Having worked Jimmy and Tom S2S earlier in the day it was great to have an eyeball QSO in a Berwick upon Tweed (UK) watering hole.
Great to meet you Paul. Thanks for the drink!
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Nice to see you all enjoying a drink together in a wee Scottish town. 
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For all the history buffs out there, Berwick has swapped hands between England and Scotland about 13 times.
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I was brought up in Carlisle, at the western end of the current Scottish /English border and it has a similar history. It is the Borders and did not really belonged to anyone for a time. The Borders was where the term Blackmail was invented. White mail or white tax was paid to the King. Black mail was paid to gangsters by farmers as protection money to stop them being raided.
“Red-handed” also originates from the region I believe. To be caught red-handed meant with blood on your hands.
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Yes but my reading tells me it was because the cattle were black. Blackmailers asked for payment to guard your cattle. If you didn’t pay, they disappeared! Rob Roy was one such gentleman. Allegedly.
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I believe life expectancy in the town wasn’t the greatest!
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Descending further down the rabbit hole, the border area was lawless for a lot longer than Scottish territory north and English territory south.
Border Reivers is the term used to describe the historical social structure here which seemed to hinge around theft, deception and confused loyalties in rather exaggerated terms.
Here’s an example (aka Smalholm) of a border fortress to protect daughters, wives and cattle from marauding gangsters.
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The area has left its mark in US history too, for better or worse. Nixon, Graham and Armstrong are all names from the Borders.
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That border is an artificial construct, anyway. The transition from “Englishness” to “Scottishness” does not happen that suddenly even if the flags do change suddenly!
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Hi Paul,
It was nice to work you summit to summit and then to meet you in person afterwards for a couple of beers.
Jimmy M0HGY
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M6BWA Sorry it wasn’t a s2s Jimmy from the slopes of Cairn of Claise but you were very clear on the handy with a small whip, Best of luck with your activities in Fife. We enjoyed the area very much. Shame our visits didn’t coincide as I need to chase all those summits (including Spartelton) but I only chase from summits.
73 Viki
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Hi Viki,
It was good to overhear you yesterday when you called Jimmy on 2m FM.
You are aware that there is a S2S log / honour roll, separate to the Chaser log / honour roll I assume? So it is possible to log chases of summits made when you are not activating, and they won’t “infect” your exclusive S2S records.
Tom M1EYP
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It’s a hard border in regards to the laws around selling alcohol. When the Scottish Government introduced minimum alcohol pricing, the Tesco stores in Carlisle and Berwick upon Tweed saw a 40% jump in booze sales - the 21st century version of a cross-border raid!
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On the last September LD event I called in to Aldi or Lidl in Carlisle and picked up 2x 1l gin, 1l Bacardi, 1/2l of cooking rum…saved a fortune but checkout woman was impressed for someone to buy do much at 8.05 morning!
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Also Bombay Sapphire is £16/l on squeezyjet’s duty free!
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It kinda depended which pub you were in. From the outside, you couldn’t tell which “side of the community” the pub leant towards. Once inside, there was no doubt. Echoes of the pub experience in GI!
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