perhaps to the chagrin of Mr. Cromwell, stained glass (Flemish 16th century) that had been sequestered by Charles I was added to the church apparently in a remodeling in the 1800s.  Anyhow, the moral is:  Be Prepared.  You will miss less. 

I once was lost, but now I'm found

Simply put, the Berwick Museum houses a priceless artifact, a national treasure--the gold Ord Cross.  One that is on par with the gold Aemilia Ring on display in Hancock Museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  

For background, in Spring 2017 after our walk across Walltown Crags on Hadrian's Wall , we viewed the Aemilia Ring at Newcastle.  [https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2019/04/celtic-christian-sacred-sites-and.html]

The Aemilia Ring was discovered (a well-documented find) while pulling turnips from a field at the Roman site of Corbridge in January 1840.  In 1991, the ring was put on the auction block from the estate of the Duke of Northumberland by Sotheby's.  Graciously, it was withdrawn from auction and acquired by private treaty for permanent public display at the Hancock.

The Aemilia Ring (dated ~2nd to 4th century A.D.), is generally considered the earliest Christian artifact in all of Britain.  A betrothal ring of relatively sophisticated goldsmith skill, the Aemilia may have been worn in Roman Britain as early as 100 - 120 A.D.  That is a staggeringly early date for any Christian artifact in Britain.  Within living memory of Christ and certainly of the Apostles Peter and Paul who are thought to have been martyred in Rome, c. 64 A.D. on the orders of Emperor Nero.

The province of Britannia was at the edge of the Roman Empire, far distant from the Roman world's Mediterranean heartland where the Christian saga first unfolded.  Roman civilization marched into its far flung provinces upon the soles of Roman soldiers, so to speak.  The Aemilia Ring attests to Christianity being introduced into Britain not so much by missionary saints (who did bring the Gospel several centuries later).  Christianity was introduced by ordinary Roman soldiers, provincial families and traders.  

Corbridge, where the ring was found, was Rome's most northerly town.  And thus, it was a trading gateway into the lands of present day Scotland as well.  Corbridge dates to ~85 A.D. when its first fort was built to replace an earlier military encampment, establishing a more permanent presence.  By 150 A.D. (roughly when the Aemilia Ring would have been worn there), Corbridge's fort was replaced with a border trading town and walled military installations at the junction of Stanesgate and Dere Street roads.  Corbridge would then be garrisoned until the end of Rome's imperial control of Britain (c. 420 A.D.) 

In its importance, the gold Ord Cross now on display at Berwick Museum is similar to the Aemilia Ring. A Christian relic and national treasure.  Both recall the old hymn penned by John Newton in December 1772 at Olney, England entitled Amazing Grace.  Truly, I once was lost, but now I'm found.  Newton's verse was later put to music in 1835 (by American composer William Walker) to a traditional bagpipes tune called "New Britain" which is now a universally recognized hymn the world over. 

John Newton--National Portrait Gallery, London

Taking a rather wide-turn aside here, but it is an understatement to say John Newton led an early "wretched" life.  Press ganged into enlistment in the Royal navy at an early age, a rebellious young Newton worked several years on slave ships, and several times came under the lash for his mutinous behavior.  Newton, a white man, was ultimately betrayed by his own crew mates.  (They wanted to be shed of him.)  So Newton was himself enslaved in Sierra Leone to the African Princess Peye, who is often considered among the cruelest women ever to live.  

As Newton recounted years later, the idea of a white man as her slave appealed to Princess Peye.  It was a role reversal.  The African princess could torture, humiliate and order a white man to "do her bidding, day after day, night after night".  Ultimately, Newton was rescued in 1748, and would go on to captain several slave ships himself.  Even after retiring from seafaring, he continued to invest in the slave trade.  Eventually, Newton repented his chequered past, and would serve as an evangelical Anglican minister known as one of the strongest abolitionist voices against the slave trade in his time.  [Engraving by Joseph Collyer the Younger, from a line engraving by John Russel, January 1, 1808 (1788)].

April 1, 2023--Ord Cross found across Tweed near the old bridge

Though created several centuries after the Aemilia Ring, in its own right the gold Ord Cross is among the earliest Christian Anglo-Saxon artifacts.  Anglo Saxon artifacts in the Berwick area are extremely rare.  Found by a metal detectionist in 2019 on the banks of River Tweed, there are few comparable examples to the Ord Cross.  Of those that have been found (elsewhere in Britain), most early Anglo-Saxon crosses are equal armed.  The Ord Cross shape is unusual.  It was suspended from its shaft's base, i.e. upside down.  Could the Ord Cross represent the traditional Catholic belief that an "unworthy" St. Peter was crucified upside down at Rome?   

The Ord Cross is unique.  No other similar pieces have been found that bear Anglo Saxon (Old English) runic inscriptions.  When the finder reported the cross pendant to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, several specialists were enlisted to examine the cross and translate its inscription.  

Six runes were identified, with the first two drilled through.  (The cross shaft base was pierced to wear it as a pendant after the runes were inscribed when the cross was first made.)  This was not a repurposing of the cross like, say, piercing a coin for wear as a pendant.  The cross was originally designed to be a pendant as evidenced by stumps of a gold loop that was intended to hang the cross from its base shaft.  After this loop broke off, it was roughly pierced to again permit the pendant to hang...also upside down. 

April 1, 2023--Berwick Museum display of the Ord Cross

Translated, the runes are a personal name, Eadruf--presumably the original wearer.  The name Eadruf is problematic.  Personal names beginning with Ead- (roughly translated as ‘fortunate’) are common in Old English.  But only two names are known which have the second element beginning with r- ...Eadred and Eadric respectively.  From the limited universe of early medieval Anglo-Saxon artifacts and texts, no personal name with a second element of "ruf" has yet been identified in any Germanic language.  So etymologically, Eadruf is an unknown name of mysterious origin. 

As for Berwick Museum's display, we were among the very first public to view the Ord Cross on exhibition.  Local staff and volunteer docents were practically bubbling over with excited pride, as right they should.  The Ord Cross was purchased and funded by private donations.  It was placed on public display quite literally when we walked up to the museum's gate April 1, 2023.

April 2, 2023--Bamburgh Castle

This diminutive piece of Anglo Saxon jewellery (one inch by 5/8th inch) is unlike anything else of similar age (c. 700 to 900 A.D.)  Being of solid gold, the Ord Cross would've been an item of great value and worn by someone in a position of wealth or authority (at least before the hanging loop broke).  The Ord Cross may well have witnessed the travels of early Christian saints at Lindisfarne--like Cuthbert, Aidan or Bede.  Where the cross was found along River Tweed was something of a thoroughfare linking Old Melrose and Lindisfarne abbeys with Bamburgh, the royal court of Northumbria.

Who Eadruf may have been can only be conjecture.  Berwick at that time (which included Ord, traditionally the Chapelry of Tweedmouth) belonged to the Abbey of Lindisfarne, part of a group of farming estates and towns in what was known as Islandshire.  Perhaps Eadruf was an overseer of the farmsteads on behalf of Lindisfarne.  Records also indicate that a church or abbey may have been in the vicinity where the Ord Cross was found.  However, no archaeological evidence of any early Middle Ages structure has yet been identified there.  In its way, the Ord Cross "saved" Eadruf, or at least saved his name.  Eadruf is now considered the earliest known Northumbrian name in evidence...saved by amazing grace as it were.  "I once was lost, but now I'm found."