Norham is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, just south of the River Tweed

River Tweed

The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of Great Britain. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying...

 and the border with Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

It is the site of the 12th century Norham Castle

Norham Castle

Norham Castle is a partly ruined castle in Northumberland, England, overlooking the River Tweed, on the border between England and Scotland. It is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument...

, and was for many years the centre for the Norhamshire

Norhamshire

Norhamshire was an exclave of County Durham in England. It was first mentioned in 995, when it formed part of the lands of the priory at Lindisfarne...

 exclave of County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

. It was transferred to Northumberland in 1844.

It was on the Tweed here that Edward I of England

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

 met the Scots nobility in 1292 to decide on the future king of Scotland.

Sir Walter Scott gained fame as a poet, particularly with Marmion set around the Battle of Flodden in 1513. It begins:

Day set on Norham's castled steep,

And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep,

And Cheviot's mountains lone:

The battled towers, the donjon keep,

The loophole grates where captives weep,

The flanking walls that round it sweep,

In yellow lustre shone.

The 19th century Ladykirk and Norham Bridge

Ladykirk and Norham Bridge

Ladykirk and Norham Bridge, which connects Ladykirk in the Borders, Scotland, with Norham in Northumberland, England, is a bridge in the United Kingdom that spans the River Tweed. It is a late stone road bridge with four arches designed by Thomas Codrington and Cuthbert A. Brereton for the Tweed...

 is a late stone road bridge that connects the village with Ladykirk

Ladykirk, Scottish Borders

Ladykirk is a village on the B6470 in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, and the former Berwickshire, just north of the River Tweed and the Anglo-Scottish border. The town was formerly known as Upsettlington, but King James IV of Scotland renamed the town Ladykirk; the church is also known as St...

 in the Scottish Borders

Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...

.

J.M.W. Turner always tipped his hat to Norham Castle, as it was the place which brought him fame as an artist. The picture of the castle which hangs in Tate Britain

Tate Britain

Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...

, luminously near-abstract, is one of the great treasures of the collection.

External links

• GENUKI (Accessed: 20 November 2008)