In the final Time Crashers episode, our time travelers are heading back to the Iron Age.  They will have to start a fire, prepare chickens, and construct a wicker man.  How will our celebrities handle life in the Iron Age?  The run time for this episode is 46:23.

The Time Crashers are shocked to find themselves in the Iron Age.  It is AD 43 and Rome has just conquered the southern half of England.  They are poised to take over more and more of England.  However, they have not reached where the Time Crashers are camped.  Kristie immediately says that she does not know about the time.  She is ready to try it.

They gather at the fire pit and look at the Time Crashers’ guide.  They will eat, cook, and sleep in the roundhouses.  They learn that they are members of a Celtic tribe.  The first job for the Time Crashers is the election of the tribe leaders.  They will pick one man and one woman to lead the tribe.  Meg and Greg are elected as tribe leaders based on their efforts in previous time crashes.  The Time Crashers are going to put on the feast later.  Everyone looks forward to putting their new skills to work.

Germaine and Louise are in charge of lighting the fire, which will prove to be a challenge for the pair.  Once the fire is lit they will need something to cook.  Kristie and Keith look at the food stores to see what they have.  Fern and Charlie are tasked to prepare the meat.  Fern is confident to pluck it but not to gut it.  They look at the deer that is provided, which will prove to be a bigger challenge for the pair.  They look for a knife to start skinning the deer.  What will they have to use to gut the deer?

Chris explores the outskirts of the camp and discovers a person working with iron and they go to him to resolve their skinning a deer problem.  Back at the fire making, Germaine is still struggling with trying to make the fire.  However, they do not know what they need to do when there is smoke.  However, Greg solves the problem by getting embers from the blacksmith.  The fire is started and now the Time Crashers have heat.  He felt like a failure for not getting the fire going.

There is fire but no food, and Fern works to pluck a chicken.  However, the problem is gutting the chicken.  Chris and Charlie work on the knife with a bone handle at the Forge.  They will have to skin the deer and give the pelt to the blacksmith for payment.  Keeping your word was important In the Iron Age.  If a person did not keep their word, then there could be conflict.

The people are getting restless.  The food is not ready.  Keith jokes that he may ask for reelection if things go up.  It will be a tough day for the Time Crashers.  They will have to come together to put together the feast.  Fern has disappeared from the fire.  Meg goes out to track her down.  However, living in the Iron Age has proven too much for Fern’s pluck and tenacity.  She has learned a lot about herself by living over Time Periods.  I am sorely disappointed in Fern for leaving the show early.  The Time Crashers come together to talk about Fern’s departure. 

After dinner, the Time Crashers go to sleep in the round houses.  The women take charge of the fire and take turns throughout the night.  The next morning is wet and raining.  It may be a challenge to keep morale up during these conditions.  They wake up and work on the morning tasks in order to prepare for the feast.  Will they be able to complete their tasks in time for the feast?  Will any of the other Time Crashers drop out?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

What was the purpose of the social historian again?  With all his experience, Tony could have handled this episode on his own.  It was an interesting episode to see how the celebrities handled the Iron Age.  This would be an interesting episode to show to a history class.

Good morning the Time Crashers are transported to the Georgian Period and to a farm.  How will the Time Crashers handle what the farm must throw at them?  The run time for this episode is 49:37.

The year is 1796.  King George is on the throne and he loves farming.  Wealthy landowners are building their farms to follow the king.  The Time Crashers are transported to one of these farms.  Kristie is immediately displeased at being in the kitchen once again.  The Time Crashers immediately dive into their guides.  The first pair that discover their Georgian roles is Charlie and Greg.  They are farm hands and they fill take orders from the Bailiff.  Louise and Kristie are kitchen maids.  Meg and Fern are dairymaids.  Keith, Chris, and Germaine are shepherds.  Zoe will be working in the kitchen.

