BORDER VILLAGES

Cheswick

LOCATION

Five miles south of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

From Goswick we've geese
And from Cheswick we've cheese,
From Buckton we've venison in store.
From Swinhoe we've bacon
But the Scots have it taken
And the Prior is longing for more.

A verse from the poem 'The Black Sow of Rimside and the Monk of Holy
Island.'

One of the specialist farms owned by the Monasteries, Cheswick was a dairy
farm where cheese was made to supply the priory at Holy Island
(Lindisfarne). The Priory owned various tracts of the land on the mainland
where farms were established specializing in a particular produce, and so we
have Goswick, Buckton and Swinhoe.

Wic means a homestead, village or farm and the term is often associated with
a dairy farm, and so Cheswick was a dairy farm where cheese was made. It is
pronounced Chezik. The first known record was a reference to Chesewic in
1208.

AROUND AND ABOUT

Lindisfarne

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