Digging for Britain (2010) s11e02 Episode Script

These islands we call home
have a rich and varied history
stretching back thousands of years.
But hidden under the ground -
and underwater -
are some amazing treasures
just waiting to be found.
Wow!
So each year, all across
the country, archaeologists dig,
dive and explore their way down
Oh, this is brilliant.
searching for fresh
discoveries.
And it is completely intact.
Revealing traces
of ancient cultures.
This shoe is 2,803 years old.
Oh, wow.
And unearthing
fascinating artefacts.
Oh, that's a nice thing.
What is it?
I've never seen anything
quite like it in my career.
Every dig adds new pieces
to the ever-growing
archaeological jigsaw
That's so cool.
that is the epic story
of our islands.
This year, I visit digs
in some extraordinary locations.
The ceiling just got a bit lower!
And I call on the help of a trio
of expert investigators
It's quite difficult to find
any other evidence of things
that just didn't leave a mark
in the archaeology.
This is a really powerful document
because we're getting to hear
the voices that we don't
usually hear.
who delve deeper to answer
the questions raised by the finds.
Is all of this already
recorded in books?
There was none of this in a book
anywhere.
Finally, the archaeologists
bring their most amazing discoveries
into our tent
Astonishing!
for up-close analysis.
Genuinely rewriting history.
Welcome to Digging for Britain.
This time, I'm travelling
through central Britain
to reveal the area's most intriguing
archaeological finds.
A dig under Leicester Cathedral
reveals clues to a lost shrine.
How fantastic to have found
this sacred object in this place
which has stayed a sacred place
through the centuries. It is.
In Winchester, archaeologists
unearthing an Anglo-Saxon
cemetery make a spectacular
discovery.
It was a very sunny day
and I found this object
which was the colour of gold.
"Oh, my gosh. What is that?"
I track down a forgotten nunnery
on the banks of the River Thames.
My personal favourite
is this domed thimble.
Is that medieval?
Yeah, 1400 to 1500.
And Onyeka Nubia unearths
500-year-old evidence
of the actual women who lived there.
There are problems in this house,
as six nuns have run away.
Wow. Phenomenal number.
And the beech is lifting me
Ash is reaching me
Wind is holding me
Time is folding me
Under the trees
Down through the Lea
And on to the path
that you came to that day ♪
First, we travel to RAF Alconbury
near the town of Huntingdon,
15 miles south of Peterborough.
Built in 1938 for use
by RAF Bomber Command
and expanded to become
a US Air Force base in 1942,
RAF Alconbury remained
operational until 30 years ago.
Now this World War II airbase
is being redeveloped,
and that's giving archaeologists
a precious chance
to look beneath the runways.
This nuclear bunker
is known as Dragon Mountain.
It was built at the height
of the Cold War and used as a base
for US spy operations.
This was built at a time
when people were genuinely fearing
that they were facing the end
of civilisation.
And in a way,
that's what the archaeologists
are looking at here as well.
A time of incredibly
heightened anxiety,
many centuries ago.
This dig takes us right back
to one of the most tumultuous
periods in Britain's history -
the end of the Roman period.
With the Roman road, Ermine Street,
and the Roman town of Godmanchester
nearby,
the team from Oxford Archaeology
expected to find
some Roman activity.
But when they started digging,
they found far more
than they'd anticipated.
Lead archaeologist Chris Thatcher
is giving me a tour
of this baffling dig.
So, Chris, what have you got?
We've got bits of middle Iron Age
archaeology,
tiny bits of early
Roman archaeology
and then a gap, and then
this flurry of activity
in the very, very late Roman period.
And that's such an interesting time!
Yeah, that's it.
It's so rare to find such
a concentrated burst of activity
during that time,
certainly in like a rural context
where we are now. OK. Can we
have a look at what's
Yeah, absolutely, let's go and have a look
round coming out of the trenches, then?
The Romans occupied Britain
from 43 CE until the collapse
of the Western Empire
some 400 years later.
Affluent communities
left behind a wealth
of archaeological evidence,
from urban centres
to rural villa complexes.
But poorer communities
left far fewer traces.
But as footage captured
by the archaeologists shows,
this site is a rare exception.
It's just amazing, isn't it?
It's absolutely wonderful.
Look at that. How many are there?
There's one, two, three, four.
It's a beautiful thing.
One of the most striking features
of the site is a large,
dark ditch, easily visible.
So I can see this massive
feature coming through here.
But why is it here?
Well, we think it's a large
enclosure or boundary ditch,
and it goes all the way round
and encloses this area
down to the bottom of the site.
So it's like a moat
going round the outside of it?
Essentially, yeah.
And then ditches are places
where things fall in
and you tend to get finds. So have
you had anything out of the ditches?
We've had Yeah, round here
we found a lot of late Roman coins.
Do we think people were living
inside this enclosure
through into that late Roman period?
That's the interesting thing
on this site.
We don't think they were actually
living here,
but they are coming here and
the material is being left here.
But what they're leaving
over there is what's got
us really excited.
Let's have a look.
Chris and the team have recovered
over 100kg of pottery
from this relatively small site,
far beyond what would be expected
as waste from a rural settlement.
As well as the sheer volume,
it's the remarkable condition
and position of the pottery
that makes it so unusual.
So we've got
some smashed-up pots here.
We've got three different
deposits of pots.
