Good morning, good evening or good afternoon depending on when you are reading this!  The Thirty-One Days of the Time Team.  This episode is looking at Scargill Castle and has a run time of 48:48.  It is called The Wedding Present.

A pair of archeologists are getting married, and what does the soon to be husband gets his soon to be wife?  He buys her a wreck of a castle for a wedding present.  Over the years, the surviving remains of the castle the gatehouse were lovingly restored.  The castle is located in the wilds of County Durham, formerly owned by the Scargill family.  The husband and wife team have done what they can with learning about the history of the castle.  Now Time Team is going to excavate the castle for three days.

Niall Hammond and his wife Caroline Hardie were the pair that restored the castle and have done what they can with the castle.  They have called Time Team to help them further the castle’s history.  Trench one and Trench two immediately go in under the watchful eye of Phil.  However, Mick is going to pour water on the theory that the castle was an actual castle.  He believes that it is a fortified manor house.  Richard K. Morriss, a historic buildings expert, talks about the features of a fortified manor house and points out that the gatehouse is rubbish and would not have been good for defense.

The initial trenches are showing that the complex was substantial, but was it substantial enough to be called a castle?  The Time Team will have to further its investigation.  Much of the remain building was built with fine stone and the Scargill Family was wealthy enough to carefully build their home.  Tony arrives to the rubbish gatehouse and points out the features that make Richard call it a rubbish gatehouse.  Caroline despairs that Richard is calling it rubbish and Tony quips that it will be the shortest Time Team.  The Gatehouse was built in the 1500’s, which would not have been built by the Scargill family.

Richard, Phil, and Mick go over another wall.  Richard points out the features that would have dated back to the Tudor times.  Trench three goes in in this area to see if there are Tudor remains.  However, the Time Team was supposed to look for the Medieval period.  What is going on with this castle?  Will the Time Team find Medieval remains?

At lunch time, Tony does some catching up in the incident room: the gatehouse and the Time Team is scattered over the three floors of the gatehouse.  Helen Geake and Michael Prestwich talk about the first short mention of the Scargill Castle in the Domesday Book.  The discussion shifts to the Scargill family who eventually owned the castle for the time.  Unfortunately, the plans of the castle have been lost to time.

In Trench three, Phil has discovered the hearth of the Tudor Fireplace.  In the meantime, a graphic recreation of the home is being worked on.  Tony catches up with Fay in the first trench while Mick and Niall catches up with Phil in the third trench.  Mick is showing his humor talking about hearing Phil’s happy scrapping.  Niall theorizes that this area had a defensive tower, and the geophysics results are showing a substantial wall in the area.  So Phil will just extend his trench instead of putting in another trench.  Back in trench one, there are some smaller finds that are being discovered amongst the huge walls.  This site is proving to be quiet the conundrum for the Time Team.  Will the Time Team sort out the wall situation?  What is geophysics revealing about the site?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Tony is on fire with his humor in this episode, especially when he found out that the castle was not a castle but a fortified house.  I rather enjoyed how Richard put it that the gatehouse was rubbish, I laugh out loud.  The story was very well done and there were lots of walls that the Time Team had to deal with.  I would show this episode to a history class and a science class because there were so many hypostasizes to test out with this castle.

Good morning, Thirty One Days of the Time Team continues to press on for October.  I am continuing  with a season eight and an episode on Canterbury.  In fact, this episode is going to tell three different stories from this medieval time.  The Time Team in three days is going to excavate a Roman Pagan Town, a Medieval Factory, and a Medieval Friary.  The run time for this episode is 48:53 and it is called Three Tales of Canterbury.

Sandi Toksvig and Liza Tarbuk, rookie archeologists, join up with Tony and the Time Team.  The Time Team is going to tell three different stories about Canterbury.  The first story involves pagan temple.  Then the Time Team is going to excavate a Medieval Friary and perhaps come face to face with the pilgrims that would have made their way to Canterbury.  Finally the Time Team will learn about a medieval factory.  What will the Time Team find in three days?  

