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, we are continuing with the Thirty-One Days of Time Team.  I am down to the final four episodes of Series 13.  Today’s episode is the second episode of the series: Villas Out of Molehills and the run time for this episode is 48:14.

Moles are bringing up pieces of mosaic floor in a Cotswold Field.  The Time Team travels to the Cotswold, to explore whether or not these tiles are linked to a nearby villa that was discovered almost 200 years ago.  Nobody was able to date the villa at the time of the original dig.  A nearby spring may give a clue to the purpose of the building.  Could this villa be a bathhouse?  Or could it be a sacred site?  The Time Team is on the case to find out.

The site was located in Withington, nearby a large Roman city called Cirencester.  This area was known as the bread basket of Britain during the Roman period.  The Time Team was invited by Roger Box, a local archelogy.  He talks about how the moles have been bringing up mosaic pieces over the years.  Mick thinks there could be a villa, but is more interested in the spring nearby.  The pieces that were brought up could hint that it was a villa, however, David Neal, a Roman villa specialist, believes that it could be a bathhouse.  

Geophysics works on the site and there is a massive target located.  Trench one goes in over the river site.  No sooner than the first layer comes up, Phil discovers more mosaic pieces.  They are all over trench one.  In 1810, the site was originally discovered.  There were some mosaics that were found and preserved during that time.  The Time Team will have to find the location of the villa because the location was lost.  Mick and Phil go over the notes that were made from the original dig.

Stuart walks the landscape to see if he can find the location of the villa.  The electric lines are proving to be a challenge to geophysics.  Stuart is using the electric lines to his advantage and he is armed with a watercolor made during the first dig.

More and more tiles are being found, so many tiles are being found that the digger is put away and every one hand digs the trench.  Some volunteers are sent to a stream to search for roof tiles.  Five hours later, Phil discovers a mosaic floor.  Tony takes part in the dig and discovers more of the mosaic.  Finding a mosaic on day one is a very rare event for the Time Team indeed.

More geophysics results come in and it shows different areas of occupation over the site.  Trench two goes in in the upper field.  The Time Team expects to find backfill from the original dig in 1810.  They are discovering roof tiles.  In Trench One, more and more of the mosaic is found.  Additionally, there is a chunk of wall found.  In Trench Two, a Roman wall is found, but is it the Roman villa?

In Trench One, another mosaic is found.  Phil goes over what he thinks is going on with Tony.  It seems there was a building with a mosaic in the corridor.  What will day two bring for the Time Team?  The targets for day two include spring and looking for the original villa.  Why would the Romans build a villa near a spring?

Mick is exploring spring the next morning.  He found stone channels and a stone basin.  He concludes that spring started somewhere else and that the Romans diverted the water to whatever they had built.  Could there be a third building on the site?  Is the Time Team working on a bathhouse site?  Or a temple site?  Or a villa site?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

Wow, wow, wow.  This was a fascinating episode because of all the finds that were discovered.  Even though the Time Team did have a limit as to how much they could dig, all the trenches produced the finds.  It was especially cool to see that there was a nearly intact mosaic discovered!  I would definitely put this particular Time Team episode on the list of episodes to show to a classroom.

Good morning, we are continuing with Thirty-One Days of the Time Team and we are heading to series thirteen and looking at a Roman mansion.  The episode is called The Taxman’s Tavern and the run time for this episode is 47:30.

This time the Time Team is heading on over to Alfodean, Sussex to uncover a mansion that was a Roman coaching inn.  It was located on Stane Street and this area was the first part of Britain to be Romanized.  The site is over one kilometer long and has 300 years of Roman occupation.  There This mansion was the center of a large community and is a rare opportunity to shed light on Roman life in Britain.  Nobody really knows how this mansion fits into Roman life.  The Time Team will have their work cut out for them as they look at a large area.  Will they learn anything in Three Days?

When one first walks on the site, archelogy and artifacts are found hinting that there was something going on. The field is littered with roof tile and high-status pottery found on site.  Over the last years, the site has been field walked and written about.  The site was dug only one time and this excavation hinted at a variety of buildings on the site.  Was this a mansion or a fort?  A fort would have been a place for soldiers.  A mansion would be a resting place for travelers, much like a hotel.

