“Bill’s teaching was inclusive and stimulating. This was the magic of Bill. He was a sounding board for me, the kind of guy, like an uncle with whom you were able to talk freely without prejudice….” William Gibbon, author of Change of Scene,” writing in “Cumbrian Miscellany”, 2001.
“Whenever you heard Bill speak, you knew that he was someone who had a genuine feel for Cumbrian history and to whom the landscape, records, and history were but stepping-stones to understanding how real people lived. He made an enormous contribution to our knowledge of this area, and his published work will undoubtedly continue to enlighten many future generations about what has fashioned the Cumbria we know today. But Bill as a person will be sadly missed. His humour, his unending search for evidence, and his encouragement to even the most limited of Cumbrian students cannot be replaced. We owe him a great deal” .
- David Cross, author of “ A Striking Likeness,” a biography of George Romney.
“I first got to know Bill Rollinson in September 1951 when I started work in Barrow Library and he was a fourteen year old Grammar School boy, in and out, doing his homework, following his interest, even then in local history. He made more and more use of the local collection when he was at university. When he became a lecturer giving extension lectures in Barrow, quite a few of the library staff went to support his lectures, and as his popularity grew, they remembered the fourteen year old, and never more so than when his first book was published, and then of course when he appeared on TV. Bill was very generous with his time when anyone had a local history inquiry or one about Scandinavia. If you visited him, the telephone frequently rang and it could be a student, a TV producer or a publisher. All were treated with equal courtesy. Things came full circle when instead of Bill asking me for local history information I was consulting him when I was putting my talks together. Probably only the late librarian Fred Barnes had a similar extensive knowledge of local history. Bill is greatly missed”.
Pat Jones.
“It is difficult to see Bill Rollinson being replaced – that devotion, that scholarship, that happy “narrow cell”. Whenever I thought of the Lakes, I thought of Bill and that will not change.” ……Melvyn Bragg.
“Whenever you heard Bill speak, you knew that he was someone who had a genuine feel for Cumbrian history and to whom the landscape, records, and history were but stepping-
-
“I first got to know Bill Rollinson in September 1951 when I started work in Barrow Library and he was a fourteen year old Grammar School boy, in and out, doing his homework, following his interest, even then in local history. He made more and more use of the local collection when he was at university. When he became a lecturer giving extension lectures in Barrow, quite a few of the library staff went to support his lectures, and as his popularity grew, they remembered the fourteen year old, and never more so than when his first book was published, and then of course when he appeared on TV. Bill was very generous with his time when anyone had a local history inquiry or one about Scandinavia. If you visited him, the telephone frequently rang and it could be a student, a TV producer or a publisher. All were treated with equal courtesy. Things came full circle when instead of Bill asking me for local history information I was consulting him when I was putting my talks together. Probably only the late librarian Fred Barnes had a similar extensive knowledge of local history. Bill is greatly missed”.
Pat Jones.
“It is difficult to see Bill Rollinson being replaced – that devotion, that scholarship, that happy “narrow cell”. Whenever I thought of the Lakes, I thought of Bill and that will not change.” ……Melvyn Bragg.
Tributes
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements.
The maps "Scandinavian remains in part of Cumbria" and "Land owned by Furness Abbey in the 13th century are from Bill's book "A History of Man in the Lake District". The author gave me permission to use them in my book "Our Barrovians".
Hunter Davies for permission for photographs of his visit to be included in this biography
Photography
The photograph of Bill was taken by Alvin Hunter for the book "Our Barrovians"
The photographs of Schneider Square and Urswick Church were taken by Roy Chatfield.
The two photographs of Mundal are by courtesy of Maureen Fleming
In Hunter Davies visits Barrow the black and white pictures by Courtesy of NW Evening Mail
and the colour photography by Roy Chatfield.
Iceland photos and one of Bill wearing a horned helmet Courtesy of Janice Savage.
Norwegian pictures from the Harold Jarl: Building in old fortress Vardo, Oksfjord harbour,
Skervog and Glaciers taken by Harry and Doreen Knipe.
Denmark photographs from the collection of Alice Leach.
The maps "Scandinavian remains in part of Cumbria" and "Land owned by Furness Abbey in the 13th century are from Bill's book "A History of Man in the Lake District". The author gave me permission to use them in my book "Our Barrovians".
Hunter Davies for permission for photographs of his visit to be included in this biography
Photography
The photograph of Bill was taken by Alvin Hunter for the book "Our Barrovians"
The photographs of Schneider Square and Urswick Church were taken by Roy Chatfield.
The two photographs of Mundal are by courtesy of Maureen Fleming
In Hunter Davies visits Barrow the black and white pictures by Courtesy of NW Evening Mail
and the colour photography by Roy Chatfield.
Iceland photos and one of Bill wearing a horned helmet Courtesy of Janice Savage.
Norwegian pictures from the Harold Jarl: Building in old fortress Vardo, Oksfjord harbour,
Skervog and Glaciers taken by Harry and Doreen Knipe.
Denmark photographs from the collection of Alice Leach.