Canterbury was an important city in Medieval History.  It was a place where pilgrims journeyed to.  Phil, Carenza, Mick and Phil talk about what is going ton with this dig and eventually they meet up with Sandi Toksvig and Liza Tarbuk.  The challenge is to uncover as much as they can in three days and the Time Team is going to do it live.

The first trench will go in over a Roman Temple site.  John Gater goes over the geophysics results.  Phil will have to make his way through some concrete to put in the first trench.  Liza heads on over to the bookstore to learn about the Roman remains that were found.  The bookstore was over a former Roman bath.  It was cool to see the Roman bath, the Roman theater, and the Roman House all right at Canterbury.  Back in the yard, Uncle Phil has discovered gravel where the Romans would have walked to enter the temple.  An iron age coin and Roman pottery is discovered at this site.  What is the significance of this area to the temple?  What else does Uncle Phil find in his trench?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out!

The second trench goes in over the Medieval Factory site.  This factory made roof and floor tiles.  The geophysics results show a giant blob in the middle of the field.  Trench two goes over this blob and trench two goes in by hand.  However the ground is hard, and so a digger is called.  The diggers get potential bigger and finally the trench is dug.  Immediately, bricks are found that indicate that there was a kiln on the site.  During this section there is a bit of experimental archelogy making tiles.  What will be discovered on this site?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out!

The third site that the Time Team is going to excavate is the Medieval friary.  The geophysics results show some fascinating wall anomalies and trench three goes over those walls.  Over the three days, the Time Team wants to find as much as they can so they can recreate the friary.  Immediately floor tiles are discovered and it is a black and white checkered board floor.  A second trench in this friary site goes over the hospital site.  One of the most interesting finds that were made at this site was a beautifully carved knife handle.  What else will be discovered at this site?  What do these digs tell us about the history of Canterbury?  Tune into the rest of the Time Team to find out.

I was nervous about this episode, because I did not think the Time Team could dig three separate sites in three days.  However I was proven wrong and they handled the digs very well.  This episode was divided up into three different chapters for each of the different stories.  The episode would show all three days at one section, then the next section would do the same thing, and the final section the same thing.  It was an interesting way to do it.  It kept everything together.  This was a very good episode and the story of Canterbury had a good flow to it.  I liked the experimental archeology part of it too.  This would be an episode that I would show to a history classroom.

Good morning, and the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team continues on for October 2024!  Time has flown by.  Today’s episode is a throwback to series eight.  Tony Robinson and the team are looking to discover the remains of a castle that once dominated the landscape in Bridgnorth.  The episode is called the Leaning Tower of Bridgnorth and it has a run time of 49:09.

The Time Team has three days to look for the remains of a medieval castle that would have dominated this former market town.  All that remains of this castle is a tower that is leaning at a far greater angle that is greater than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Unfortunately, the town’s history has been destroyed in a recent fire.  How many gardens will the Time Team have to investigate to learn about this castle?  Will the Time Team be able to find something of this castle?

Bridgenorth is where this medieval castle was.  They are excavating a park to find the remains of the castle.  Geophysics is working on mapping out the site.  However, there is another complication, there is a scheduled area that the Time Team cannot dig without a plan and permit.  Maps of the area are confusing as to where the scheduled area is.  There is a yellow line that they cannot cross to look for the castle. 

A previous excavation in the rectory garden discovered a ditch that did not mention its size or depth.  Tony is under siege from the kids showing off their ideas as to what the castle looked like.  Tony is awesome with those kids.  The remains of the tower are going to be examined carefully.  Tony then narrates a section on the basics of the castle.  John Gater reviews the geophysics results with Phil and Mick and some of those results are very interesting.  Phil points out an outline of a trench that was originally dug in a previous archeological expedition.  Trench one will go in over this original trench.