Geophysics works on the site, and the results show there is something going on.  In fact, the Time Team has been given too many targets to explore.  Trench one goes in to relocate the dig that took place in the 1920s.  As trench one goes in, Phil picks up a piece of tile.  While trench one goes in, Neil and John look at the ditches that were around the property.  The ditches would hint at something that needed to be protected.  Trench two goes in over the ditch.  Why would someone make a ditch for a hotel?

Phil works in the first trench and thinks he discovered the mansion.  There seems to be a wall and demolition work in Phil’s trench.  Was this a wall?  Only time and more digging will solve the mystery.    Mike Lee was an archeologist who explored the site before and he is taking part in the Time Team dig.  Tony catches up with Mike to learn why Mike kept coming back to the site.  Mike would like to see if Time Team could come up with a plan for the site.  More and more geophysics work is done on the site.

Trench two continues to be dug and the enclosure ditches have been located.  The problem is that geophysics suggests that the ditches were massive.  The Romans really focused on this area.  Helen Geake and Stuart Ainsworth head up in a helicopter to survey the site from the air.  It is Helen’s first time in a helicopter.  Stuart discusses why the Romans would pick this site for a mansion. 

More and more archeology is being found in Trench Once including brick and plaster.  Phil finds painted wall plaster on the site.  The painted wall plaster hints that the mansion had posh rooms.  Perhaps the people that used these mansions were on official government business.  These government officials would have expected the best accommodation.  Helen wonders why the ditches were so big.  She suggests that the tax man would have been unpopular with the natives and the ditches would have protected them.

Trench two in the meantime has undergone a massive expansion.  Tony sees that there were two massive ditches in the trench.  It seems that the Romans put in a huge effort to dig these ditches.  What else will the Time Team find?  Have they bitten off more than they can chew with this dig?  Could this dig spill into a second episode?  Tune into the rest of this Time Team to find out!

This was an excellent episode of the Time Team.  There was so much archeology on the site, it forced them to make choices.  I would hope that they would go back in the future to explore this site once again.  This would be a good episode to show to a history class because of the archeology that was found on the site.

Good morning, we are working on the Thirty-One Days of Time Team for October.  I am pulling an episode from Series 12.  This time we are going to Yorkshire, England, and learning about the Normans.  The run time for this episode is 47:58.  The episode is called The Norman Neighbors.

Frances Davies, a Time Team fan, has been collecting finds from fields outside her house in Skipsea.  She has collected a variety of artifacts from the Neolithic, Roman, and Saxon items over the years.  The items reveal that people were living in the area over 1,000 years ago.  However, the geophysics results hint at a large village.  Could this village be the seat of power for a Norman lord?  The Time Team has three days to find out, but will three days be enough for the Time Team to investigate the site?

Tony kicks off the episode by catching up with Frances Davies and walks along her field.  She displays the artifacts she made over the years.  Tony brings up the geophysics results she paid for showing a large amount of activity going on.  One year the fields were plowed deeper and even more, artifacts were discovered.  Geophysics is working on the site and two trenches are going in.  More and more finds are being found.

Carenza Lewis catches up with Frances to put all the finds out on a table according to a timeline.  This timeline will show the site's rise and decline in activity.  Phil is gaga over the flint finds that were found at the site.  Some of the earliest finds are from about 4000 BC and were among the earliest farmers.  Phil examines the artifacts and explains what they all are to Frances.  He points out a broken axe head among the finds.  Phil thought Frances could have found more flint finds at the site.

The high winds do not deter the Time Team from finding the potential of the site.  There seemed to be a rivalry that developed between the geophysics team, the landscape team, and the trenches to what could be found on site.  The site is on the North Sea.  Tony tries to stay out of the wind and catches up with Stuart in the car.  He talks about the landscape of the area.  He will be looking for clues as to what was going on in the field.  Geophysics continues to expand its survey.  Early results show plenty of noise.  John Gater also sees a boundary line in the field, so trench three is going over the ditch.  This ditch may end indicate a settlement.  There was a round feature that Tony would like to examine.  Stuart seems to believe this round feature will be a quarry.