The Time Crashers have eight hours to make the farmhouse immaculate.  The farm owner the Viscount and Viscountess are making their way to the farm for their inspection.  The dairymaids will have to show off the produce of the farm while the kitchen maids will have to make food for the visit.  The farm inspection was important because it showed off their wealth to their friends.  They were showing off the ideal farm.

Fern and Meg are going to milk the goats and make cutters.  Kristie and Louise are going to make bread as well as biscuits and cake.  Fern, Meg, Kristie, and Louise will be answering the bailiff’s wife.  The first step is milking.  However, milking the goat is proving to be a challenge.  If the girls do not get enough milk, they will not have enough to make cheese to impress the viscount.  Louise struggles to get the oven started with the tinderbox.  Kristie has no problems getting the oven lit.  They work to get the bread made.

Greg and Charlie are working in the mill and making flour.  The model farm would have a mill on sight.  Making flour was one way to show off the progress of the new model farm.  While Greg and Charlie are enjoying life in the mill, Keith, Chris, and Germaine are finding shepherding difficult.  Chris is butting heads with the bailiff.  The boys fail at their task and the bailiff must step in.

Fern and Louise work on making the goat’s cheese.  The Bailiff’s wife is glad to see that the cheese is being made.  Kristie oversees the meal for the farm hands.  Louise is struggling to get the bread made.  Louise jokes that she and Kristie are the only two of the Time Crashers that have never made bread.  The oven is very hot.  The Georgian ovens were so hot that they burned the dresses of the kitchen maids.  It was reported that a woman had burned to death.

The shepherds work on getting the sheep clean.  Chris wants to redeem himself with the bailiff.  However, he is a man that takes his cleanliness very seriously.  Chris has a go with clipping the dirt off a sheep.  Greg and Charlie work to coax the pig out of the pen to wash the pig up to a comedic effect.

Zoe returns to the Time Crashers.  Everyone is thrilled that Zoe is back.  She had been sacked from the previous episode.  She returns to work in the kitchens once again.  She sets to work grating sugar.  Zoe is having a hard time.  Fern and Meg are not having any luck with the butter.  The bailiff’s wife inspects their progress and tells the ladies that they had filled the butter church too much.  Louise is having a challenge making bread.  Kristie inspects the bread and discovers that the oven was not hot enough to make the bread. 

Will the Time Crashers clean up the farm in time to pass inspection?  Will Louise be able to make the perfect loaf of bread?  Will Fern and Meg manage to make butter in time?  Will the farm hands pass the inspection?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about the Georgian Farm and the Time Crashers.

This episode was particularly good because of the idea of the rich gentleman farmer.  This would be one episode to show for a fun history day.

Good morning and the Time Crashers are transported to 1913 and an Edwardian house party.  How will the celebrities handle Edwardian Etiquette?  Will it be like Downton Abbey?  Or will the Time Crashers be in for a rude awakening?  The run time for this episode is 46:12.

This time the Time Crashers are servants serving in a country house.  The boys are immediately disappointed to discover they are servants.  It is 1913 and World War I is just around the corner.  The elite are throwing up one last hurrah before the war and everything changes.  The Time Crashers are going to be preparing for a weekend shooting party.  Shooting parties demonstrated wealth and status.  Edwardians got together for a weekend of hunting, socializing, and showing off.

Each of the Time Crashers has a different status and each has a different guide to help them navigate the world.  Bottom of the pile is Zoe Smith and Olympian Greg Rutherford.  The downstairs staff is immediately greeted by the housekeeper and she oversees reviewing the rules and training for staff.  The housekeeper could sack a staff member with no reference.  I enjoyed seeing her thoughts on the staff.  From the looks of it, she will be commenting on the staff throughout the episode.

Kristie Alley and Keith Allen have more senior roles.  However, they still run afoul of the butler.  The butler was the highest-ranking member of staff.  He expects obedience and working to the highest standards.  Keith is the valet and Kristie is the ladies’ maid.  Both have a giggle over their guides. 

