Fishwick is a parish with a small mediaeval village (now vanished) in the
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...
, Scotland, in the traditional county of
Berwickshire
Berwickshire (; ) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. The county takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, its original county town, which was part of Scotland at the ...
, seven miles from
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...
. The parish church is now a ruin and the parish is united with Hutton and Paxton. Today the parish consists of farms and scattered housing. There is also an old WWII airstrip, still occasionally used. Fishwick borders the north of the
River Tweed
The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the River Tweed. The Tweed is one of the great salmon rivers ...
which here constitutes the border with England.
Anciently Fishwick was a possession of
Coldingham Priory
Coldingham Priory was a house of Benedictine monks. It lies on the south-east coast of Scotland, in the village of Coldingham, Berwickshire. Coldingham Priory was founded in the reign of David I of Scotland, although his older brother and prede ...
a cell of the
Bishopric of Durham
The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham until his retirement i ...
. The superiorities of the Priory became part of the Barony of Coldingham which in 1621 was held by James, 2nd Earl of Home (d. 1633). A William Purves was a resident in Fishwick in Nov 1577 when he witnessed a
Sasine
Sasine in Scots law is the delivery of Feudalism, feudal property, typically land.
Feudal property means immovable property, and includes everything that naturally goes with the property. For land, that would include such things as buildings, tre ...
.
[Hist.MSS.1902, p.208.]
Just south of the Tweed from Fishwick is the northernmost village in England,
Horncliffe
Horncliffe is a village in the county of Northumberland, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Tweed about south west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and about north east of Norham and is the most northerly village in England.
History
Hor ...
. Between Fishwick and Horncliffe is the famous
Union Bridge, a very early
suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
dating from 1820. When it was opened it was the longest wrought-iron suspension bridge in the world, and it is still carrying traffic, though now only one vehicle at a time. One of the toll cottages was demolished in 1955. The crossing is now toll-free.
Notes
Villages in the Scottish Borders
Berwickshire
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