The exact location of the Bit village has never been fully identified although we know that it was near the Roman Wall which Emperor Hadrian ordered built when he visited Britain in A.D.122 to keep out the Barbarians from the north. The original intention was for a stone wall of some seventy-three miles from Newcastle to the River Irthing in Cumbria and then a turf wall from Irthing to the Solway in the west. Amateur historians have put the Bit site variously at what is now Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, Hexham, Morpeth, or even Durham or Sunderland. South Shields has also been mentioned but as the Romans had a large camp there it seems unlikely that they would want to share the site. It has even been suggested that the encampment was situated on a site now occupied by Percy A Hudson's wood mill in North Shields where the Bits could keep an eye on the Roms on the other side of the river.. Surprisingly, the academic communities at both the Newcastle and Northumberland Universities do not appear to have heard of this tribe, or their Queen and her royal line, which of course makes the task of pinpointing the site more difficult. However all is not lost because following a visit to a Sunday Car Boot sale the author was able to purchase for a modest sum an empty fag packet which contained on the back pencilled details describing the location. Together with other clues this suggests that the Bit village and the queens palace was probably located in what is now the seaside town of Whitley Bay. It is difficult to believe that a Town where residents are engaged in guerrilla warfare with local Traffic Wardens, the Library has a continual book sale and Scots holidaymakers eagerly await the re-opening of the public loo, could have been home to one of the great unknowns of history. Nevertheless, it is beyond dispute that Queen Bodemenia liked to paddle in the sea on calm days and when it was rough it provided an atmospheric backdrop to her Operatic renderings. However if anyone has any further information on the Queen or
the Tribe then please do not hesitate to write:
All messages will be treated in the strictest confidence and none will be
leaked to the press.(unless the price is right) For the more seriously minded viewer you may like to visit the Hadrian Wall site or the Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
- For further Information/History
about North East England then why not visit the regional sites for Tyneside Sunderland Durham or North East-Online © B J Pearce 98 |
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