Back at the park, more geophysics results are coming in.  The results are good and the results show that something is in an area where the Time Team can dig.  Bridgenorth has won a prize for the best gardens, so the Time Team will have to be careful with this dig so the town can win next year.  In the meantime, Tony catches up with Robin Bush in the rectory library to learn about who owned the castle before.  Robin has encountered many characters over the years on the Time Team, but this castle’s owner is the Earls of Shrewsbury.  He was a nasty character who refused to ransom his captives.  He starved 300 prisoners over Lent.  Eventually, he would have rebelled against the King.  The King would take the castle and would imprison him.  I enjoyed Robin and his narration for this section.

Back in Trench One much of the work has to be done by hand, which is proving to be a challenge and taking a lot of time.  In Trench Two, the mechanical diggers are at work looking for a wall or garden that may be in the ground.  Eventually, something is discovered in Trench Two, was this the castle wall that John was denying?  In addition to the rock, there was pottery discovered in this trench.  Stewart and Mick meet together to look at the map of the area to see what the landscape could tell them about the castle.  At the end of day one, Uncle Phil meets up with Uncle Tony and Uncle Mick.  After guffawing for digging out ten tons of dirt, Uncle Phil proudly shows off the finds.  Will the Time Team have to shut down this trench?  What else will the Time Team find out about this castle?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out!

I found this episode humorous at times, it was especially surprising to hear Robin’s sense of humor.  John Gater was trying to deflect that he never said that there was a wall in Trench Two.  The Time Team was also diligent in operating within what they could.  This was a very good episode and would be an episode I would show to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on when you are reading this!  I am continuing the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team.  This time I am flash-forwarding to a newer episode.  This time the Time Team has sent a special team to Greece.  This is a two-part episode on the Time Team YouTube Channel.  The series is called Vlochos: Recovering an Ancient City.  The first episode has a run time of 26:00.  Episode two has a run time of 28:51.

Dr. Derek Pitman and Lawerence Shaw join a team of experts investigating an ancient settlement in Greece.  This was a relatively unknown site to the archeological world.  This has been an ongoing archaeological expedition uncovering a thousand years of history.  Using modern technology, this team has been investigating this settlement in Central Greece to learn more about the history of Ancient Greece.  This expedition team has a longer time to look at the site than the traditional Time Team.

Pitman and Shaw get together with the leader of the expedition to learn what is going on with this site.  The site is massive and has some complications.  This site has been worked on for the past five years and Pitman and Shaw will have two weeks on this site.  The initial expeditions looked to map out the site and gather artifacts.  It seems that there were four different periods of occupation on the site, however, translating these periods is a bit of a challenge.  There are many different levels in the land as well as some overlap in the period.  Magnetometry is employed to help map out the site.  The results show an extensive street layout.  It would have been at its height during the Hellenistic period under Alexander the Great.

Pittman and Shaw walk the site and notice stones in the area.  They imagine that they are walking along a classic Hellenistic Street with storefronts.  They use the features in the ground to map out buildings.  The pair talk about how other sites were similarly constructed during this period.  This special crew is going to look for a massive Roman Wall that was on this site.  It would have cut across the town and was a surprise discovery when the geophysics results were looked at.  What was going on with this Roman wall?

The site was abandoned for a time after the Hellenistic period and would eventually be occupied by the Roman people.  The expedition crew is going to look at the Roman end of town and for this wall.  Pittman had been working on the area in the previous summer and his discovery from last summer included a large wall just beneath the surface.

As part of this expedition, a new survey of the area is going to be conducted using resistivity where probes are inserted into the ground to pick up the electrical signal in the soil.  This should allow the crew to make even more finds from this site.  What sort of data will this crew discover as a result of this survey?  Will they find the Roman remains?