There was a clear occupation in the Neolithic Period and then there was a decline in activity until the Norman Conquest.  Then occupation on the site picked up again.  The Norman pottery found at the site has the Norman Pottery expert happy.  One element of this episode was recreating a medieval pot.  The Norman pottery expert works on making a pot.  There was one item that came from the field that showed a thumbprint of the pot’s creator.

John keeps coming up with the geophysics results.  The finds also keep coming.  There is a piece of metal found in one of the trenches that looked like it collapsed on itself.  This piece of metal is confusing Phil, was this a feature of the ditch, or did it come from a later period?  Landscape and environmental archaeologists continue to learn more about the landscape.  Could there have been an ancient lake on the site?  The evidence seems to point in that direction.  What will the Time Team continue to learn about this site?  Will Tony blow away?  What caused the people to leave this site?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more!

This was one cool episode to watch because of all the finds that were initially discovered.  Frances was thrilled to learn more about what she initially on the site.  I also like the recreation of the pot that the handle would have been part of.  It was also surprising how fast the archeology revealed itself.  Over all, it would be a good episode for a history fun day.

Good morning, this time on The Thirty-One Days of the Time Team learn about Romans recycling.  The run time for this episode is 46:59.

Over the years metal detectorists have discovered a variety of metal artifacts from the Roman, Iron Age, and Saxon periods in a field that is between two villages.  The finds are in Lincolnshire and the locals believe there was a posh building in the area.  Lincoln was a great center for Roman Britain, however, there are no records of Wickenby being a center of Roman occupation.  So why are there so many finds?  The Time Team has three days to find out.

The initial geophysics results that there is a great deal of archelogy even though there are no records of a Roman settlement nearby.  What was really happening in these fields during Roman times?  Francis Pryor believes they are sitting on a major series of Roman settlements.  John Gater wants to do more geophysics on the site.  Tony Robinson has his suspicions.  Phil Harding talks about the geophysics showing that there was settlement going on and that by digging they are furthering the story.

Trench One goes in, over an area where a large concentration of finds was discovered.  It does not take long before the first finds emerge.  Geophysics work on the site as well.  So why does Wickenby hosts so many Roman finds, especially medal finds?  It was not on the road to Lincoln and its location would have been more appropriate for a farmstead.  However, the finds give a hint that the settlement was wealthy and active.  Tony goes around town and talks about the different columns that were found in the area.  The locals believe that these belonged to a posh house.

Phil shows off the initial finds that were found in the first trench.  He believes that this hints that there was a settlement at Wickenby.  However, there was molten lead found on the site which would hint that there was something being melted on the site.  This is the opposite of a farm settlement.  John Gater seems to have discovered a large anomaly also known as a blob that hints at the industrial nature of the site.  Guy de la Bedoyere then talks about the Roman industry of metalworking and recycling.

Trench two goes in over the blob.  Guy and Helen look over the brooch finds.  Helen disagrees that it was a metal scrap metal center.  There were plenty of brooches discovered over the site.  Helen points out to the brooches were finished and were not manufactured on the site.  It is only Day One and there is already a disagreement on the team.  As trench two goes in, Phil makes a find in the trench.  There is evidence of a ditch and charcoal.  The evidence of burning seems to hint that Guy is right about this site being for metal recycling.  In fact, in a previous dig, there was a metal bowl found on the site.

In the village, the evidence gathering continues.  Are the columns that were found in the village part of a Roman building on site?  The answer may surprise you.

Back at the first trench, more Roman evidence emerges as well as evidence of an earlier settlement.  Francis believes that this evidence points to an Iron Age Settlement.  Trench one is shut down and a third trench is put in based on John Gater’s geophysics results.  He found evidence of a circular building, perhaps it was an Iron Age roundhouse.  What John is showing, goes beyond a typical Roman Britain farmstead.