They are smashed,
but they're entire vessels. Yeah.
All late Roman. And they're
all deposited in this top layer,
this top sort of 30, 40cm
of the ditch.
Surely this is just rubbish.
This is people just chucking
stuff in a ditch?
If it was rubbish, you'd expect
people just to tip their rubbish in.
We can see from the stratigraphy
that they're actually cutting
into the top of the ditch these pits
to actually bury individual vessels.
Oh, OK. So they're not just
using the existing ditch
and, I mean, throwing these pots in
or placing these pots in -
they're actually digging down
Exactly, yeah.
and then burying them. Yes.
And that's the thing.
It's that sort of cumulative
evidence, that build-up. Yeah.
It's just making us go,
"This isn't random,
"this isn't rubbish disposal.
There's something deliberate."
Yeah. Ritual was part and
parcel of people's daily lives.
Yeah. But you also have to not
leap to that being the conclusion.
So it's not what we would normally
expect going on here.
Yeah.
While Chris is showing me
these curious finds,
over in the next trench,
archaeologist Steve has just
unearthed another pot.
Oh, Steve, what have you got there?
Hi, Alice. It's a complete
Nene Valley ware pot.
That's beautiful.
Is it complete and intact?
Well, at the moment,
yes, I think so.
It's just about to come out now.
Yeah.
Oh, wow, here it comes.
There we go. Oh, wow.
Look at that! There we are.
That's lovely! Wow, look at that.
So that's the base of it there.
Yeah. That's the top. It's all
intact.
Can I have a look? There you go.
Oh, Steve, that is beautiful.
And it is completely intact.
Can I clear off some of this clay?
By all means, yeah.
So this is late Roman?
Yes, possibly late 4th century.
So this is the first time
that somebody has held this
in their hands for
Since they put it in the ground.
1,600 years ago. Yeah.
It just seems odd.
I mean, it's
It doesn't seem like they're
just throwing rubbish away.
No, and that's
what we need to find out.
And this completely intact pot
isn't the first that
the team have found.
Project officer Paddy Lambert
has assembled a collection
of the best finds to show me.
It's a flagon.
Isn't that a gorgeous,
gorgeous piece of pottery? Yep.
And I think the decoration
is really nice at first glance,
but look a little bit closer
and you can see that it's actually
quite poorly executed.
This bit here looks like it's gone
a bit awry. Exactly.
It's been smudged. Yeah.
So it's actually quite a common
thing to find this level
of decoration in the later
Roman period.
It seems to symbolise almost
exactly
what the Roman province of Britannia
was going through - it's that
economic trial and tribulations
at this period.
It's a lovely vessel.
You might have noticed, of course,
that it's missing its head.
The spout here and the handle
has been chopped off.
In one fluid motion. It hasn't just
broken? No, it's been chopped.
You can tell,
because it's very smooth.
So it's been in the ground
like that for a very long time.
That's curious. It's very curious.
So you think this is
not just rubbish.
You think there's something much
more thoughtful going on?
Exactly.
That leads us neatly on to the rest
of the assemblage,
which is also a very curious
mix of bits.
What about that there?
That is a snake ring.
So it's a ring literally
to look like a snake.
If you would just put
it on your hand, like that.
Do you think it's been bent?
Yes, I think so.
I don't think you would have been
able to get it on your finger.
It's been compressed.
Interesting that you say that,
that it's actually been bent
or it's rather too small. Yeah.
This kind of thing is very,
very common on this site.
And they do suggest that they are
miniature symbols of other objects.
For example, if you come
from a rural society
that can't afford to buy
these actual jewelleries,
then perhaps there is an industry
going on where you can buy
these things to give.
Miniature versions. Exactly.
To donate. Oh, OK.
You're really starting to build up
this idea, aren't you, Paddy,
that you think these objects
have been deliberately
placed here for a reason.
Absolutely. We're finding
early brooches.
The pin itself suggests
that it has been deposited.
It's not broken.
Usually when you find brooches,
the pin is missing,
so it suggests they've fallen off.
When you find the pin, it suggests
that they've taken it off,
put it in and placed it as well.
We don't have that much evidence
for agriculture,
but we do have tools
that have been deposited
that are to do with agriculture.
So is that a scythe? That is, yes,
very similar.
It's called a reaping hook.
It's a small version. OK.
A little wooden handle.
If you just turn it over,
you can see the socket
Oh, yeah where the wooden handle
would have been.
A hand scythe. Exactly.
And that is, again, deposited whole.
And that's coming out of the same
ditch? Coming out the same feature,
yeah. Yeah. As a collective,
none of these in isolation
are actually that interesting.
As an assemblage,
they are really revealing.
So you're reaching for this
interpretation that these objects
have been placed in these ditches
in a ritual way?
Precisely.
Paddy believes that these buried
objects could have been offerings
to the gods in a time
of great upheaval and anxiety.
Between 350 and 400 AD,
the Roman Empire is in bad way.
It's in dire straits.
And especially in Britain.
The agricultural economy
has shrunk,
the military economy has shrunk,
the army have gone.
There is various incursions
all over from the Picts
to the Saxons.
These people are embroiled
in this and it does seem
like the only time you would see
this level of curation,
this level of votive offering,
of deposition,
is disruption or fear.
So you're seeing this fragment
of material culture
that we can see here
as evidence of a society
in disarray and a sense of anxiety.
