Paul Thomas Bidwell (16 June 1949 – 5 November 2022) was a British archaeologist specialising in

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

, Roman pottery,

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...

and the Roman army in Britain.

Biography

Bidwell was a graduate of the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

in 1971 where he studied law. Shortly after graduation, he worked as a site assistant for Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit on the legionary fortress of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

. By 1974, he was assistant director of the unit and published the excavations in 1979. Bidwell moved to northern England in 1980 to excavate at the fort of Vindolanda on

. Following work on the Roman bridges of the Wall, he started working at

Arbeia Arbeia was a large Roman fort in South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England, now ruined, and which has been partially reconstructed. It was first excavated in the 1870s and all modern buildings on the site were cleared in the 1970s. It is managed by Tyn ...

, South Shields Roman fort in 1983 for the Tyne and Wear Museums service where he remained until his retirement in 2013. At Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, Bidwell recognised the importance of presenting the sites to their surrounding urban communities and was instrumental in the building of the replica gate (1988), barracks and commanding officer's house (2001) at Arbeia, South Shields Roman fort as well as a section of the Wall at Wallsend (1994) and replica Roman baths at Segedunum / Wallsend Roman fort (2000). In the 1980s and 1990s, Arbeia, South Shields became a training ground for archaeologists and the socially inclusive excavations he led were a forerunner to what is now called

Community archaeology Community archaeology is archaeology by the people for the people. The field is also known as public archaeology. There is debate about whether the terms are interchangeable; some believe that community archaeology is but one form of public archa ...

. This was recognised in the award of an OBE for services to heritage in the

2012 New Year Honours 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. In addition to running the archaeology team, Bidwell made a significant contribution to museology, especially at Arbeia and he led the development for the new museum at Segedunum in the 1990s, opening in 2000. The opportunity of developer-funded archaeology in the 1990s led to the creation of TWM Archaeology as a full-scale commercial contracting unit, whose activities supplemented the capital development projects and research at South Shields and Wallsend. In 2009, TWM Archaeology hosted the 21st International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. Bidwell helped found the Arbeia Society in 1991 and to celebrate its 30th anniversary, some of his colleagues prepared a book of papers in his honour which was published shortly before his death in November 2022. Bidwell was elected as a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

in March 1985. Bidwell died on 5 November 2022, at the age of 73.

Select publications

*Bidwell, P. T. 1979. ''The Legionary Bath-house and Basilica and Forum at Exeter'', Exeter Archaeological Reports Vol. 1, Exeter *Bidwell, P. T. 1985. ''The Roman Fort of Vindolanda at Chesterholm, Northumberland'', HBM England Archaeological Report no. 1, London. *Bidwell, P. T. and Holbrook, N. 1989. ''Hadrian's Wall bridges'', English Heritage Archaeological Reports no. 9, London. *Bidwell, P. T. and Speak, S.C. 1994. ''Excavations at South Shields Roman Fort, vol. 1'', Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne with Tyne and Wear Museums *Bidwell, P. T., Snape, M. and Croom, A. 1999. ''Hardknott Roman Fort, Cumbria: including an account of the excavations by the late Dorothy Charlesworth'', CWAAS Research series no. 9, Kendal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bidwell, Paul 1949 births 2022 deaths Alumni of the University of Exeter British archaeologists Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Officers of the Order of the British Empire