Time Team - Castle in the Round

Good morning, we will continue with the Thirty-One Days of Time Team with Castle in the Round.
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Time Team finds themselves in Queensborough and examining a mound.  This castle was built on the island of Sheppy.  The site had a castle.  It was built for Queen Phillipa by King Edward.  Images of the castle are rare.  There was a plan for the castle, however, another artist had a different idea as to what the castle looked like.  Why was it built?  Was it a shelter from the plague?  What did it look like?  Time Team has three days to find out more about this castle.

The Time Team comes together to form a plan to excavate the castle.  John Gater talks about the challenges Geophysics will have found the castle.  A trench will be put into the castle.  There seems to be a Medieval well in the middle, so the Time Team will use that as a landmark.  The first trench goes in.  A tile is found on the site.  Geophysics works its way around the mound.

Tony then investigates why the castle was built.  Was it built as part of the 100’s Years War?  The location of the castle seems to hint at it.  The castle would protect the harbor and the town around it.

In the meantime, Phil continues to work on the trench.  He is discovering unmarked pipes, so it is slow going for Phil.  The residents of Queensborough are keen on learning more about the castle’s story.  A local brings in a dollhouse supposedly made from the wood from the castle.  How much of the castle was left after Cromwell and his men tore it down?

Phil is discovering the walls that hint that there is a rotunda and is finding stone from the trench.  Mick examines the stone that is coming from the trench.  There were some shaped pieces.  Phil speculates that they have found an inner wall.  Mick talks about Stewart and how he measured the rotunda of the castle.  Mick put Tony to work to measure the size of the castle.  Tony is suspicious about Stewart’s castle measurements.  Stewart hints that all the evidence that the castle was larger than what was previously thought.  A second trench is planned.  The trench will be a long one and it will stretch out from the rotunda to the outside curving wall.

Phil digs deeper in the trench and is finding more stone that hints at a wall.  Is this King Edward’s castle?  The signs are promising for the Time Team.  Tony looks into the history of the castle.  The archeologists created a 3d model of the castle.  The Parliamentary forces under Cromwell described the castle in their documents and they described it as well.  This matches the plans that were discovered.  It would have been an odd-looking castle.

As well as examining the castle, the Time Team is investigating the town its self.  They hope to discover how King Edward built the town around the castle.  The Time Team goes into houses with the oldest cellars to learn more about the town.  Some of the houses hint at different phases of construction.  Time Team is having some success on Day One.  Will it continue for the rest of the days?  Tune into this episode to find out.

This was an enjoyable episode to watch.  It seemed that everything they learned about the castle was new.  I also appreciated the locals participating in this dig as well.  They were excited to learn more about their town.  This would be a good filler episode for a history class or independent study students.