Exactly.
I think it's a microcosm
of the story of Roman Britain.
There's something
really eerie about this site.
And it's not just the hangars.
I think the archaeology
here is fascinating.
And as much as I want to believe
that what's ending up in a ditch
is just their rubbish,
it seems that there's more to it.
And the archaeologists believe
that what we've got here
is a response to this tumultuous
period of history,
as the Roman period
in Britain comes to an end.
And I just wonder what was
in the mind of the person
who placed this pot in the ditch
1,600 years ago
and then walked away.
After the fragmenting
of the Western Roman Empire,
there's evidence of migration
into Britain
and new kingdoms begin to form.
One of the most powerful
and enigmatic Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
lay right in the centre.
It was known as Mercia.
We've got a chronic shortage
of houses in Britain.
We desperately need to build
more.
And archaeologists work hand in hand
with the construction industry.
They monitor new developments
as they happen and record
any archaeology
which comes to light,
often leading to completely
unexpected discoveries.
Our next dig takes us
to New Alresford,
just north of the River Itchen
and seven miles from Winchester.
Before a new housing development
could be built
on the edge of the town,
archaeologists were called
in to investigate
some circular crop marks,
first identified in a 1960s
aerial photograph.
Early exploratory trenches
revealed them to be
three Bronze Age ring ditches,
which would have encircled
ancient burial mounds.
But that's not
all the archaeologists discovered,
because dug into
and around the ring ditches
were over 100 shallow graves.
Trainee archaeologist George
is part of the team investigating.
In this 5m or so area
I've had four skeletons
which we didn't know were here.
Quite exciting!
What the team have stumbled on
is a previously unknown
Anglo-Saxon cemetery
dating to the early medieval
period.
Is that one here?
Paul McCulloch from Preconstruct
Archaeology is leading the dig.
A lot of our graves are much
shallower than they would
have actually been when they were
made in the Anglo-Saxon period.
And that shallowness
has come about
because of intense agriculture.
So we can see some of the
plough scars, as we call them,
that they've cut into the Bronze Age
barrows and they've cut into
the Anglo-Saxon graves as well.
So we can expect many of the graves
to have simply been eroded,
and you will lose the evidence
of the Anglo-Saxon population
that was here if you don't do
something about it.
The early Anglo-Saxons
seemed to have been mainly pagan.
But from the end of the
6th century,
missionaries were sent
from Italy to convert their rulers
to Orthodox Christianity and
bring them under the sway of Rome
once again.
The evidence here is leading
the team to suspect
that this cemetery could be
the resting place of some
of the earliest Christian
Anglo-Saxons in the Itchen Valley.
The burials appear to be in quite
organised rows,
in graves that had been well cut.
These attributes suggest
that it was reasonably well managed.
Most of them are laid east-to-west,
with the head to the west,
and they're buried on their back.
Paul and his team,
including archaeologist Lara,
want to find out
more about this community.
How they lived and how they died.
The well-preserved human
remains may hold some clues.
So this is a child,
we're thinking under ten years old.
The easiest way to tell is the bones
aren't fully fused.
So this is the top bit
of the vertebra,
it's not fused
onto the rest of it yet.
And it's the same with, like,
the fingers and the toes.
They're a lot bittier
than you would expect with adults.
A much bigger grave is being
excavated by archaeologist Liam.
At the moment, we've got the top
of what looks like a male skull.
And he's in a lot better condition
than most of the skulls
we're actually getting on the site.
So we've got the brow just here.
And there's his nose. Well,
it's where his nose would have been.
And then I imagine he's got
quite long legs
as this is one of our larger graves.
It's a lot wider than most
of the other graves.
The cemetery population
is quite mixed.
There's young and old.
It doesn't represent
a catastrophic event
brought about by disease
or something like that.
We're looking at a long-lived
cemetery,
that represents a community
that lived and farmed here
on the Downland. We don't know
where they were living,
but we certainly know
where they were putting their dead.
Although the organisation
of the cemetery suggests
Christian burial practice,
over half of the burials
have been found to contain
grave goods,
something more common
in pagan funerary rites.
Perhaps this is a clue
that the religious beliefs
of the community were in flux.
The bones have come up
this red to white,
and then you've got this dark,
metallic, rusty tinge.
So I discovered this small
iron blade laying on top
of the right upper arm
and the vertebrae.
So the handle,
which would have been attached,
has obviously dissolved
and disappeared over time.
But the metal blade itself
is still intact.
So whether it's been laid
on top of them after burial
or whether it was
within their clothing,
it's difficult to say.
So the most common finds
we've made in the graves are knives.
One of our graves
had a pair of shears in it.
But I think these very simple knives
were your everyday pocket knife.
Some of the earlier Anglo-Saxon
cemeteries that we're familiar with
in the Itchen Valley,
the burials there were often
accompanied by a considerable
range of objects,
from pottery vessels, to spearheads,
to shields and jewellery as well.
Whereas, in the 7th century,
there seems to be less objects
buried with the dead,
perhaps in reflection
of some kind of change
in burial practice that might
be related to religious belief.
And one find provides
another tantalising clue
that some of those buried here
could have been Christian.
The spectacular discovery was made
by archaeologist Giovanni.
It was a very sunny day
and I found this object,
which is the colour of gold.
It was yellow.
I said, "Oh, my gosh.
