Watch Melvyn Braggs Travels In Written Britain online: Episode 1 North Journey

Written Britain could historically be said to begin in the North of England. The first history of the country was written – by a monk, the Venerable Bede - in the early years of the eighth century, in the monastery that used to stand at Jarrow, on the river Tyne in North-East England. The journey continues to Hadrian’s Wall and across to the Lakes taking in Basil Bunting, pitman poet Joseph Skipsey, Wordsworth, Catherine Cookson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. And, alongside ex-miners and steel workers, stone masons and a dry-stone waller, the North of England is shown to be rich in writings. The earliest surviving writings in Britain were found at the Vindolanda Dig, situated to the South of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, where thousands of Roman stone and wooden tablets made by Roman soldiers were unearthed. Dating back to the first century AD, the British Museum has declared them the most important single domestic find ever, giving an insight into their everyday life. Contributors include: The Bishop of Durham, Robson Green, Tim Healy, Keith Barron, Hunter Davies, Chris Bonington.

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