Tweedmouth – St Bartholomew


We left Berwick over the Old Bridge (you can only drive south over this bridge) – 1611-1626, surveyor James Burrell. Berwick was a lovely town which felt as if it was struggling a bit. Pevsner says Tweedmouth “has some distinct character of its own” – the word “depressed” sprang to mind. Tweed Dock is the only wet dock on the Northumberland Coast – another thing you learn reading my blog – and there are sad offices labelled “Tweedmouth Stevedores”.

St Bartholomew’s church – NT995523 – looks almost as sad. The door is graffitied and locked, the noticeboard is falling apart and has the name of the past Vicar on it, the metal grills over the windows are hideous. I know money is tight, and it can’t be the easiest place to minister – but a noticeboard and a laminated A3 sheet is not expensive, nor is some varnish. How do we think we can proclaim a living faith if our buildings look dead?

A 1783 building with a “remarkably overcrowded graveyard” (Pevsner). I liked this headstone – and by 10 am the following morning, thanks to the wonders of the web and efficient emailers, I know that an article Death of an Engine Driver at Willington Dean Viaduct, by G.D. Moffatt, was published in The Link, the magazine of the Aln Valley Railway Society, Winter 2009/10, pages 11-16. If anyone wants to know more, please get in touch. Thanks George!

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