The expedition continues in the second episode of this short series.  Pittman and Shaw are going beyond the original site to see how Vlochos connects with famous people from the Ancient World.  This second episode has a short recap of the finds that were discovered along the surface of this field.  There is a discussion on the pottery finds that were discovered on this site and a piece of amphora is discussed.  What else is discovered about the site?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

It was cool to see the collaboration between different archeological groups to learn more about this site.  Technology has come a long way since the original Time Team and there was a 3D recreation of the site which both Derek and Lawerence walk through.  It is a change-up from the traditional Time Team.  I felt there was way too much time talking about the technology and not enough on the finds themselves.  Perhaps the episodes could have been longer and more because I get the feeling that there were a lot more discoveries that could have been shared and the episodes were way too short to cram into two short episodes.  If I was a teacher, I would be skipping these two episodes of the Time Team.

Good morning!  Thirty- One Days of the Time Team continues to press on.  How are you liking the adventures of Uncle Mick, Uncle Tony, and Uncle Phil?  Today I found another episode from season nine.  This time the Time Team is working on Ermine Street.  The description that Odyssey has put is for the wrong episode.  The run time for this episode is 48:58 and it is called An Ermine Street Pub.

The Time Team is looking for a Roman Road called Ermine Street.  However, the problem is that no sign of the road exists above ground.  However, there has been a wealth of Roman Finds that were discovered in this field.  The British Museum wanted to keep it quiet because it could be an important Roman site.  A horde of Roman coins were discovered on the site.  What will the Time Team find in three days?

Back in the 1950s two families worked on excavating this field and discovered several Roman finds.  Nobody could tell them what they had found, neither could experts from the British Museum.  Jean Mullinger, a member of one of the families who worked on the park called Time Team had to dig the park.  It was long enough to keep it hidden, and now she wants to understand what was found.  The Time Team looks over the records of the original excavation and it is very detailed.

Geophysics works on cleared areas of the site, however, Mick wants to dig in an area that has a lot of brambles.  The big machines are called in to clear this area.  The landscape has changed since the 1950s, so geophysics needs to review the site.  Trench one goes in over a feature that could be a drain. 

John and Mick go over the geophysics results which will help put the map in context.  There seems to be a series of ditches and walls.  Trench two goes in as well a few years from Trench one.  Mick and Stewart take to the air to look for the Roman Road.  The pair talk about what happened to the Roman Road and how a park was put smack dab in the middle of the roads so people would have had to go around.

Carenza and Guy meet in the local school to go over the original finds.  Something was going on at this site.  Rosalind Niblett helps Guy and Carenza make sense of the finds.  Work on trench one continues and there is wet at the bottom of the trench.  It is clear that there is a drain and there is tile found in the drain.  So far the plans from the 1950s are matching with what the Time Team is discovering.  However, there are still questions as to what can be found in Trench Two.  Will the Time Team manage to find more Roman evidence in Trench Two?  On day three a third trench is dug over some marks in a field, perhaps this is the remains of a Roman road.

The plan for Day Two the Time Team hopes to get into the houses of the Romans and not the back gardens.  The plan that was drawn up in the 1950s is proving to be accurate, but will it continue to be accurate?  However, first things first geophysics is looking for the Roman road through the woods.  Trench four goes into this bramble area, it is an area that Geophysics could not work in.  On day two, Uncle Phil hopes that he will be able to find the pub.  He is talking with an expert in Roman farming and he would like to learn what the Romans were doing in his trench in relation to the location of the Roman Road.  Will Phil find this Roman pub?  What else will the Time Team learn about the site?  Will the 1950s map prove to be accurate?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

It was pretty impressive to see how well the site was recorded in the 1950s by the amateurs, so I wondered what made them think about documenting it so well.  It goes to show how history changes.  This was a very good episode, there was plenty of testing done to discover where the Roman road was.  I would show this to a history class.

Good morning, not even the rain can stop the Time Team’s search for a lost monastery.  I am pulling an episode from season seven and this episode is called Nuns in Northumbria.  The run time for this episode is 49:51.

