The Arts In Berwick --Architecture
Religious Controversies

The later 17th century was rent with religious controversy. One of those that objected to Scottish bishops was poet and diarist James Melville (1556-1614). Exiled to Berwick for his views he married the vicar's daughter and died in the town.

Between 1650 and 1652, Colonel George Fenwicke, governor of the town, supervised the building of Holy Trinity Church, one of only three churches nationally built during the Commonwealth period. It is supposed that Cromwell himself, en route to the battle of Dunbar, forbade the building of a tower or spire. Inside, a west gallery survives from the pulpit-centred Presbyterian arrangement.

The irony is, that this Puritan seeming church is architecturally almost identical to St Katerine Cree in London. Built in 1628-31 this was under the patronage of, and dedicated by, the Puritans' worst enemy, Archbishop Laud.



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