L S Lowry In Berwick Upon Tweed
Walk The Lowry Trail To Discover Northumberland's Historic Berwick
The Lowry trail uncovers the history of Berwick upon Tweed, an old English-Scottish border town. Art lovers also discover the inspiration of the famous artist L S Lowry.
L S Lowry (1887-1976) is one of the most important British artists of the twentieth century. His paintings of spindly-legged workers walking on ghostly white streets provide a striking and original image of the industrial north of England during the mid 20th century. Despite his naive and untrained style, Lowry has become one of the world’s top division artists, with his most expensive paintings fetching almost £2m at auction. Over thirty years after his death, Lowry fever is stronger than ever.
Manchester is most strongly associated with Lowry, as his birthplace, and a considerable number of Lowry’s paintings depict this area. However, Berwick-upon-Tweed (Berwick) in Northumberland has its own Lowry trail. Located on the north east coast, Berwick was one of Lowry’s favourite places, and he holidayed here almost every year from the mid 1930’s right until his death aged 89.
Berwick-Upon-Tweed’s Lowry Trail
The Lowry trail consists of a six-mile walk around Berwick, with 18 identified points of interest indicated by display boards shaped as an artist’s easel. The boards show a copy of the painting Lowry produced in the area, together with some detailed commentary about the piece.
The walk is an excellent introduction to Berwick, as well as offering a fascinating insight into Lowry and his art.
The Lowry trail begins in the centre of Berwick, and sweeps past the grand Town Hall built in 1750. The Town Hall stands on an imposing mound of stone steps, with a grand stone columned entrance. The sweeping Town Hall spire towers over the surrounding buildings.
Lowry particularly loved Berwick Town Hall and his vision of the building stands immobile like a protruding rock in a stream, as hoards of people part to pass it. Lowry depicted himself as a lonely and disconnected figure (some felt Lowry probably had Aspergers Syndrome) and he connected to this aloof and distant building.
The Lowry trail leads through the back streets of Berwick town centre. Berwick was one of the most fiercely fought for towns in the United Kingdom as it lies so close to the Scottish border. In fact, Berwick changed hands no less than 13 times between 1147 and 1482! As a result, building space inside the fortifications was limited, and the Lowry trail today winds through narrow passageways surrounded by high and old buildings.
Berwick’s Elizabethan Fortifications
The trail also takes the walker past another piece of Berwick history; the Elizabethan built fortifications of the 1500’s, on the northern edge of Berwick. Queen Elizabeth I replaced Berwick’s original fortifications at a time when England was on high battle alert against Queen Mary of Scotland. The Berwick fortifications were the most expensive buildings ever produced during Elizabeth’s time, but on completion in 1566, the threat from the Scottish had already reduced. Today, they form the most expensively built series of soccer pitches, parkland and car parking in the land! The fortifications today truly are impressive. Only the brave are happy to peer over the sheer grassy slopes to the 100-foot drop to normal land level.
Another highlight of the Lowry trail is the tour to the end of the pier wall. The walk gives a good view of the mouth of the River Tweed and the long sandy spit at the other side of town (known as Spittal), as well as the chance to spot seals.
The remains of Berwick Castle
At the castle side of town, take a detour from the Lowry trail and explore the area of the old castle. The main attraction is not the castle itself, but the view of the old border railway bridge. Famous Victorian engineer Robert Stephenson designed the bridge in the late 1840s. The bridge has 28 stone arches, and on construction, was the longest bridge in the world. Today, the bridge still towers over the river and stands as an impressive monument to the industrial power of Victorian Britain.
The castle was strategically very important, but once the wars between the Scots and English ended, it was rebuilt as a palace in the 1600s. Later it suffered further indignity when it was converted into a train station serving the new railway bridge. The current train station replaced the former palace in the 1920’s. Today, all that remains of the Castle is a piece of wall and rampart leading down the slope from the site of the train station to the mouth of the River Tweed.
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The Lowry trail allows the visitor to learn something of the great artist Lowry, and it is inspiring to imagine that Lowry himself wandered along this route little more than 30 years ago.
Visitors can pick up a free copy of the Lowry trail leaflet in the tourist information office in the centre of town at 106 Marygate. Anyone following the trail needs to be good map-readers; the trail is marked onto a small map and in the centre of town, the route can prove tricky.