What is there?"
When I tried to clean up
with the brush
and I found out that
it was a pendant -
golden pendant.
So this is the first time
that someone found something
gold in here. It was amazing.
It's difficult to express
the feelings,
but you can see from my face!
I really wanted to get
a close look at this artefact
and understand what it could mean.
So I've invited Paul
and find specialist Mairit Gaimster
to bring this incredible object
to the tent.
So here is the pendant.
It's an extraordinary object,
isn't it, Mairit? It's beautiful.
It really is beautiful.
Can I pick it up?
You can pick it up.
Thank you very much.
Gold is very stable. Look at that.
It is lovely. It's a lovely thing.
Yeah.
So that is lighter than I expected.
But it still has some weight
to it, doesn't it? Mm.
It could have potentially
been part of a necklace,
or strung between pins and had
beads and other lovely things.
And you can see that it's suspended,
can't you? Yeah, yeah.
That's a suspension loop.
And it's got some lovely
filigree work along the edge.
So this is with gold wires
being laid Yeah on the surface?
Yeah. And sort of welded
to the surface. Yeah, yeah.
I suppose what you notice
about this is that it's got
this cross-like design on it.
Yeah.
And, obviously, a cross is one way
of decorating a circle.
Yeah. It's not necessarily
Christian.
But do you think it could be
Christian symbolism in this case?
I think it likely is.
Because it is a period Yeah.
..that sees the whole development
of Christianity
in the Anglo-Saxon areas.
Paul, this is an interesting site.
What's the archaeology telling
you about these kind of themes
of continuity and discontinuity
in the landscape?
What do you think is going on here?
These populations in the 7th
century have one foot
in the ancient world,
which they inherited
from Roman Britain, and one foot
in early medieval England.
Are we expecting these people
to have been Christian?
You know, we have this suggestive
pendant and we have burial practice
which would be familiar
as being ostensibly Christian.
It's a really interesting time.
It's a very interesting period.
When you look at funerary
archaeology,
religion doesn't clearly
map onto it.
So people might continue
doing what they've done before,
what previous generations did
for a while, and then start
to modify it. So it could be
symbolising Christianity as well
as symbolising wealth and status.
Yeah. Yeah.
As Christianity was adopted
as an official religion
in more parts of Britain,
it became more visible
in the landscape.
From modest chapels
to towering cathedrals,
from priories to bishops' palaces.
Some are still standing
and still used,
but even those that have been
reduced to ruins
still have stories to tell.
Our next dig takes us to the
North Bank of the River Thames,
four miles south-east of Windsor,
to Ankerwycke.
On the opposite bank of the river is
an area of meadow called Runnymede.
It was here that King John
agreed to the Magna Carta
in an attempt to make peace
with powerful rebel barons
in 1215
during the medieval period.
On the South Bank over there,
that's where the Magna Carta
was signed between the King
and the barons.
And, of course, the Archbishop
was there orchestrating it all.
It's a very male story.
Over on the North Bank,
we've got a more hidden history,
involving women.
Archaeologists have been drawn
to investigate medieval monasteries
for 200 years, but nunneries,
which are often smaller
and more modest,
tend to have been overlooked.
Well, now archaeologists are
getting the opportunity to explore
a Benedictine nunnery here
in the historic landscape
of Ankerwycke.
This dig by National Trust
archaeologists and volunteers
began last summer.
So what we're looking at here
is our first confirmed piece
of medieval pottery.
So this is our first real,
tangible piece of the nuns
living on the site
here at Ankerwycke.
In this exploratory slot here,
we've been picking out some
rather large pieces of roof tile.
It's floor tile.
Absolutely stunning.
Not every find
is as old as the nunnery.
Oh, it's a recorder!
It's part of a recorder!
Archaeologist James Brown
is leading this dig.
Hello! Hello, hello!
Hi, Alice, welcome to Ankerwycke.
Lovely to have you on site.
Lovely to be here.
So what are we actually
looking at here?
What are the ruins that we can see
above the ground there?
We've never been quite sure
whether this is part
of a romantic folly
built on the site around 1800.
But our investigations are starting
to show that, actually,
this is a surviving part
of the medieval nunnery
that was on the site.
And how much do we know historically
about the nunnery?
Is there a lot of information?
So we know the nunnery
was founded in 1160.
Yeah. But what we are really
lacking is any maps or plans
of how those buildings interlock
with each other.
So there's lots of genuine
questions here, then.
You really don't know
what this nunnery looked like
and this is a chance to find out?
Yeah, little avenues to the life
of the nuns here, how they were
living and surviving and thriving
in this landscape,
really giving a bit of a voice
to the female nuns that were here
that they haven't had before.
After the Dissolution, the
remains of Ankerwycke priory
were converted into
a grand Tudor mansion,
which was almost completely
demolished in the 19th century.
As dig diary footage shows,
National Trust diggers
have already unearthed the original
nunnery's cloister and church.
So on day one of this dig,
there was indications
that there was the wall
of the cloisters just here.
Given the size of it,
the width of it,
it's not supporting
a massive structure.
So we think it is definitely
the cloister itself.
The corner of the cloister
is clearly visible
in an aerial survey.
Now the team are hunting for
the rest of the monastic complex.
Well, this is a very exciting
trench!
Huge amount going on here.
Probably the best person
to actually talk to is Becky. Hi.