The Time Team arrives at the Headland at Hartlepool, a place that is rain and wind-swept.  They have three days to find out the location of a monastery.  This monastery was built 1,200 years old and was a thriving community.  This community was overseen by Saint Hilda, the founding abbess of this monastery.  She was an important figure in the history of Anglo-Saxon Europe.  Where was this monastery?  Who was Saint Hilda?

The wind and the waves greet Tony as he introduces the site.  The Headland at Hartlepool was home to a monastery that was ruled by a powerful Anglo-Saxon Princess.  The monastery vanished after two hundred years and the Time Team is looking to discover where it was and the people that were buried in it.  Tony meets with Robin Daniel, who is with Tees Archaeology.  He was the one who invited the Time Team to look for the monastery.  Over the years there have been discoveries made.  The discoveries had consisted of a sort of headstones.  Trench one goes in over a potential graveyard site.  This is where the nuns were buried.

The Victorians had done a great deal of building on this land, but the Time Team hopes that something will remain.  They are going to look at two potential sites for the monastery.  Trench Two goes in an open field that is near the church.  The first task for this trench is to carefully lift the roses.  Tony eventually meets Mick.  He wants to learn from Mick as to why the Time Team should be excited about discovering a monastery.  Mick talks about how this was one of the earliest monasteries in Britain.  Very little was known about this monastery so this dig will help further the history of the monastery.  The Time Team may learn about how the monastery was organized.

Phil makes the first discovery in his trench: a coin from the Victorian period.  In Carenza’s trench, the remains of a Victorian school were exposed and one of the locals talks about how she attended the school.  She brought pictures and talked about her memories of the school which was a very nice touch.  In the meantime, Mick catches up with John Gater and Stewart Ainsworth.  They talk about what the landscape is telling them.  John is concerned about what sort of results Geophysics will get.  However, they are dispatched to work in the rain.

Tony catches up with Robin Bush in the local church to learn about St. Hilda.  Back in trench one, Phil has discovered bones.  However, when Margaret Cox examines them they are not human remains.  Mick and Robin talk about putting in trench three to see if they can discover the outer boundary of the monastery.  In the meantime, Phil is entertaining the locals with his digs.  Phil has discovered Anglo-Saxon pottery in his trench.  He examines his finds with a skeptical Tony.

Carenza in her trench had discovered a piece of worked stone.  Robin theorizes that this has come from the original church, which shocks Carenza.  In the meantime, Phil expands his search for the graves a few houses up.  The weather clears on day two and the Time Team goes over the geophysics results.  The initial results show a very noisy area with service pipes and military finds.  However, a different set of results shows that there was something going on at this site.  For once, Stewart is demonstrating some skepticism about the results.  Will Stewart change his mind?  Will Phil find a grave?  Will Carenza find a church?  What will the Time Team learn about St. Hilda’s monastery?  Continue to follow along the episode to find out.

Even though the Time Team is about history, you can definitely apply the scientific method to these digs.  You have a theory and you test out that theory by doing a dig.  This episode was really moving along at a good and fast pace.  It was rather cool to see how the locals were curious about the dig.   This would be one episode to show to both a history class and a science class.

Good morning!  I hope that this day finds you well.  I am going to fast forward to an episode for season nine for the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team.  This episode comes from the Odyssey YouTube Channel.  This episode is called The Roman’s Panic and has a run time of 49:05.

The Time Team is investigating Ancaster, in Lincolnshire. This village lies on a major Roman road called Armine Street.  It had been built by the Roman forces when they invaded Britain.  However the only Roman remains that are visible are some massive earth banks and ditches.  The locals had been making finds over the years.  This settlement has largely been ignored by archaeologists, until the Time Team has come in.  What will they find about the site?  Why was it suddenly abandoned?  Will the rain stop?