The staff members turn in for the night and wonder how they are going to handle their lives as Edwardian servants.  They wake up in the morning.  Greg is already at work clearing the chamber pots.  Greg wants to do a good job as the hall boy.  Zoe struggles with the morning routine and begins struggling with the work.  The housekeeper is not happy with Zoe’s efforts.  The footmen start preening in the morning.  Footmen were hired for their good looks and footmen, and the taller the better.

The hierarchy was strictly observed in the Edwardian household.  The housekeeper reminds them of the rules of the house.  The servants were to be addressed as William or Jane.  The servants were to be invisible as well.  Staff worked 80 hours per week with half a day off.  They got their news while ironing the masters’ newspapers.  After breakfast, everyone sets off to work.

The footmen are setting up a tent for an outdoor dinner.  However, setting up the tent and the table is going slowly for the men.  The tent is a bit of a challenge to put up.  Inside the maids are cleaning the house and prepare the reception rooms.  The maids are finding the corsets difficult to work in.  Fern struggles with keeping things cleaned up.  The housekeeper interrupts them to remind them that they needed to clean in silence.  Zoe refuses to pluck pheasants and is immediately dismissed without a reference.  The maids look at Zoe’s leaving and comment on it.  Being dismissed without a reference means she would never be able to find work again.

The work is done, and the servants are ready for the party.  The ladies serve tea to the mistress of the house and that does not go well.  Fern gets a ticking off.  The footmen are busy serving the shooting party outside.  How will the famous people handle life as Edwardian servants?  Will the shooting party go well?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out about life in the Edwardian period.

After watching Manor House, I wondered how actors and famous people would handle the life of Edwardians.  It was not surprising to see them feeling overwhelmed by the experience.  The only person that was missing from this episode was Mr. Edgar, the butler from Edwardian Country House.  I would have enjoyed watching him handle those celebrities.  I also enjoy hearing the reflections everyone had on their experiences.  Overall it was a fairly good episode of the Time Crashers and one that could have been a little bit longer.  This would be one episode to show in the history classroom for a fun and frivolous day.

Good morning, the Time Crashers are going to take part in a Medieval Jousting Tournament.  The run time for this episode is 46:17.

The year is 1468 and it was a year of peace in England.  It was one of the few years of the Wars of the Roses that did not have fighting in it.  The Time Crashers find themselves in Derbyshire and at a jousting tournament.  They are squires serving the knights.  The ten Time Crashers are divided into two teams: Red and Black.  They are competing with each other to prepare the knight for the tournament.  The tournament allowed knights to practice their war games.  War games were not a sporting spectacle.  It was a way for young men to flex their muscles.  Even the King participated in these tournaments. 

Keith Allen takes charge of the Red team and reads out the Time Crashers’ guide.  It is here that they learn they will compete for the Black Team.  Chris Ramsey of the Black Team sizes up the competition.  Being a squire was a man’s job.  So women are going to be considered as men for this period.  Kristie Alley is delighted that she is in a masculine role because her status would have been raised. 

The team meets up with the men who will be in charge of them.  The boss will make sure that everything is followed.  The Blacks and the Reds compete with each other, and the team that wins the competition will be treated to a feast.  The losers get nothing.  The Time Crashers then meet up with the Knight.  The Time Team signs the indentures.  Germaine is taking his new role seriously.  Kristie is liking the period.  1468 would have given the people a chance to lift their lot.

The squires’ work is at the heart of the Knight’s success.  It was not just the joust itself that determined the winner.  How the knight behaved.  How the people beneath the knight behaved.  How clean the armor was.  How the knight looked on his horse.  There were plenty of factors that determined the winner of the joust. 

The Reds immediately set to work.  The Time Crashers will have five hours to prepare the knight.  They are preparing the lance and it is twelve feet long.  The blacks are struggling to divide up the jobs.  Louise and Fern will work with the horses and it is here that Louise takes charge.  Germaine will work with the knight’s kit. 

Kristie works on the knight’s shield and she is trying to match the Knight’s crest.  The Reds are coming together well.  They each have a different set of skills and are voicing their concerns when necessary.  The Blacks are working on polishing the knight’s armor.  The boys chat about the life of a squire and the knight.  Louise and Fern are at loggerheads over cleaning the horse.