Hiya. So we've got a bit
of everything in our trench
at the moment. The top part
of this wall here,
we have this nasty 1940s concrete.
Yeah. Odd bits of brick in.
But then we have these beautiful
medieval stones.
That's lovely. And we do actually
have some wood here,
still in situ. Oh, yeah! Yeah.
And then right at the bottom there,
we have a chalk foundation layer
which is actually steeping
away from the wall. Yeah.
And these steps here,
which we believe are from
the Tudor house,
leading down to a cellar.
So the phases of this, then -
we've got a Tudor house
being built
into the remains of the Priory?
Yeah, that's what we're looking at.
Is that part-medieval too?
So this is really exciting,
actually.
This lovely big stone down here
is our threshold. Oh, right.
It is the doorway. Yeah.
So we've actually got a vertical
doorjamb into the corner
of the trench here. Yeah.
And you almost get that kind of idea
it has been worn by people
stepping on it. Yeah.
You've got that lovely
kind of rotated edge to it.
This looks like the doorway
into the nuns' refectory,
where they would have eaten
their meals.
Geophysics revealing buried
archaeology is helping James
to make sense of the site.
So geophysics for the site,
very busy dig last year,
straight down
onto our medieval cloister.
OK. That rectangle. And that
really allowed us to then start
talking about the site with a bit
more confidence in where the church
would be in relation to that
cloister
and this remaining structure here
being our refectory.
The team are slowly beginning
to piece together what the nunnery
would have looked like
with a chapel, cloister,
living quarters and refectory.
While the small finds emerging
from the trenches provide us
with a more personal connection
to the women who lived here.
Assistant archaeologist
Harry Farmer
Harry. Hi. Hello, Alice.
has gathered some
of the best finds to show me.
My personal favourite
is this domed thimble.
Is that medieval? Yeah.
So it's cast copper alloy.
Yeah. And it's circa 1400 to 1500.
OK. There must've been quite
a lot of sewing going on.
Everything was hand-sewn.
Yeah. Oh, isn't that lovely?
Yeah, yeah. Really nice.
Is that a bead there? Yeah.
When this first came out,
we thought it was metal,
but it's actually glass. Is it? So,
yeah, really a just dainty piece.
And it's got that nice kind
of linear dot marking on it,
decoration. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, glass ovoid bead
with a finely drilled hole
through the middle.
So can't definitively
say what that is.
Could be a rosary bead?
It looks very rosary-like to me.
Yeah. Is that a coin? Yeah.
So it's a Henry III
cut halfpenny.
And that's dated to
1250 to 1272.
And is that cut up to use?
Yeah.
You go to the shop
and you've only got this penny,
but it only costs you
a fraction of that amount.
So you just snip it in half
and use half of it.
But what's really nice about this,
before it was broken
in the excavation,
had evidence of being folded
quite slowly over time by hand.
And there is some
study in archaeology
and from historical sources,
that coins are often,
as an act of devotion,
folded over during prayer.
So it could have some kind
of spiritual meaning
but this is a place
which is economic as well?
Yeah, certainly.
I mean, there's a lot of brokering
and trade and daily business
going on here.
And what have you got here?
You've got some pins? Yeah.
So, I'll take this one because this
is a kind of hand-cast Oh, wow.
Really, really dainty.
I mean, these are these objects
that you just think
it's amazing that they've survived
and then it's incredible
that they've been picked up
archaeologically as well.
So, yeah, essentially not a hairpin
because too dainty for that.
Just a dress pin.
So, for different parts
of your clothing. Or a veil.
Yeah. Or a part of the habit.
Such a fine, fragile thing to have
survived all that time. Yeah.
It's quite poignant
in a way, isn't it?
Because we don't really hear
from the women themselves
and all we've got are these
tiny, tiny traces of them.
This dig is revealing
so many forgotten details
about this medieval nunnery.
But there's another source
of information -
rare historical records which reveal
the tensions, scandals and politics
that took place within its walls.
Historian Onyeka Nubia is tracking
down those records
150 miles away, in Lincoln.
This is Lincoln Cathedral.
When it was consecrated in 1092,
it became the mother church of one
of the largest dioceses in England.
Bishops here administratively
managed an area that ran
from the Humber to the Thames.
This included over 2,000 parishes.
One of the most southerly -
the parish of Wraysbury -
included Ankerwycke.
Each parish was regularly visited
by the Bishop of Lincoln
or one of his representatives.
I've come
to the Lincolnshire Archives
to meet with Dr Nicholas Bennett,
who has access to records
of these visits.
One of these documents dates
to the same period
as the thimble and pin
found on the site.
Luckily - and magically, almost -
we have a very detailed source
for a visitation of
Ankerwycke Priory in October 1441.
So what kinds of things
does it tell us?
At the time of the visitation,
there were seven nuns,
but it also tells us that,
over the last few years,
this number has been reduced
down to seven
because six nuns have run away.
Wow.
That's a That's a phenomenal
number.
There are all sorts of reasons
why nuns were in monasteries
in the first place.
Some went voluntarily.
Some were put there by their
families at quite a young age
and they might have thought,
after a while,
that this was not the life for them.
So, there are problems
in this house
and that's what Bishop Alnwick
is going to be faced with.
The bishop would arrive
and the whole convent
would be assembled and they were
all allowed to have their say,
on their own, in confidence,
before the bishop.
