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 England's
northernmost town is Berwick-upon-Tweed, on the north-east coast of
Northumberland, just south of the Scottish border. Originally part of
Scotland, Berwick from the 12th century underwent a series of battles
and ransom trades between England and Scotland that lasted 300 years. In
that time it changed hands no less than 14 times, until in 1482 it
permanently became part of England.
Berwick had
already been proclaimed an fully independent district, with a Government
separate from that of either England or Scotland, and a Court of its own
(Lord Chancellor, Lord Chamberlain, bailiffs), and even its own mint.
Indeed, up until 1885 no English Acts of Parliament were recognised in
Berwick unless they explicitly stated that they applied to the town.
This meant that in strict official parlance the U.K. had to be referred
to as "The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and
Berwick-upon-Tweed". (For all I know, it still does.)
This convention,
however, failed to prevent a lovely blunder 50 years ago. When war was
declared on Hitler’s Germany, the full U.K. title was used, but at war’s
end somebody naughty forgot his protocol, and the peace declaration
omitted mention of Berwick.
Berwick thus
remained officially at war with Germany until the error was noticed —
in 1987.
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