On Day Two the Time Team will investigate a spring and a potential roundhouse.  Tony catches up with Guy and Francis to talk about the site and its potential.  What will the Time Team learn about this site?  Is this site the home of something industrial?  Why were there so many brooches found at the site?  What about the evidence of the Iron Age Settlement?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more!

The artifacts that were found at the site were very intriguing, especially since there were so many of them.  It was also interesting to hear the Time Team talk about what the site was.  This would be a good episode for a history class and for independent study students.

Good morning, the Time Team is taking their skills across the Atlantic and into America as part of our 31 Days of the Time Team.  This is a Time Team special called: Dinosaur Hunt: A Time Team Special.  The run time for this episode is 49:18.

Tony Robinson and Phil Harding travel to Montana to help dig for dinosaurs.  The pair accompany both professional and private “dinosaur hunters.”  Montana was full of dinosaurs.  What do these Dinosaur hunters do?  How do they dig up dinosaurs?  Over the next three weeks, Tony and Phil hope to learn more about the digs and perhaps dig a few dinosaurs themselves.  They will go to three different digs and learn about what goes on at those digs.  This will be a whole new experience for Phil and Tony. 

Tony and Phil take a road trip through Montana to reach their first digs.  The pair talk about their expectations about the digs and dinosaurs.  The first site is sponsored by the Museum of the Rockies.  Its location is secret to prevent bone thieves.  It is nicknamed the Bahamas.  They catch up with the site chief, Dave Varricchio, and he shows them the latest find.  The find is under plaster jackets to protect it.  Tony and Phil look at the toe of the dinosaur.

Phil questions whether or not the bones are together or jumbled up.  Dave tells him that the bones are jumbled up and Phil gets a small smile and said that Tony was talking about finding a complete skeleton.  Tony learns about the digging process and is surprised by the use of chisels and hammers.  The paleontologists shave off as much of the rock as they can to protect the bones and then they are covered in plaster.  The dinosaur bones are delicate and will need extra care to clean up.  Phil then asks his burning question: can he help on the dig?  You can hear him being sheepish when he asks the question.

Frankie Jackson guides him and how to dig up a dinosaur.  Phil starts working on the area under Frankie’s guidance.  Tony then talks about the different techniques used between the rock site and the dirt site.  Phil discovers his first dinosaur bone and is happy with the find.  It is the oldest thing Phil has ever dug.  It took him an hour to find the bone, while Tony has walking around the site finding bones.  Tony is shocked to find so many dinosaur bones at once.  Tony discovered that digging up dinosaur bones is a slow business.

On day two Phil and Tony take their dinosaur explorations to a second site.  They go to a tourist town and this town is at the heart of the Montana dinosaur belt.  They go and sign up to participate in a dig.  Phil and Tony will take the day to dig.  They will work on an area that was just exposed.  Tony is determined to find a bone before Phil.  Tony highlights the controversy about this second site and talks about the commercialization of digging up dinosaur bones.  Sometimes bones are sold on the market around Montana.  Phil and Tony learn more about the sale of bones on the internet and do some research.  Phil comments that the sale of dinosaur bones and he said that it made him sick.

Then they take an eight-hour drive to the eastern side of Montana and go to a third dig.  Here they will meet up with John Horner, one of the most successful dinosaur hunters in Montana.  This dig is located in Hell Creek, Montana, and is home to one of the largest dinosaur excavations in the world.  What will the Tony and Phil Roadshow find in this area?  Will Phil get over his fear of snakes?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

This is one totally different Time Team.  The Tony and Phil Roadshow was enjoyable to watch and it was fun to watch the pair learning new techniques.  It was funny to see Tony so exasperated with how slow the digging went as well.  This would be a good episode to show to an earth science class because of the focus on paleontology. 

Good morning, we are working through the Thirty-One Days of Time Team and this time the Time Team is investigating a gravestone in Castor, Cambridgeshire.  The run time is 47:54.