So, we're actually peering
into this confidential document,
you know, nearly 600 years later.
So, this is a powerful document
because it contains
many of the voices from this nunnery
that we haven't heard from.
What did they actually say?
Right, well, the prioress,
of course,
by virtue of her position,
goes first.
She's called Clemence Medford.
And it says up here that
the prioress says that,
the nuns, from time to time,
are moved against her
of the slightest breeze -
ex leni vento.
So, the littlest problem,
they'll be complaining.
It seems such an evocative statement
here, that they sort of
"moved against me by any sort of
slight breeze",
that it's almost likely
to be her exact words that are
paraphrased. It could well be.
It's a very evocative phrase,
as you say. Yeah.
Then she goes on to say,
they "Bebunt" by habit
and take "potationes" - drinks -
"post completorium" -
after compline. Right.
And the compline was the last
service of the day, in the evening.
They're supposed to then go to bed.
And by suggesting that they're at
fault, she would then be implying,
"Don't listen to what they've got
to say." Yeah, yeah.
We've got other voices?
Yes, absolutely.
The next one is the sub prioress,
who's the prioress's deputy,
who seems from this to be a fairly
loyal deputy to her "mistress".
And Isobel Standon says,
all is well - "omnia bene".
Well, we'll see afterwards that
omnia was not bene in this case!
Then we get
a very different character.
Marjorie Kirkby is clearly
very critical.
She starts off by pointing out
that, under the rule of
the current prioress,
the houses and buildings
of the priory
have been let fall into ruin.
She has, erm, lost vestments.
She has lost silver plate.
She has lost books.
She then goes on to say
the prioress is actually running
the monastery herself.
She's not allowing anyone a share
in the administration. Ah, right.
We're getting to see different views
from these various women,
some in authority and power
and some not. Exactly.
And we go on to this next page here
where she says that the prioress
wears golden rings of great cost -
"plurimum sumptuosis" -
with diverse precious stones, but
that the ordinary nuns, in contrast
to these precious stones,
are actually being deprived
of the ordinary habits
and they're actually
going around in threadbare outfits.
So, the suggestion
is that she's using the money
that should have been used
for the uniforms
to buy herself costly attire.
Exactly, yes.
In fact, the young nuns, the sort
of 13-year-old and the younger,
are supposed to be taught.
They are supposed to have a teacher,
a governess,
in reading and in singing.
This is one of the great advantages
for a young woman
in the 15th century,
to actually have an education
by going into a nunnery. Yeah.
But this has not been provided.
And it's, I think, significant
that, within two years
after this visitation, the prioress,
Clemence Medford, has resigned
and the new prioress who's appointed
is none other than Marjorie Kirkby.
Wow! So, she's clearly, I think,
someone who's keen
to see the monastery
being run properly.
So, no sympathy for the prioress.
Not really, no!
But would you, after you've been
going around in tatters for years?
You'd want something better. OK.
This document is a fascinating
and rare insight into the lives
of just a few of the women
who lived at Ankerwycke.
Along with the archaeology,
it's helping to piece together
a history which, for 400 years,
has been hidden.
Reams of stories reeled me in
Caught my ear and hooked my chin
A Friday dinner
A fish-drunk sinner
Pull me down or put me in ♪
The Midlands have
always been a hub
of industry and trade.
Medieval trading centres
were connected by a network
of rivers, canals and roads.
And along those routes were inns
and taverns where travellers
could find refreshment
and rest their weary heads.
Our next dig takes
us to the East Midlands,
to the town of Northampton.
There were settlements on the banks
of the River Nene
going right back to the Neolithic.
By the medieval period, Northampton
had developed
into an important town, though
racked by wars and plague.
In 1675, the Great Fire
of Northampton blazed
through the town, destroying most
of the timber-framed buildings.
The town was rebuilt, but much
of medieval Northampton
had been wiped out.
The archaeology here in Northampton
is very complicated.
It's a palimpsest -
layers upon layers upon layers
through the centuries.
There are some places where you can
come and see the past - up here
with this beautiful Norman
Church of St Peter's.
And, in fact, there's archaeology
all around here.
So excavations to the east
of the church uncovered
a large Anglo-Saxon hall.
And, now, archaeologists are getting
an opportunity to investigate
here to the west, where a pub
is being renovated -
a pub with a very long history.
The old Black Lion pub called
last orders in 2018,
and now a £3 million conservation
project is set to restore
this Grade II-listed building
to its former glory,
which means archaeologists
are getting the unique opportunity
to see beneath the standing remains.
This site is being run by
Derek Roberts and his team
from Pre-Develop Archaeology.
Well, you've made quite a mess. We
have. Why are you making a mess?
Well, we're here on the behest
of the Churches Conservation Trust,
who have leased the property
to turn it back into a pub.
So it was a pub originally?
Pub originally. First documented,
I think, around 1720. OK.
And then, as we go down, we're
finding stuff that's showing us
that there's been some servicing
of people all the way through.
Yeah. So what we're looking at here
looks like quite an interesting
story above ground.
Has that always been evident?
No. When we first got here,
there was render and paint
all over it and, as we see it,
many 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th
century alterations
and additions, as we look around it.
And you're left with lovely
little pockets - or islands -
of archaeology standing
up at the facade there.
Down in the trench, the team are
starting to reveal the footprint
of the original coaching inn.
