shewhomust | Elizabeth I's most expensive project

We looked at the tide tables, and checked plans, and decided that yesterday was the day to visit Berwick, so that's what we did, leaving the island late morning, as soon as the causeway opened. At the last minute we decided to park up by the Barracks, which we have not visited recently. We didn't visit them yesterday either, as they are undergoing transformation into a thriving cultural hub, but on our way there we had passed the Visitor Centre. This turned out to be a converted church, which you enter, through a welcoming café and postcards space: the main body of the church contains a magnificently random display of Stuff, local regimental memorabilia, Finds of all ages fished out of the Tweed, a banner stitched by volunteers to commemmorate the thousandth anniversary of the Tweed being designated as the border between England and Scotland (not that it is, in Berwick, but never mind). Upstairs in the gallery there is a video Berwick, a town like no other: I might have snarked, because surely no town is quite like any other? But it was quite entertaining, and full of information, and we learned that the ramparts of Berwick were the greatest expenditure of Elizabeth's reign, and that Berwick has massive ice houses (for storing the ice which allowed fresh salmon to be shipped to London, and that the Parish church was one of only two built under the Protectorate...

I'd like better references for that assertion: this article calls it "a rare example" and this Guardian article muses that "Neither Cromwell nor his captains went in for church building, which is odd given the religious nature of the Commonwealth..." One way and another, we thought the church would be worth a visit. It is surrounded by greenery, shaded by trees and nestled into those expensive ramparts, so there was no way I could photograph the exterior, but fortunately there is a clear image of the church itself at the centre of this stained glass window:

nstalled to celebrate the millennium, the most recent addition to an interior which originally had no coloured glass at all, plain within as it was plain without. The window design, by Ann Sotheran majors on a Celtic knot motif, flanked by those two Celtic saints, Columa (standing on the island of Iona) and Aidan (on the more distinctive outline of Lindisfarne).

We headed into the town in search of lunch, and found a café which appears to be called Thistle Do Nicely, but don't be put off, it did indeed do nicely. By the time we had lunched, our parking was about to run out, so we agreed that

durham_rambler should relocate to the other car park, while I meandered down the hill. I thought I was being very abstemious, visiting only one gift shop plus a branch of W.H.Smith which was having a clearance sale (I bought some pens and a newspaper) but by the time I reached Bridge Street he was not sitting on the convenient bench, checking his e-mails, he was pacing up and down the street waiting for me. We had time for a quick visit to the Green Shop and to Slightly Foxed (one of those really lovely bookshops from which I nevertheless find it difficult to buy anything) and then came home via Majestic (for wine, disappointing but not disastrous) and Morrison (for surprisingly good bread).

D. was cooking, and there were guests, and it was all very convivial. And tonight we eat at the Crown and Anchor, with even more guests and ridiculously early. We'll see how that goes.