St. Kyneburgha Church is one of the most beautiful churches in England.  What lies in the graveyard has archeologists salivating.  There may be the remains of Roman structures.  What is this building?  Over the years, gravediggers have made many discoveries.  The Time Team is going to dig a part of the graveyard where there are no bodies.  Is there a building on this site?  Will Tony manage to find his way down off the roof?

Over the years there have been discoveries made in the churchyard.  Every time a grave was dug, another find was made.  Castor is five miles west of Peterborough.  It is on the River Nene and near a major Roman Road.  Geophysics works on a narrow strip of land for a survey.  A second survey is done in a nearby schoolyard.  Helen Geake catches up with local historians about a man obsessed with local archelogy.  Edmund Artist was a man with many talents and discovered he loved archeology.  He became a one-man Time Team.  He dug the area and illustrated what he found with beautiful drawings.

Artist surveyed the area and came up with a map as to where the Roman buildings are, so the Time Team is going to test his theory.  Tony catches up with Stewart Ainsworth to look at the map that Artist drew and what the modern city looks like.  In some places, what Artist originally found was reactivated, which is proving to be confusing to Ainsworth.  Stewart Ainsworth wants to remake a map and mark the locations of known archeology.  Roman walls are still visible along the lanes.

Trench one goes in, however, John Gater is confused about the results he is getting from the geophysics.  Phil immediately pulls out a piece of tile from the trench.  Mosaic flooring is also come up from the trench.  As the digger continues to work, more discoveries are found.  John Gater quickly realizes what he did wrong, he had the “Roman filter on.”  A sudden storm blows up soaking the archeologists.

However, even in the rain, the Time Team discoveries keep coming.  Trench one is turning out to be a gold mind.  The finds include Saxon pottery, Roman Pottery, and mosaic pieces.  So the site could include Saxon buildings.  Normally the Time Team does not find Saxon finds.  Trench two goes into the old rectory garden and trench three goes into the corner of the school field.  A Roman bathhouse was discovered in the school field.  Tony is getting the feeling that there is something special about Castor.

Helen catches up with a local historian in regard to the finds that were discovered in Castor.  Pots and pieces of wall plaster were discovered.  The painted plaster seems to hint at a beautiful building.  Geophysics goes into the north graveyard and in the afternoon the results come back.  John catches up with one of the people doing the geophysics and there seems to be something in the ground.  Earlier archeologists and finds seem to hint that there was a building in the north graveyard.  What is geophysics detecting? 

The finds keep coming from the first two trenches: Roman finds, Roman Tiles and pottery are being found in the trench.  Matt, one of the archeologists talks about the trench has backfill.  The rain keeps coming.  The search goes on for the Roman Baths.  Tracey, the archeologist working on the field trench, is confused as to what she is finding. At the end of day one, the Time Team is meeting at the back of the church.  The archeologists are talking about the potential for the biggest Roman building on the site.  Was this a headquarters for the military?  John reviews the geophysics results and is not seeing the building.  The Time Team has permission to dig in the churchyard for one day to see if they can find the building.  What else will the Time Team find out about the site?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

This was an interesting episode to watch and would be a good episode for research purposes.  This would be a good episode to show for a fun history day.

Good morning, we are going to continue with our Thirty-One days of the Time Team for October, and let us throw it back to an episode from series 13 and the history of the Industrial Revolution in Manchester.  The run time for this episode is 48:47.

Underneath a car park in Manchester lies the remains of a mill.  Manchester was a powerhouse in the cotton industry and it was a city that had a lot of mills.  In 1780, the first cotton mill in Manchester was built and was built by Richard Arkwright.  It housed the first steam engines.  It is now buried under a car park.  The Time Team has three days to discover and recover one of Britain’s most important historic sites.  Will the Time Team find the mill?

Tony catches up with Francis Pryor, Phil Harding, and a local historian.  There was a layer of cobblestones found on the site and these stones come from a layer that would have been the mill yard.  There was plenty of documentation and maps that show the mill, however, they are unreliable.  Mike Nevell, the local historians talk about how the site developed and that there may be multiple buildings on the site.  These different buildings would demonstrate the different phases of development.  Mike is optimistic about finding the mill.  Phil is thrilled with the dig, Tony points out that Phil likes prehistory.  Phil replies that this site is the prehistory of the Industrial Revolution.