By the 18th century, coaching inns
had become a staple
along Britain's roads.
Travellers arriving by horse-drawn
coach would stop off for food,
beer and lodgings.
Many of these inns are still
in use today as pubs.
So this is the entrance
here, is it? Yes. I think, if you
look at these places,
they're pretty, pretty standard.
So you'd want to be able to come in,
turn your carts around, horses go
up to the stables. They're fed and
watered and so are the people coming
in with them. Yeah.
The 18th-century inn fits neatly
into the footprint shown
on a 1720 map.
But for earlier periods, the team
are relying on the work of a famous
early 17th-century map-maker -
John Speed.
If we look down here, look,
we've got something that sort
of resembles the church that we know
to be on the right-hand side of us.
That little one there. That
little one there, look at that.
We're trying to place ourselves
with that little thing there.
Yeah. I mean, there's very little
detail.
It's just an indication
that there was a building here.
Yeah, that's right. It really helps
us to understand
where we are in terms
of this main road coming in
and so this building, whatever
it is,
is right there, isn't it,
on that main road?
It's one of the first buildings
that you'd see. That's right. Yeah.
This early map gives only a vague
hint that there was something
here - right next to the church
and at the entrance to the town -
predating the 1720 inn.
And the team are uncovering evidence
of even earlier activity.
So what have we got down here,
Derek? This looks like it's burned.
Yes, we have a horseshoe-shaped
possible bread oven, really.
OK. Yeah, you can see the bricks
around the outside there.
They're really burnt. Really burnt.
I mean, heavily burnt. Yeah.
I mean, you know, not as burnt
as we'd think from an
industrial process, maybe,
but hot enough -
that that's going through
some action in a day.
What about by you there? It looks
like there's another bit of curved
wall just there. I'm sitting in
another bread oven. We can see part
of that wall curling around here.
Yeah.
And if we look a little bit
harder, we can see
an earlier one underneath.
This is many iterations
of that same little bread oven
going on. And domestic,
or do you think it's a bit
bigger than that?
You'd have to think some of these
are actually going and functioning
at the same time.
So I think these are just a little
bit higher than subsistence
and maybe showing us it may be
a commercial enterprise.
Industry, I don't think so.
But definitely commercial. Yeah. OK.
So it may be that, before there was
a coaching inn here,
there was some kind of bakery?
By looking at the maps, there's
a thoroughfare and, if there's trade
passing through, they're going
to want something.
They may be
serving the local community.
It's exciting to find evidence
of what was here before
the coaching inn
and before records begin.
And the small finds the team
have turned up
can help to give us a date.
We have this sort of material
here, which we'll call
Cistercian type - whether or not
that is Cistercian ware.
But that's 15th, 16th.
And this is on top of those ovens?
Definitely. Yeah.
We have this sort of stuff - pre the
Cistercian ware. Cistercian ware
is quite treacly coloured glaze.
There's often said that there's
a changeover from that, because
people are getting away from this
Tudor-type green ware that we
have. OK. Yeah, yeah.
So we know we're sitting
probably 1300, 1350, 1400 -
something like that. We're getting a
bit earlier. Getting a bit earlier.
So what's the earliest pottery here?
So we've got Stamford ware - classic
bone-coloured -
and we have that almost transparent
glaze on it, look. Just like that.
That's lovely. That one's got some
slight darker green speckling in it.
I'd be happy to put
that about 1100, 1150. OK.
The medieval pottery
going back as early
as the 12th century shows us
that this site has been in use
for nearly 1,000 years - perhaps as
a bakery first,
before it became an inn
just inside the gate of the town.
And then this is going to be made
back into a pub again,
so it's going
to be restored to that function.
That's right.
Lovely pointing along here,
rather than painted over again.
And what are they going to do?
They're going to feed and water
the people that are passing by -
again. Yeah.
What I really love about this site
is the way that the archaeology
under the ground ties in with
what still exists above ground.
And you're still going to be able
to see that,
so it's not going to be covered
with render and plaster.
You'll be able to go to this pub
and see that beautiful
stonework on show.
And, once again, it will be going
back to its former glory as an inn.
Redevelopment of our modern cities
gives us a precious opportunity
to dig down.
Urban archaeology helps us
to understand how these places
have grown and changed over time.
Our next dig takes us
to the largest city
in the East Midlands - Leicester.
The discovery of the remains
of Richard III
under a car park in 2012 by a team
from the University of Leicester
was one of the most headline-grabbing
archaeological events of recent times.
But Leicester has been important
since the Iron Age,
when it was a regional capital
and it developed
into a thriving Roman town.
Three years after he was discovered,
Richard III was interred
here at Leicester Cathedral.
Cue droves of modern pilgrims,
tourists flocking to see him.
But I am not here to see
Richard III.
I've hotfooted it to Leicester
because I've heard about
an astonishing archaeological
discovery
just here, outside the cathedral.
A discovery which predates Richard
III by more than a millennium -
taking us back to the Roman period.
A multimillion-pound restoration
project at Leicester Cathedral
is giving archaeologists a rare
chance to dig right beside it.
Leading the team is Matt Morris
from the University of Leicester.
Hello, hello. Hello.
This is an enormous trench
to be digging right next
to the cathedral.
I mean, that's a brave thing to do.
It could be, yes.
I mean, one of the fears
was we didn't want to collapse
the cathedral into the excavation
area, of course.
