Wark on Tweed

Wark on Tweed
Northumberland
Wark and the Castle
Location
Grid reference:	NT826386
Location:	55°38’28"N, 2°16’38"W
Data
Post town:	Cornhill-On-Tweed
Postcode:	TD12
Dialling code:	01890
Local Government
Council:	Northumberland
Parliamentary constituency:	Berwick upon Tweed

Wark on Tweed (usually referred to simply as Wark) is a village in Northumberland a little to the west of Cornhill-on-Tweed and Coldstream across in Roxburghshire. Berwick-upon-Tweed. Is fifteen miles to the northeast.

The village stands on the south bank of the River Tweed which here marks the boundary with Roxburghshire on the north bank. There is no bridge at Wark: the closest is the Coldstream Bridge crossing to the eponymous village.

History

A castle once stood in the village. All that remains though of the twelfth century Wark Castle is a grass-covered ruin rising from the motte.

The village has a unique place in history: it was at the castle here in 1349 that King Edward III bent down and assisted the "Countess of Salisbury" (either Edward's future daughter-in-law Joan of Kent or her former mother-in-law, Catherine Montagu, Countess of Salisbury) with her garter and, in honour of that moment, subsequently founded the Order of the Garter. The castle was demolished in 1549.

The lyric poet Robert Story was born here.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Wark on Tweed)

• Images of Wark on Tweed Castle and other M & B Castle sites in Northumberland
• Brief account
• Northumberland Communities