Day one kicks off in the rain.  Geophysics is working on the site in driving rain and wind.  Guy de la Bédoyère has brought the Time Team to this site.  Tony catches up with Guy as well as Mick and Carenza.  Guy had just moved to the community and it was his young son that talked about how the head teacher discussed the finds that were discovered.  This site was largely overlooked by archeologists and has not been well documented.  However the Roman walls are scheduled so the Time Team cannot dig them. What areas will the Time Team be able to dig?

This area is stuffed with Roman finds and Carenza immediately demonstrates this by showing what she has found just doing a field walk.  The Time Team will focus on two sites that are outside of the walls.  There are two fields that they will concentrate on.  The Field Walkers and diggers are dispatched.  Trench one goes in on a site of a church yard where there have been many Roman burials.  There may have been Roman sarcophagi found at this site.  Tony and Mick meet up with Phil in his trench.  However his trench is empty.  However, the geophysics results are showing a massive amount of something in the ground.  Phil has a theory: natural iron in the trench.

Guy and Tony then tour a school where many Roman finds are being housed.  The children bring in the finds and they are housed as an unofficial local history museum.  Guy believes that Carenza’s field could house a temple.  There are many finds discovered as a result of the field walks even before Carenza digs her trench.  John brings by the geophysics results and trench two goes in over a potential ditch for a religious site.  Back at Phil’s trench, the team has finally gotten beneath the iron.

In the meantime Stewart Ainsworth surveys the walls and talks with Jeremy Taylor, a Roman town expert.  Stewart hopes to get geophysics out on the wall.  However geophysics is busy with surveying the field.  Phil catches up with Mick, Margaret Cox, Tony, and John about what he is discovering in his trench, he has found burning in his trench.  Was this a funeral pyre?  Or was this iron melting?  This prompts a debate as to what is a priority for geophysics.

Back in Carenza’s field, she is finding a massive amount of bones both human and animal.  So in the Cemetery site where the Time Team believed, they would find bodies they are finding nothing.  In Carenza’s field where the Time Team thought they would find a temple, they are finding bones.  What is going on with Ancaster?

Day two begins with Phil opening up two more trenches in his field.  The Time Team is looking for the edge of the Roman Cemetery and for dating evidence.  What happened to the town when the wall was built around it?  Stewart and Mick take to the air to examine the landscape and the wall.  Back on the ground, the Time Team is baffled by what is going on in Carenza’s trench.  Is this the actual Roman cemetery?  Or is this a temple site?  What will the Time Team discover about this site?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out! 

There were plenty of twists and turns with this episode.  Why was this site so ignored for so long with all the finds that were discovered.  I am glad the Time Team was able to make it to this site.  I would show this to a history class.

Good morning!  Thirty-One Days of the Time Team continues to press on with another episode from season five.  After doing this episode, there will be only three more episodes of season five I have to find.  Then I will have season five done for Time Team.  I really hope that I can keep this momentum up with finding these episodes because much like the Time Team, I feel like I am pressing my luck.  This episode is called Worsall and it has a run time of 50:35.

Time Team makes their way to High Worsall, a town near Middlesborough.  It was a village that almost completely disappeared.  The Time Team is looking to find any remaining buildings including a manor house.  Robin Bush and Dawn Hadley help research the village and try to imagine what life would have been like for the villagers.  Why did this village almost completely disappear?  What happened to its people?  What will the Time Team find out in three days?

Mick and Tony are walking the lumps and bumps of an empty field and talk about the possibility of a lost village.  This field was home to a lost village called High Worsall and it would have been dated back to the 12th Century. Since the site is so big, geophysics has begun scanning the site.  Stewart has been working trying to size up the lumps and bumps.  Tony and Mick gather with the rest of the Time Team to talk about the site.  Stewart shows them the map that he came up with as part of his examination. 

The Time Team talks about where to dig.  There are some concerns over lost evidence due to plowing.  Trench one is started and Phil is an enthusiastic digger.  This trench is going over an earth row over a north row of houses.  John continues to work on geophysics in the southern field to see if there is another row of potential houses on this site.  Robin goes off to the archives to learn more about the village to help provide more context to the site.

