Berwick Main Guard

The Main Guard is the last of four guardhouses that once stood inside the gates of Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town that changed hands between England and Scotland thirteen times between 1296 and 1482. The present building dates from 1743. It first stood in Marygate in front of the town hall and was moved twice, finally in 1815 because of traffic, to its present site on Palace Green against the southern rampart of the Elizabethan walls. Inside are the soldiers' room, a slightly more comfortable officers' room and the prison cell known as the black hole, where the drunk and disorderly were locked up. English Heritage owns the building, and the Berwick Civic Society Trust runs it as a free summer museum, with one room on the history of the town and another for a yearly exhibition. Visitors describe a small museum staffed by knowledgeable volunteers. The Barracks, a short walk away, are closed for redevelopment.