Time continues to go on.  However, there is a concern in the camp that the knight is not well enough to take part in the joust.  One of the men will have to take the jar of urine to the barber-surgeon.  Barber surgeons cut hair, pulled teeth, and cut off limbs.  Urine played an important role in determining health.  The barber-surgeon determined that the knight is well enough to fight.  The Red team works on cleaning the horse.  Kristie is in her element cleaning the horse.  Keith and Greg take the Red Knight’s armor in for maintenance. 

The Time Crashers worked through the morning without eating and they come to eat.  Eating was a communal affair.  Knights and Squires lived by a strict code.  Keith goes off to find fruit for the vegetarian on the team.  However, the theft did not go unnoticed and Keith is told off by the knight.  Meg enjoys her ill-gotten fruit.  Knights and squires were required to live by the code of chivalry.  In two hours the joust will begin.  The reds have raced ahead while the Blacks have fallen behind.  Will the Blacks manage to catch up?  Who will win the tournament?  Which team will emerge victorious?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

This was a fascinating look at knights and tournaments.  It was good to look at the life of squires.  This would be a good episode to show in the classroom.

To kick off the summer, we are going to explore Time Crashers.  Time Crashers is a history meets reality TV series hosted by Tony Robinson.  Ten celebrities go back in time to explore six different periods of British history.  The different periods include the Elizabethan Era, the 1460’s, 1913, the Georgian Era, the Victorian Era, and the Iron Age.  The ten celebrities are Keith Allen, Kristie Alley, Fern Britton, Charlie Condou, Meg Mathews, Jermaine Jenas, Louise Minchin, Chris Ramsey, Greg Rutherford, and Zoe Smith.  Can they survive what history has to throw at them?

In this first episode of Time Crashers, the ten celebrities go back and experience life as servants in the Elizabethan Era.  This episode has a run time of 46:31.

The scene for this first-time crash is Haddon Hall.  It was one of the greatest houses in English History.  Kristie Alley finds herself in the kitchen.  Greg Rutherford finds himself sitting in a cart with dead chickens.  They are joined by Charlie Condou, Fern Britton, and Zoe Smith.  It is 1588 and the height of Elizabethan England.  The elite are building grand manor houses and to run those houses they needed servants.  The Time Crashers are given a guide as to how to live in the 1588s.  The Time Crashers are servants in the kitchen.  Kristie gets told off for eating an apple.  The staff will produce a Tudor Feast.  Tudor Feasts were expensive with a variety of different meats.  These feasts were to show off the wealth of the manor owner.  It would have taken weeks of planning and would have had 100 different dishes.

The second group of Time Crashers arrives at the manor: and they are Keith Allen, Louise Minchin, Meg Matthews, Jermaine Jenas, and Chris Ramsey.  This group will be household servants and they are allowed to be upstairs.  This position would have been of respect.  Tony Robinson and Cassie Newland are keeping an eye on things.  The household steward and head cook will keep an eye on the servants and will reward them or punish them according to the standards of the day.

Fern and Zoe’s first task is to strip a boar’s head and stuff it.  Zoe is finding that task a challenge.  Meg and Louise are going to wash the lady of the house’s clothing and will be using urine to wash the clothes.  Urine was used for cleaning because it contained ammonia.  Meg and Louise are shocked at what they are using to wash the clothing.

Tony talks with Cassie about the novelty of women servants.  Women were employed as servants for the first time and they were paid much less than men.  So the nobility would have wanted to hide them because they did not want people to know that they were hiring cheap labor.  Fern takes the lead in working on the boar’s head.  Zoe is still feeling squeamish about the head.  Kristie helps Fern with the boar’s head. 

The feast will take place in the great hall, where the master showed off his wealth.  Only the most trusted servants would have prepared the hall.  The household steward gives the household staff a lesson in manners, etiquette, and deference.  Chris is finding the instruction challenge.  Tony and Cassie talk about the etiquette books of the day and the rules that were involved.