Trench One goes in and it is hoped that at least one side of the mill.  A mill built in the Victorian Era was destroyed during the Blitz and the site has not been rebuilt.  As the asphalt is removed, Phil discovers a wall.  The trench is expanded and more of the wall is revealed.  Tony catches up with Mike and talks about the history of Manchester while looking at a map from the 1700s.

The Mill would have had an impact on the country.  The mill would have been a boom for Manchester and would have shocked the people who saw it.  People across the country came to Manchester to see the mill as if it was a tourist attraction.  This mill was the start of the Industrial Revolution.  Richard Arkwright, who built the man, was the father of the factory system in Britain.  He was a socially awkward man but grew wealthy through business.

Back at the car park, Phil strongly believes that he has found a mill wall.  Francis is skeptical that what was found is a wall.  Phil says he will find the proof that he found the wall of the mill.  Trench two goes in over the middle of the mill.  The Time Team is going to find where the mill was powered.  However, as they dig, they are finding fire-scarred bricks.  The mills were vulnerable to fire.  Additionally, there were broken clay pipes found on the site.  The workers would have been puffing on those pipes while they worked.  There were plenty of fires that happened in the mills at Manchester.  These mills would have burned down and would have been rebuilt.

The mills caused the population in Manchester to explode.  This population explosion leads to horrible living conditions in Manchester.  Karl Marx would have visited his mate Fredrich Engels in Manchester.  Here they would discuss the working and living conditions for the workers.  Tony catches up with Helen Geake about Marx’s writing.  Stewart is on the job as well, working on a survey on the site.  He is working with Helen to look into the living conditions of the workers.

The Time Team starts recording their findings.  They have discovered a door and a wall from the original mill that was built by Arkwright.  Additionally there are sites for the mill engine.  Will Phil prove that he is right about the wall?  What else will the Time Team find out about the mill?  Tune into this episode to find out more.

This was an interesting Time Team.  The archaeology was fantastic for the site and it gave a glimpse into the history of the Industrial Revolution.  This would be a second good episode to show while teaching the history of the Industrial Revolution.

Good morning, we are going to kick off another Thirty-One Days of the Time Team with an episode from series 18.  The run time for Time Team is 47:59.

The Time Team is investigating the early days of the Industrial Revolution.  Derwentcote was at the heart of an iron and steel complex that helped spread the British Empire.  The Time Team will have their hands full, clearing away decades of brush and growth to access the site.  There was a hodgepodge of processes going on at the Derwentcote site.  The Time Team has three days to excavate, hopefully, the Time Team will be able to get to the archeology. 

It will take time to clear out the undergrowth in order to put it in the trenches.  Tony works alongside to help get the growth removed.  Iron and steel were made at the site and its history is little known.  English Heritage rebuilt a steel mill.  Not much is left of Derwentcote.  Steel and iron produced in this area made their way throughout the British Empire.  When it comes to the Industrial Revolution, the Derwentcote site flies under the radar.  What can the Time Team discover about this site?

Before the first trench can go in, there will have to be some heavy-duty pruning.  The growth may hide an important piece of history from the Industrial Revolution.  If this site is so important to the Industrial Revolution, why was this site overlooked?  Where are the big chimneys?  Why are the walls so little?  What is known about archeology?  Geophysics is finding surveying a site a challenge.

Trench One goes in over a set of earthworks.  What will the Time Team find in the trench?  As the first layers go in, the Time Team is making some finds.  Phil Harding calls Francis Pryor over to show what is found.  Phil is dreaming big about the site.  In the meantime, Tony catches up with a local historian to talk about the Industrial Revolution.  The nuts and bolts of the Industrial Revolution would have been supplied by sites like Derwentcote.  Marilyn Palmer, an Industrial archeologist talked about the tools made during the Industrial Revolution.  For the first time, ordinary people could have access to metal, and they used metal to improve their lives.

