"Barbara Henderson on being the Forth Bridge writer in residence": Webinar on Monday 4 December 2023

Barbara Henderson's first introduction to the Forth Bridge was on a holiday visit from her native Germany in the 1980s when her family were eying up her future brother-in-law - her father, an engineer was much impressed by the structure, and when she was applying for a university place she thought how cool would it be to go back. Soon she fell in love with its environs, getting married in the Rosebery Hall at South Queensferry, but still its influence on her career was not yet clear.

Settling in Scotland, she became a writer tackling many historical subjects from the Lewis chessmen to the Siege of Caerlaverock, and because these lent themselves to her role as a drama teacher she came round to the thought that perhaps there could be a story for young people in the building of the Bridge. Not an engineer, she thought it best to start while work was well under way, treating her theme as a washing line pegged out by real people and events, with her tale fluttering in between. The historical heroes were of course middle-aged men - Fowler, Baker and Arrol - but the memorials told of a boy as young as 13 who died falling from the Bridge. His fate would have been too sad to support her narrative, however then she discovered the true story of John Nicol aged 12 who fell 80 feet and suffered nothing worse than a good wetting, and to lighten her theme there was also an account of a red squirrel that fell from the Bridge and got fished out.

Now she enlisted an expert, Briggers historian Frank Hay who withstood her relentless questioning by responding with thousands of emails that made her notebooks fairly bulge. Places that entered her narrative included the Hawes Inn and Dunfermline's newly-opened Carnegie Library where young John - his father having died when a rivet failed on a construction job in Australia - went determined to complete his education. The device of an autograph book enabled her to work in characters including Andrew Carnegie, Robert Louis Stevenson and Margaret Moir who described herself as an "engineer by marriage", and so "Rivet Boy" was taking shape when the suggestion arose in discussion with Frank's history group that the task of taking the story into schools would be one for a sort of Writer in Residence.

They took her at her word, and soon she was helping raise funds for the role, which came into being with the annual Your View event of 2022, when Barnardo's supporters gave donations in return for a trip in the lift to the top of the Bridge's Fife cantilever. Barbara was persuaded to join them, and while at first feeling wobbly was soon able to enjoy the amazing views. When a literary event showing the potential occurred at South Queensferry in November 2022, the book was still three months away from publication. with Sandra McGowan on board as illustrator, but already the way forward was emerging through several book festivals which would take awareness beyond audiences that the Briggers could normally hope to reach. Thus the itinerary would culminate with an exhibition about Arrol in Ayr and with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, when 220 kids each got a free copy and the signing queue stretched for one and a half hours round the tent.

Now the idea was taking shape of a second volume to complete her one-year Residency, and this would be to bring together the testimony of present-day people in the wider community whose lives had been in some way impacted by the Bridge. Teaming up with photographer Alan McCredie and helped by Frank, she found a veritable A to Z of interviewees, from an artist to a zoologist - folk who worked on or were inspired by the Bridge - and this circle went so much wider than engineers to encompass enthusiasts, train operators, tourism providers and even Miles Oglethorpe, the Bridge's global ambassador who secured for it UNESCO world heritage status as one of only six such places in Scotland and one of four railway locations on the planet. Train driver and local lad Gavin Black describes his daily schedule across the Bridge by telling her that "every time I pass over the Ferry I reminisce about my youth, hanging out with my mates all parked up in our Ford Capris along the Hawes. We were all down there looking up. Now I find myself up here looking down, and wonder how I got here".

"Made from Girders" telling their stories was launched at the 2023 Your View, but any idea that Barbara could just slip away to the many other projects claiming her intention is proving false since she knows that truly the Bridge never leaves you. With both books now readily available (see details below) she expects her input to schools and other groups to be in demand for some time to come, and is looking forward to the Bridge getting the recognition that it deserves with the long-awaited bridgeclimb and an appropriately fine visitor centre.

"Rivet Boy" is published by Pokey Hat, an imprint of Cranachan Publishing Ltd at £7.99 - 170 pages
"Made from Girders" is published by Luath Press Ltd at £12.99 - 174 pages.

For more information on Barbara, go to Report & photograph by John Yellowlees.