The Lord and the Lady arrive and the household servants are confused as to where to stand.  The house steward is not impressed with their manners.  Kristie and Fern are working on sewing the boars in order to stuff the boars’ heads.  The pair manage to break the only needle that is strong enough to sew the head together.  Boars head is official off the table.  What will the kitchen serve? 

How will the Time Crashers handle life as Elizabethan Servants?  How will the Kitchen staff cope with the tasks?  Will the household staff learn their manners and etiquette?  Will there be a rebellion among the kitchen and household staff?  Who will rise to the challenge of being an Elizabethan Servant?  Who will crash and burn?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out.

This was a series on my list of reality-based history to show, especially since it was hosted by the delightful Tony Robinson.  It was cool to see how celebrities handle living in a different historical period.  Time Crashers would be something fun to show in a classroom, not something for serious research nor serious watching.
 

Let's continue with a Fun and Frivolous December with Time Walks!  Tony Robinson has another series Time Walks.  He walks and explores the history of a particular area.  This is different from Time Travels and its search for hidden history.  This series happened over two series and explores the cities of Australia and New Zealand.  Tony brings his storytelling style to this series.  The series kicks off with Freemantle and ends with Alice Springs.  What will Tony Robinson learn about Australia?
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Tony highlights the isolation of Australia.  Why would you put a colony in Australia?  You could not grow anything there.  The limestone crumbles easily.  It was only when the British Empire decided to dump convicts in Australia, there was enough labor to turn Australia into a country.  Tony starts his travel in Freemantle, Australia.

He kicks off his walk in the roundhouse.  It was the oldest building in Australia.  It was a prison at one time.  It was built in the round to help the prison guards watch their charges.  Even though it is no longer a prison, there is a particular time-keeping method still kept.  An important person would shoot a cannon and one o’clock, a ball would drop, and the ships in the harbor would set their chronometers.  Tony is invited to shoot the cannon.  The cannon is loud.

Tony then continues onto fishing boat harbor.  Freemantle was a rough place and then America’s Cup came into town.  Tony explores this with a tourist promoter.  This brought a higher class of people and it became the center of the Yachting world.  Freemantle’s residents rose against the developers to prevent them from tearing down their history.  The residents won.  He then heads on to the Maritime Museum for murder and mayhem. 

He tells the story of Batavia.  The Batavia was looking for spices but it was grounded.  Tony tells Batavia’s stories with the tourists in the museum.  The Batavia was hijacked and sailed away.  One hundred and twenty-five people were murdered.  The ringleader was executed.  This was a delightful section in Tony’s Time walk.

In the 1880s gold was discovered again in Australia.  People started flooding into Freemantle to find gold.  Gold flooded into the economy and new buildings were built.  Freemantle was the only city with a city square, only it is not in the center of the city.  Toney then makes it to the wharf.  The dockworkers were treated badly and there was a strike.  In 1919, an event called Bloody Sunday happened.  The dockworkers and the scabs, people were killed during this event.

Tony makes his way to one last prison.  This newer prison had 125 cells.  This prison held a special prisoner.  This prisoner drew the artwork on his cell.  This prison was also the site of a great escape.  It is 1972 and a man pranked the prison to make his escape.  This escape involved the prison radio and a man who was good at electronic repairs.  The guards asked this man to repair the electronics in the prison hospital.  He did more than that and was able to make calls outside the prison.  The man escapes and goes into a getaway car.  The men were caught again three months later. 

Tony concludes his walk with Freemantle is not another suburb of Perth.  It is a city that continually reinvents itself.

Time Walks is a short show with a run time of about twenty-six minutes.  This would be a good series to show for a geography class or independent study geography students.  If you are a geography teacher and have a substitute teacher in the classroom then you can go ahead and show this series.

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.