Carenza and Stewart are looking over aerial photos of the site.  There are clear images of something in the ground.  From above it looks like this village was very well planned.  Stewart is confident that the Time Team can show what the village looked like in the past.  In the meantime, while on the road, Robin is making more research plans.

Phil continues his work on trench one and there is some back and forth between Robin’s calls and Phil’s work on the trench.  Robin is not having luck in getting connected to the people he needs to connect with to learn about the village.  In the meantime, the first find is made.  It is a piece of pot.  This piece of pot shows that this building was from the Medieval period.

Trench two goes in over the site of a house platform on the south side of the field.  Since this field has been plowed before, the work creating trench two goes quickly.  Hopefully, Carenza will be able to find something in her trench.  A field walk is organized and people are carefully examining the field to see if they can make any additional finds.  A piece of Roman pottery is found which shows that the village had a period of inhabitation before it disappeared.

Robin and Dawn finally get connected with some historical documents to help piece together the history of High Worsall.  A will is discovered and it belonged to the owner of the manor at High Worsall.  Robin and Dawn continue their research.  Two more trenches are put in.  Phil discovers a strong stone feature in his trench; however, it is going through the center of the building.  Why was it going through the center of the building?  What will the Time Team discover about this site?  Why did High Worsall disappear?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Wow, there was just so much to take in about this site.  I felt bad for Robin as he was trying to get connected to the people he needed to get connected to but was getting the run-around.  This was a very good episode with its pacing.  Tony was also in a teasing mood.  Over all this would be an episode I would show to a history class.

Good morning!  Thirty-One Days of the Time Team continues to press on with another episode from season five.  After doing this episode I will have four more episodes of season five to find.  I have been finding these episodes on the Chronicle YouTube Channel, so I have to do a little digging to figure out what season this episode came from.  This episode is called Downpatrick and has a run time of 50:44.

This time the Time Team is investigating Ireland’s most sacred sites.  It was said that St. Patrick had set up his first church.  The site sits on magnificent Cathedral Hill.  The church that stands on the hill has been renovated but the Time Team is looking for earlier buildings that were on the site.  This was the site where St. Patrick built a monastery and was buried.  Are there any traces of St. Patrick at this site?  What will the Time Team find on this site?  What will the Time Team learn about this site? 

Mick and Tony both arrive at the site and start taking a walk around the current church.  Mick points out some of the features of the site, which was rebuilt in the 18th Century.  There are oddly shaped mounds that the church had built around.  Did these mounds have something do to with St. Patrick?  Is this why the builders were avoiding these mounds?

Mick and Tony meet with Peter Harbison a historian who has a plan featuring the church.  The plan shows that there were round towers on the site.  These would have been some sort of bell towers, but they did not have anything to do with St. Patrick.  The pair make their way to Victor Ambrus who is drawing out what the bell tower looked like.  Victor’s interpretation shows the site as it would have looked.   Time Team is going to look for a bell tower and they begin to take the asphalt off the site.

Trench one goes in, and Phil immediately starts making finds on this trench.  This was a good section because Phil carefully demonstrated the different sounds that he encountered in this trench.  The different sounds indicated the different soils and materials that were found in the ground.  The Time Team goes into the archives to look at the images that were collected over the years featuring the church and the bell tower.  There was a debate as to the true location of the bell tower.  Hopefully, Phil is looking at the right spot!

Time Team then turns its attention to a nearby open field.  This field used to have tennis courts.  John Gater discusses the geophysics results with the Time Team.  There seem to be hints of the building's remains.  Did these buildings belong to St. Patrick?  Mick seems to suggest that they may have belonged to the Benedictine Abbey on the site.  Tony is confused about the geophysics results.  It is decided that a second trench will go in.  Eventually Tony brings out images of the site.  Stewart and Carenza are looking for evidence of a boundary ditch.  Stewart seems to have discovered a bank and a ditch.

