13 Facts About Brenda Swinbank

Brenda Swinbank was one of the first women in Britain to become a professional archaeologist, specialising in the study of Hadrian's Wall, and was instrumental in bringing to publication excavations under York Minster.

Swinbank went to Hemsworth Grammar School in Wakefield before attending Durham University in 1946 to study Modern History, where she was inspired by Eric Birley, who invited Swinbank to stay at his house at Chesterholm, near Vindolanda, and who later described her as a "really competent excavator and field archaeologist", to excavate at Corbridge and Housesteads.

Brenda Swinbank graduated in 1949 with an upper second-class degree in History, and attended the Hadrian's Wall Pilgrimage before being awarded a two-year Durham Colleges Research Studentship.

In 1950, Brenda Swinbank supervised excavations at Birdoswald with John Gillam, before completing her thesis The Vallum Reconsidered, for which she received a doctorate from Durham University in 1954.

Brenda Swinbank became the third British woman awarded a PhD for a thesis on the archaeology of Britain.

Brenda Swinbank excavated sections of the Vallum including at Cawfields and Great Chesters as part of her research, as well as Bewcastle, the Carrawburgh Mithraeum with Ian Richmond, and elsewhere the Roman fort of Castell Collen at Llandrindod Wells with Leslie Alcock, and the Roman fort at Penydarren in South Wales.

In 1956, Brenda Swinbank began a two-year assistant lectureship at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, covering the history of Europe from the Classical Period to the Dark Ages.

Brenda Swinbank was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1958.

Brenda Swinbank connected with Peter Wenham, an archaeologist and contact of Eric Birley.

Brenda Swinbank was born on 2 February 1929, in Ackworth, West Yorkshire, the youngest of five siblings.

Brenda Swinbank married Peter Heywood, a teacher and colleague at the Friends' School in Ackworth, with whom she had two sons and a daughter who died.

Brenda Swinbank died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on 20 December 2022, at the age of 93.

Brenda Swinbank was survived by her son, Simon, and her six grandchildren.