The travel writer, Bill Bryson is hoping to entice people to take a look behind closed doors as part of English Heritage's Open Day which takes place between 8-11 September, 2005. The American author, whose book, Notes From A Small Island took a wry look at the eccentricities of Britain, has lived in Norfolk for two years and classes himself as an Anglophile. He was appointed a commissioner of English Heritage last year and said he wanted to use his position to encourage respect for England's historic buildings. Nearly 150 properties will be opening their doors as part of the Heritage Open Day - many of which are not normally open to visitors. BBC Radio Norfolk's Sally Beadle caught up with the writer at Norwich Cathedral to find out more about his passion for England's history. How did you get involved in all of this? I'm the commissioner of English Heritage, which is the body which is organising the heritage open days. I'm also connected to the launch side of things because the host today is Norwich HEART, which is the local heritage organisation - the body which is responsible for preservation and regeneration in Norwich - and I'm a patron for them. So why is it that you've got so involved in heritage itself? | "We thought Norfolk looked like a nice place, we moved here two years ago and we haven't regretted it for a moment." | | Bill Bryson |
Well it's something I've always felt strongly about – I've written about it a lot over the years. For most Americans that come and live here, or Australians or people from young countries overseas that come and live in Britain, it's really important to us – it's one of the things that drives us to this country. One of the things we most admire about you is the wealth of stuff that you've got that you've had the good sense to look after for all these centuries. When English Heritage invited me become a commissioner, which is rather like a school governor and join the panel on the commission, I was thrilled and honoured and accepted at once. I've been doing it for two years and it is really the most fascinating and thrilling thing I've ever done. Do you think people in Norfolk tend to get a bit blasé about what they have on their doorstep? Not specifically in Norfolk! Generally people in older countries often take it for granted. You've got 20,000 medieval churches that date back to the Middle Ages in this country so it's very easy to allow one or two to become redundant. In fact it does matter a lot because they're not going to make any more of these churches. So It's really important not to be too casual about these things. You've written a lot about the countries all over the world – what is it that drew you to Norfolk? A house! We can live pretty much anywhere because of what I do, I don't have to go to an office every day which is a lucky privelige! We looked all over for places within a couple of hours of London. A really nice house came up on the market here and we came and had a look around. We didn't know anything about Norfolk at all – my wife is from Surrey - we didn't have any connections to the county. We thought it looked like a nice place, we moved here two years ago and we haven't regretted it for a moment. It is a nice place. Norwich itself has one of the largest numbers of buildings in the country, taking part in the Heritage Open Day. You said you looked at the list and were surprised at a couple of things that were there – are you still discovering stuff about Norwich?
 | | Norwich Cathedral cloisters |
Oh yes absolutely. It wasn't just that there were a few things that I hadn't heard of before – it was 60 or 70 out of 140 that are open for heritage open day. It's quite a substantial number. I've been taken around the city on a couple of exhausting walking tours by the county archaeologist and Michael Loveday who is the head of Norwich High and they felt like they were showing me everything! I've also been here on my own and visited a lot of sites and taken friends and to discover that there’s that much that I'd never even heard of was quite pleasing but astounding. Why should we get involved with heritage? All the things that are part of your heritage make you British - that makes this country what it is. It's part of your history. And here, unlike America, it's still living history. We're sitting here at Norwich Cathedral. This is not just some historic building, it's also an ongoing church – it's a place of worship still. One of the brilliant things about Britain is the way you've managed to save old things but to keep using them – that they've not just become museums the way they do in the United States. What do you think Norwich or Norfolk should be proud of in terms of its heritage? I think Norwich should be proud of the fact that it's got so much. But it should also remember that it's done an awful lot of bad things in its time. Long before your time or mine, they tore down quite a lot of the city wall in order to widen the road. I don't think they'd do anything quite as foolish as that now. But certainly if you look around, fantastic as it is, there's an awful lot of places where even more improvements can be made. All over the world including in Norwich an awful lot of really ugly buildings went up in the '60s and '70s and slowly they're being replaced. I'm happy to see that process hastened and certainly in the middle of Norwich. What would you go and see for the Heritage Open Day? Well that's a very good question. There are a lot of things left out of the list. One of the things which is really appealing to me is to go on guided tours of Elm Hill. I thought 'what a great idea'. So many tourists like me just walk up and down the street and have a look around. What would be nice is somebody who really knows the neighbourhood and knows that street and district and can take you around and give you all the history about it. It's a shame that there isn't someone doing that every day of the year. There's a lot of stuff like that that's kind of the once a year chance to get a really nice conducted tour of all of a lot of wonderful places. | 
