Time Team Day 26 - How to Lose a Castle

Good morning, we are continuing through the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team and this is Day Twenty-Six.  October is nearly done and then for November, I will do World War I and World War II blogs and then do fun documentaries for December.  I cannot believe we will soon be in January 2024.  I hope in some small way I have been helping teachers and even substitute teachers select documentaries to show to their classes.

Anyway, Time Team has lost a castle and is trying to find it in the episode “How to Lose A Castle,” and the run time for this episode is 46:14.

For generations, farmers are wondering if there was a castle on the hill.  Local legend talks about there being a castle on the hill from the Norman period.  However, there were no records of the castle nor there is a reason why a castle would be built on the hill.  This hill is the biggest in Somerset and the Time Team is in for a workout climbing up.  The Time Team will have three days to solve the mystery of the castle.

A geophysics survey may hint at something in the ground and Phil wastes no time in putting a trench in.  The results show that there was some sort of big structure.  With a little bit of luck, the Time Team may find a castle keep.  Alex Langlands surveys the landscape with Mick to see if there was a reason why a castle would be built on the hill.  Mick and Alex talk about a castle being built to defend the trade routes.  In the meantime, another pair of Time Team members look at the local records to see if there was a castle on the hill.  The documents hint that there was a castle in the area from the 1100s.  Somewhere in the vicinity, there was a castle, and the Time Team will have to locate where it was.

Phil is making some good discoveries in his trench.  He talks about the different types of dirt in the area of the rubbed-all wall in hopes of convincing Tony that there was a building on the site.  Trench two goes in lower down the hill over a potential ditch site.  The geophysics results show that there was something in the ground.  In the meantime, Alex and Mick go over a computer software that shows the landscape.  After going over the software, Alex heads off to another hill that is a contender for where the castle was.  There was a reference in a document from the 18th Century that there was a castle on this site.  This hill was near a town.  Alex seems to hint that the newly arrived Normans would have built a castle on top of the hill in order to look down on the Anglo-Saxons.

The finds keep coming.  This is evidence that people were living on top of the hill during the Medieval period.  In Phil’s trench, the investigation continues on the pile of rubble.  Is this really a pile of rubble or was this part of a wall?  Does the evidence at this sight point to this hill being home to a castle?  Or is the evidence pointing to something else?  Tony catches up with Mick, Alex, and Mary-Anne at the end of day one to go over the evidence. 

Day Two begins with the discovery of a post-hole in Phil’s trench.  John and Mick theorize that the castle was timber built with stone supports.  Mary Anne goes over the finds that were discovered in trench two.  There was a piece of a broach discovered, which would hint at the high-status nature of the area.  There were shards of pottery also found in the trench.  So what is really going on during this site?  Was there a castle on this site?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

There was a lot of back and forth between the theories of this site.  There seemed to be an abundance of evidence that confused everyone.  There was also a fascinating look at the anarchy when there was fighting between King Stephen and Empress Matilda.  This would be a good episode to show to a science class because there was a hypothesis: that there was a castle on the hill and that hypothesis was put to the test until there was a conclusion.