| Facts | Birdoswald has served many functions including a fort, the residence of a Dark Age chief and a defended farm. The fort in Roman times was called 'Banna' It was one of 16 forts on Hadrian's Wall. Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. A backpacking expedition in 1973 brought him to England where he met his wife and decided to settle. |
We caught up with Bill and asked how he became involved with Birdoswald … "A little over a year ago, English Heritage approached me with the idea of being a commissioner for them. I’d always been interested in heritage and said 'yes', not expecting to hear anything for quite a while … but just a few weeks later they got back in touch, just as I’d become a resident in the UK again, to say a position as a commissioner had become free and I was being invited to take it." Bill admits that he hasn’t seen Birdoswald before (part of the reason for the trip there today!) but he has spent much time in the area. “We used to go the Settle to Carlisle Railway a lot when we lived in Malhamdale. If we had friends staying we would take them on the railway and spend half a day in Carlisle.”
“I’d never heard of Birdoswald up until a month ago - when it became an issue with English Heritage … but it’s fantastic!”
“I feel no shame in saying I’ve never heard of it … I mean, everywhere you go in this country there are tens of thousands of historic sites. You’re so lucky” So what can English Heritage bring to Birdoswald? “It can bring a national perspective, it can market it nationally and internationally and look at the whole of Hadrian’s Wall as a totality rather than just as parts.” So how do you know Cumbria?
 | | Bill Bryson |
We used to come a do a lot of walking here. And I had a son who was a fell runner when we lived in Malhamdale and I’ve spent a lot of time at fell races on Sunday afternoons in places like Eskdale and places like that.”
“It’s such a wonderful way to discover a region when you have a purpose to be there and see a lot of people out on a Sunday afternoon enjoying themselves.”
“Fell running is such an exciting sport, and for me as a foreigner, it was one of those moments when I felt so lucky to live here and be part of it … and to be able to dip into that side of British life." Bill’s now moved back to the UK, though not the north of England … “I’m sorry to say we didn’t end up in this part of the country again. But we just happened to find a house in Norfolk that suited us, so we moved there.” So what can we expect next from Bill Bryson? “ I’m working on a much smaller than normal project – a concise biography of William Shakespeare, which is a strange departure for me.”
“It’s part of a series of biographies of famous people.”
“The publishers sent me a list of whose biographies had been taken and whose was available and I noticed nobody had taken William Shakespeare. So as much out of a sense of duty, as anything else I thought somebody's got to do Shakespeare.”
“He's such an interesting human being, and he lived at such an amazing period when so much was going on … and I’ve been having the time of my life with that.” If you want to hear more about Bill Bryson, click the audio link at the top of the page.
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