Although Berwickshire is now in Scotland, it is the ancient shire of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is now the northernmost town in England (having changed hands between the English and the Scots fourteen times). Berwick, situated at the mouth of the River Tweed, is only 9 miles away from Chirnside.
Chirnside is probably Anglian in origin (most of the placenames in Berwickshire are Anglo-Saxon) and the first church was built in the Norman period (between the 6th century AD and 1018 this was part of England) - part of the Norman arch can still be seen on the church.
Not much has ever happened to Chirnside. It was bombed by a Zeppelin during the First World War, but that was probably more a comment on the navigational abilities of its crew than a widely-held Teutonic opinion of the village!
Should you be so impressed by the charms of Chirnside that you feel driven to visit it, you can now stay in a bed and breakfast (in part of the old BlackAdder Brewery) just over the road from the church. The brewery ceased production in the 19th century once it was discovered that one of its two wells collected water that had passed through the churchyard. Yum...
