PAST & PRESENT
A part of England that sometimes feels quite a bit Scottish, Berwick-upon-Tweed was served by state-owned operators from both sides of the border and today relies on a family-owned group to provide its town services with smaller vehicles than were being used around 60 years ago
Berwick-upon-Tweed has been part of England for over 500 years, but during the previous 400 years it changed hands over a dozen times between England and Scotland. It is the northernmost town in Northumberland, but the historic county of Berwickshire is in Scotland and the town’s football team, Berwick Rangers, competes in the Scottish Lowland League. The shops and railway station in Berwick play as essential a part in the lives of those who inhabit the coastal and inland villages of Berwickshire as those whose homes are in the north of Northumberland, and Iain MacGregor’s pictures from 1963 and 1987 — focusing on services to Prior Park estate in the south of the town — are a reminder that the border has not constrained the ownership of Berwick’s buses. Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) and United Automobile Services shared the town centre depot and bus station, which functioned fro…