Peter, Tony, and Robin Bush examine a high cross on the site.  Peter talks about the cross and the history of the cross.  Tony then turns to Robin to talk more about the cross and the site.  Robin talks about St. Patrick and who he was as a man.  Several local musicians are joining the episode to share the different music of the different eras in Ireland.
We return to Phil and Trench One.  Phil continues to make some very interesting finds in this trench, however, is not finding the bell tower.  Time Team is not having luck in Trench Two either and it will eventually be shut down.  Trench Three is going in at Stewart’s insistence.  Will the Time Team’s luck turn?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

This was a funny episode with the Time Team.  You would have thought they had something at the start because the site was well-documented in the archives.  It took time for the Time Team to make finds but when they made them they were significant.  I would put this on my list of potential documentaries to show to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  I am continuing with Thirty-One Days of the Time Team with an episode from Season 5.  After this episode, I will have five more episodes to find to complete season 5.  This time the Time Team is traveling to a farmhouse, but this farmhouse is more than what it seems.  The Episode is called Ashton Eyre and it has a run time of 50:35.

Time Team is investigating a gatehouse that was turned into a farmhouse.  Why was this gatehouse turned into a farmhouse?  Somewhere in this jungle of remains, there is a picture of Medieval life.  Who would have lived on this farm?  Why would they have built this farm in that location?  What buildings would have been on this site?

Mick is thrilled with the weekend’s activities and Tony asks why Mick is thrilled looking at buildings.  The Time Team is going to put in several trenches to learn more about the property.  Mick and Tony look at the Great Hall.  The Great Hall would have been where the owner and his family would have lived.  The owner of the property is going to restore it to a luxury house and is curious to know the history of the property.  It is the only chance the Time Team will have a chance to thoroughly examine the site.  Mark Horton talks about the building and points out the features of the building.  Tony just thinks it is a jumble of bricks.  Both Mick and Mark get going pointing out the features when they examine the outside of the Great Hall.

Beric Morley and the owner take a look at the gatehouse.  Beric points out the stonework and the massive amounts of woodwork and floor timbers.  It was really cool to see the hinges that would have held the gate.  The Time Team will look to date the beams that were discovered in the building.  One team goes through the records to learn more about the building that could potentially be on the site as well as the history of the property.  Carenza and John go over the plans for the building and look over the photographs of the property.

The debris is cleared from the Great Hall in preparation for trench one.  In the meantime, Geophysics works on scanning the courtyard.  Stewart goes out in the field to survey the landscape.  Man, it seems like there was plenty of work for the Time Team to do over three days, I hope they get things done.  Trench one goes in and Phil immediately discovers the remains of a wall that came off the Great Hall.  Carenza is working in the other courtyard and may have discovered an important piece of plumbing.

Tony talks with one of the local historians about the history of the property and the village.  As part of the investigation recreation of the building is going to be made.  Mick is also going to learn how to make quick lime.  Carenza continues to investigate medieval plumbing and discovers that it was a highly unusual feature of the house which is puzzling the Time Team.  Victor works to draw what the Great Hall would have looked like in the past.  In the meantime, Phil has discovered a brick floor that needs to be carefully photographed and documented.  It will take some time, which exasperates Tony.  Day one ends and the archeology continues to perplex Tony.  What else does the Time Team discover about this site?  Will the discoveries make sense by the end of the dig?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about the farmhouse.

Wow, there seemed to be a lot of archaeology going on this site.  I wondered how the Time Team could have gone through it all in three days.  However, they managed to do it and the history of the building became clearer throughout the episode.  There were plenty of twists and turns in this episode.  Tony is perfectly humorous and exasperated throughout the episode.  The experiment making quicklime was very nice to see.  I would put this on my “potential” list to show to a history classroom.