Scremerston

Scremerston is a village in Northumberland, England. The village lies on the North Sea coast just under 2.5 miles (4 km) south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and 4.3 miles (7 km) from the Anglo-Scottish border. It is adjacent to the A1, providing access to Newcastle upon Tyne to the south, and to Edinburgh to the north.

Scremerston encompasses a number of satellite settlements scattered between the A1 and the coastline at Cocklawburn Beach. These include Borwell, Heatherytops, Inlandpasture, Redhouse, Scremerston Town Farm and Seahouse. Surviving miners' cottages include Restoration Cottages, Deputy Row and Derwentwater Terrace. Scremerston Hill farm and cottages lie 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south, but have been largely cut off from the village by the busy A1 road.

Scremerston has appeared in records at least as early as 1131. It has been written as Scrimestan, Scremerestone, Scremeston, Skremerstone, Screymerston and Scrymmerstone, making it a difficult name to interpret precisely. The first element is most likely a personal name such as Skirmer or Skurmer from the Old French escrimeur meaning "fencer" or the Old Norse personal name Skraema. The second element probably refers to either the Old English stán meaning rock or stone or the Old English tūn meaning an enclosure, farmstead or village. Hence a variation of Skrimer's boundary-stone, Skrimer's farm, Skraema's Stone, Skraema's Farm, etc.

Prior to the 1957 edition, the village appeared on Ordnance Survey maps as 'Richardson's Stead', with 'Scremerston' referring to the wider area and a specific settlement just under 1 mile (1.6 km) south, now known as Scremerston Town Farm. Naturalist George Johnston, in his 1829 publication Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed, refers to 'Richardson's-stead' and 'Scrammerston' as distinct places between which common barberry can be found. By the turn of the 20th century there was ambiguity, as typified by author and illustrator Charles George Harper when describing his journey up the Great North Road (the forerunner of the current A1) first published in 1901: "Always upwards, it passes collieries, the 'Cat' inn, and the hamlet of Richardson's Stead or Scremerston, whence, arrived at the summit of Scremerston Hill, the way down into Tweedmouth and across the Tweed into Berwick is clear."

Evidence of habitation during this period is scarce but not insignificant, and includes both domestic pottery and burial sites. Two cists were found in Scremerston about 120 yards (110 m) north-west of Borewell, one in 1922 the other in 1948. The cists had been inserted at the south end of a low, sandy ridge. The first cist, made of thin sandstone slabs, measured 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) square and contained a female skull, fragments of a beaker and two flints. The second cist was of similar size and contained two beakers which are held at the Great North Museum: Hancock.

A sherd of a Bronze Age food urn was found at Scremerston Hill in 1925 and is held by National Museums Scotland.

A multivallate fort is recorded on the cliffline 1⁄5 mile (0.32 km) north of Seahouse. Three arcs of ditch enclose an area about 150 m across. The site is dissected by a railway line and the eastern end has not been identified and has most likely been lost to erosion of the cliff. About 150 m to the west of the fort lies a linear feature running north–south for 400 m while 80 m further west a similar feature runs parallel for nearly 500 m. These have been interpreted as the north–south axes of a field system associated with the site.

A possible ring ditch and two ditches measuring approximately 8 metres by 6 metres considered to be of prehistoric/Roman origins lie 100m north-west of the Spittal Chain Low radar site. Both of these sites are documented on aerial photographs of crop markings. Two much larger prehistoric double ditched curvilinear enclosures are visible as cropmarks on air photographs about 750m to the east of Scremerston Town Farm. Each has inner ditches of over 50m in diameter.