Good morning, we are continuing to wrap up October of the Time Team with an episode from season six.  The Time Team finds itself in Bawesey St. James, Norfolk.
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The Time Team is investigating a deserted church.  However, locals are finding metal dating back to the Iron Age.  Was this site a settlement?  The Time Team is broadcasting the dig live.  The site they are investigating is huge and has never been properly investigated.  A large number of finds have been found by the locals hinting at a large settlement.  So what was this site?  What will happen during the live show? 

Aerial photographs show that something is going on with the site.  The finds have come from a variety of periods: from the Iron Age to the Norman Age.  There was one excavation at the remains of the Norman Church during the 1930s but there were no records kept.  Trench One goes in on a boundary that shows up in the aerial photograph.  If there was dating evidence, Carenza will find it.

Neil opens up trench two at the church.  The church has a large tower which hints at its importance.  In fact, there were some high-status finds found earlier that may hint at a monastery on the site.  Stewart is out and about looking at the landscape.  Geophysics is also at work and had to adjust their equipment to read through the sandy soil.  There is an army of field walkers and metal detectorists on the site.

Mick and Tony talk about Mick’s attitude towards metal detectorists.  Mick loathed them because they would rob history.  However, it is a small number of metal detectorists do this.  Normally, they work with historians and archeologists to provide them with additional finds and information about the site.  The field walkers find their first find: a silver Saxon coin.  The coin would not have been worth much and would have been the equivalent of a penny.  A second coin from the Anglo-Saxon period is found, this coin would have been more valuable.  Both coins are very rare finds and place at the site during the Saxon period.

Carenza is making good progress on trench one.  There is a ditch on the site and Carenza feels like it comes from the Iron Age.  Trench Two yields a body.  Is this a Christian burial on the site?  On the other side of Trench Two, there is something interesting on the ground.  The Time Team also recreated a Saxon village on the site and will be recreating a piece of Saxon jewelry.

Geophysics throws the Time Team another target.  It looks like there was an entrance to the church area or a harbor.  The site is sitting above a marsh.  Trench three goes in.  Is it some sort of entranceway?  Phil is supervising this weekend because of an injury.  Will Phil keep himself from digging in the trench?  The skull was found in medieval and was buried during that period.  In fact, they are finding a glazed medieval floor.  A shattered piece of tile is found with the creators’ name on it.  Trench two is shut down and the archeologists put their skills elsewhere.  Trench Four goes in because it is becoming clear there was activity on the site.

What was this site?  Why were there so many finds? What was going on at the site?  How many more trenches will be opened up?  Will the Time Team find the rest of the boundary?  Tune into the rest of this Time Team to find out more!

This one would be a Time Team for research purposes and not to show in the classroom.

Good morning, we are continuing to wrap up October of the Time Team.  This time the Time Team will have to look at under 5000 tons of stone for their excavation.
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What was this site?  It has been called everything from a stone-age homestead to a fortress.  This site sits on a hill on a sheep farm.  Its crumbling walls still provide an interesting puzzle.  The site was nicknamed the castles.  The Time Team will have to find a date and the function of this enclosure.  A ditch may provide environmental evidence.  What will the Time Team discover about this site?  How many stones will the Time Team have to move to learn more about the site?

The Time Team converges on the site.  Stewart is looking at the walls and geophysics is doing its work.  An environmental archeologist looks at the ditches.  There was a lot of curiosity about the site.   However, the site has been investigated once and that was in the 1920s.  The archeologist was local and he looked in the enclosure for internal structures.  There were no internal structures.  There were no finds made at the time.  However, local sources seem to hint at fossilized trunks and flints found at the site.  There were photos of the site made during the 1920s.

The Time Team starts moving stones away from the site of the gatehouse.  Another trench will go in on a wall in hopes of finding datable evidence.  Since it is a dry-stone structure, it is difficult to tell the difference between rubble and wall.  Geophysics is having a little bit of difficulty with the trees and the stones so John will rely on the knowledge of a local farmer to find a place to start geophysics.