The Site at Derwentcote may be a challenge for the time team.  The recreated furnace nearby made steel for tools.   There could be a variety of furnaces at the site that could help make metal.  There could have been a variety of phases to the site.  Tony then talks with John Gater about the geophysics of the site.  Due to the trees and brush, geophysics is proving to be a challenge.  John eventually concludes that they will have to geophysics the path.

Phil continues to work in trench one and is continuing to discover more walls.  After a few hours, Phil is inside a single building.  A few moments later, the site gets better.  He discovers burning on the site, which means that there was a furnace on the site.  However, as the Archeology goes deeper, one side of the site floods.  The Time Team will have to have pumps to drain the water.

Stewart continues to survey the site and looks for a source of water.  He is using a highly developed method: a stick.  He talks about how water was diverted to the site to help with metal-making.  There was a huge pond on the site with a dam and the water was managed with little channels.  Francis and John talk about the landscape and what it tells about the history of the site.  The Time Team will look at the dam site, but first, they will have to clean up the area around the dam site.

How many phases of the Industrial Revolution will the Time Team Find on the site?  What was made on the site?  Will Phil get the water drained from his trench?  What can this site tell us about the people who lived there?  Why did the work stop at Derwentcote?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

This episode would be an excellent one to show during the Industrial Revolution section in a history class.  Tony’s humor was on point during this episode and it was fun to see the Time Team immediately find archaeology on the site. 

Thirty-One Days of the Time Team has drawn to a close and we are throwing it back to season 2 and the final episode of the season.  The Time Team is investigating the treasure of a Roman field.  Tony still has his long flowing hair in this episode.
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Hundreds of Roman finds have turned up in a large field.  Broaches, pottery, coins, and a key were found on the site.  A local farmer wants to know if there was a building on the site.  A Roman key was found on the site, so where was the building that goes with the key.  Additionally, were some rectangular marks on the ground.  What were the marks on the ground?  Why were all these finds found in the area?

Tony and Mick are looking at the field from the air.  Trench One goes into the middle of the field because geophysics seems to hint at something in the ground.  This trench will allow the Time Team to test the geophysics results.  The geophysics has shown several ditches; however, Phil is only finding one ditch.  Roman pottery is showing up immediately which means the Time Team will not be short of finds on the site.  Coins have been found on the site as well.  All the finds that were initially found were exclusively Roman.

Despite these little finds, there were no substantial amounts of building materials found on the site.  Mick would be happy to find more building materials instead of the little finds.  Tony teases Mick about wanting to find bricks.  The Time Team will also use metal detectorists to help the find additional metal finds.  Tony hopes that the Time Team will find evidence of a building.  One suggestion is that the building will be timber-built instead of stone-built and that it was a farm site.  The farmers would have adopted Roman ways and would have been upwardly mobile.  The Time Team breaks for lunch to talk about the possibility of the site.

Trench One finally confirms that there were two ditches.  However, the second trench is not located where geophysics said it was located.  The dry conditions of the land are proving to be a challenge for the results.  Geophysics is showing some things but not others.  Stewart is plotting the ditches and the plot seems to hint that there were different periods of Roman occupation on the site.  The Time Team goes over the results again at the end of Day One.  Two more trenches will go in again.  The archelogy is just below the surface.

Phil spots something as Trench two goes in.  There are bits of crushed pot and charcoal in the new trench.  It is evidence of building on the site.  Was this a rubbish pit?  Or is it evidence of a house?  This second trench will be extended to try to show more of the site.  Trench three goes in to see if there is a floor level on the site.  Overnight, the trenches will be soaked in water to help make digging easier.

Robin Bush catches up with Tony at the end of Day one and shows Tony two Roman coins and talks about the history of the coins.  Robin concludes that there is the possibility of finding Iron Age finds on the site as well.  The Time Team will also perform an experiment: they will recycle glass.  Roman Glass is a rare find because it was often recycled.  So this experiment will help the Time Team understand the properties of Roman glass.  What will Time Team learn about this site?  Is this a settlement?  Or is it a farm site?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out.

This would be a good episode for a fun history day in the classroom.