Tony catches u with David Mason a county archeologist to talk about the site.  It is County Durham’s least understood site.  There are a variety of stories about the site.  The rock enclosure was home to a local tribe.  The Romans used it as a penal colony where slaves were kept.  Tony concludes that there were plenty of stories about the site that eventually people believed the stories.  The variety of stories will prove to be a challenge for the Time Team.

Mick and Stewart talk with experts from English Heritage to talk about the possibility of the site being Roman.  The experts do not necessarily believe that the site was Roman.  That said, the trenches are progressing well.  The entrance or gate site’s archeology is proving to be a challenge.  Unfortunately, the site has provided no finds so environmental archelogy will take center stage.  A third trench is put in on the south wall.  Moving stone on trench three will be a huge job.

Phil is getting somewhere in trench one.  Maybe he is hitting the original ground surface.  Mick catches up with Phil to talk about the wall and the ground level.  The interior is going to be cleared so that geophysics can find evidence of the site.  At the end of Day One, there is a Time Team catch-up.  They go over the photos taken in the 1920s.  Mick seems to believe that it was a defensive site based on a small body of evidence.  What were these walls protecting?  Was it really a defensive site?  What will the Time Team find out inside?  Tune into the rest of this Time Team episode to find out more.

This would be an interesting show for a class on landscaping because environmental archeology took center stage.  This would also be a good episode for a fun history day in the classroom.

Good morning, we are nearly there with our Thirty-One days of the Time Team, and this time we are heading to Governor’s Green in Portsmouth.
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Portsmouth’s History as a seaport stretches into medieval times.  The Time Team will look for the history of Portsmouth, especially a hospital that was on the site.  The patch of green has seen a lot of action over the years.  A Tudor Mansion was built on the site.  During World War II bombs were dropped on the site.  Will the Time Team be able to discover the medieval history of the site?  Will they be able to discover this history without the bomb squad?

Portsmouth has the best deep port in England and is important to the defense of Britain.  Henry VIII fortified the harbor.  The site sits in one of the last remaining fortifications.  Tony catches up with the local historian to talk about the old medieval hospital and the history of the site.  The Chapel was built in 1212, eventually becoming part of a Tudor mansion.  Then the armed forces used the chapel for their services until World War II came and the chapel was bombed.  This is the first time that the site will be dug.

A history of the area was published in the Victorian era and included a list of the buildings on the site.  Can the Time Team trust this source?  While geophysics does its thing on the site, Stewart and a geography professor are looking at maps of the site, overlaying the Tudor Maps with modern maps of Portsmouth to determine how accurate they are.  A map from 1584 shows a detailed map of the hospital.  Armed with this map, Stewart will plot the location of the old medieval road to determine where the hospital was.  How accurate are these old maps?  These maps are almost too good to be true for the Time Team.

Tony then talks with Helen Geake and Carole Rawcliffe talk about the history of the hospital.  The hospital was dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors.  The hospital was built by the Bishop of Winchester.  He was the most powerful man in England, and while King John was away in 1214, he ruled England.  The Bishop of Winchester established the hospital to look after the poor and the sick.  Carole is thrilled with the possibility of learning more about the history of the site because a loft of the records about it was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The site potentially has the oldest stone buildings in Portsmouth.  After John Gater gets his results back and a large trench one goes in.  However, it immediately reveals a large modern concrete surface.  They will have to get beneath the concrete to find more evidence.  Trench two also goes in and there is evidence of a medieval building. 

Mick and Carole talk with Tony about the chapel building.  In Medieval Times the chapel would have been used for the hospital.  The people would have been able to watch mass and be taken care of by laypeople.  The impression would have been you were in a church where people were laying on the side.  The dig is off to a good start!  What will the Time Team discover about the chapel and the hospital?  Will the bomb squad have to be called in?  Tune into this episode to find out more about this chapel and hospital!

There is a fun little thing about this episode: Victor Ambrus the artist sneaked a drawing of Phil, Tony, and Mick in his artwork.  This would be an episode to show for a history fun day and for research.