Leicester Cathedral itself is really
interesting, isn't it?
Because it was
only made into a cathedral
relatively recently. 1927.
But what people tend to forget
is it was a medieval church first.
It was just a parish church that was
uplifted to cathedral status.
Yeah. So it's been here a long time.
The earliest we know
of it by name is 1220,
but it might be much older
than that, and we've got so little
early history for the church,
including when it was founded.
This excavation may be one
of those rare opportunities
to answer that question.
The team have been digging here for
14 months, uncovering a huge
medieval cemetery from the parish
church they knew existed here.
But now, beneath these graves,
they're finding signs
of earlier activity.
What we found is a Roman
coin of Emperor Vespasian.
He reigned from 69 to 79 AD.
So I found this Roman bone hairpin.
It's a beautiful find.
There's always been
this folklore story
that there was a Roman temple
under the church
and when the Victorians were
rebuilding the tower, they found
Roman walls and instantly
leapt to the conclusion
that that was conclusive
proof of a temple.
Why did they think it was a temple?
I don't know.
But we know there's
Roman buildings under it. It could
just be a house. Yeah, yeah.
There's SOMETHING Roman.
There's something Roman under there.
You've got down to these Roman
levels? We are. We're at Roman and
we've got something really exciting
to show you. Where is it?
Come this way.
So is that all Roman wall?
That is all Roman wall coming
through from the back there,
up to here, turning
and going off this way. Fantastic.
And what's that kind of pinkish is
it plaster on it?
So this thin layer of pink mortar
is called opus sign in um
and it's full of crushed-up Roman
tile,
and that would have acted
as a waterproof layer on the wall.
What this probably is
is damp-proofing for a room
that is under the ground level.
Oh! It's the remains of
a Roman cellar. Yeah.
It may not be fully subterranean,
but it is at least partially
subterranean. OK.
The 3D model of the trench
shows that this Roman cellar
is 4m square.
It appears to have had nothing above
it, but would have been surrounded
by Roman yard surfaces
at ground level
and have been accessed
by a sunken passageway.
But there is a small clue
that this cellar
might have been something
more than just a storage room.
This is painted wall plaster.
This is the material that is coming
off this wall.
So this is a posh cellar. It is.
This isn't just a damp, dank
cellar.
You don't just paint your walls
for a storage cellar. Not with this.
I mean, you've got three different
colours going on here with a stripe
down the middle. So you've got an
intricate wall painting here.
It's a function room that happens
to be semi-subterranean. Yeah.
A coin found alongside this piece
of plaster
tells us when the cellar
was in use.
This came from the bottom
of the rubble on the cellar floor.
Right. You can just about make out
the emperor's head on here.
And this is Tetricus
and we know he's emperor in 273 AD.
Brilliant. So we know our cellar
can't have been demolished
any sooner, earlier than that.
Yeah.
Oh, it's fantastic, isn't it?
It just pins it down.
It really does. And what do you
think the function of this space was?
Our best find is still to come.
It's behind you.
A piece of carved stone.
And not just any carved stone -
this looks like the base
of a Roman altar.
That is fantastic.
Could this be evidence of
the legendary Roman temple?
So where did this come from?
It came from just here.
Right. OK. But, unfortunately,
what we can see here is this is one
of the piles
for the new heritage learning
centre. Yeah.
And it's drilled down 12m
and has sadly gone through one end
of the altar - where
it's snapped off.
Usually, excavation happens
before any construction work starts.
But here, the builders
have had to drive piles
into the ground first in order
to make the site safe
for the archaeologists.
It's so unfortunate. And yet
these were completely necessary.
You couldn't have done this dig
We couldn't have done it without them
had these piles not gone in first. Yeah.
So we can see these fragments here.
It could be that we're looking at
the front of the altar down there.
There could be an inscription
on these pieces.
There could be. We know we found
it face-down.
And this large chunk here would have
been the bit from here. OK.
Shall we have a go at getting
this out, then? Yeah. If I get my
trowel under here and you come in
from that side. Right.
And what we'll try and do is,
between trowel and hand,
we'll try and lift the whole lot and
put it down in here.
And there could be an inscription on
this side. Once we've got in there,
we can have a look underneath it.
OK.
That's it.
Brilliant.
So it's that bit and this bit down
here that might have something on.
I can't see anything here.
It looks quite plain.
Much to my disappointment,
there is no inscription to be seen.
How would it have been used, then?
Would it have been something
that offerings
might have been placed on?
Looking at the size of it
then, it would have probably
been about this high. Yeah. And it's
what we'd call a portable altar.
It's an easily movable object.
Is it the kind of object that someone
might have had in their house,
or is it more likely to be
associated with a different type
of building?
It's something that would
more likely be in a private setting,
I think, than a grand temple.
But we have got a private shrine,
then? And a sunken featured room.
And there's lots of Roman cults
that do have elements of
subterranean worship
within their practices.
It actually raises some
important questions about the use
of this particular site
throughout Leicester's history.
There's always been this story of
a temple under the cathedral,
and we're now moved to a point
where, OK,
we haven't perhaps got a grand
temple,
but we have got a place of spiritual
significance.
Yeah. We've got an altar base
from the Roman period.
And, as far as we know,
it's Leicester's first Roman altar
as well. Really? It is, yeah.
How fantastic to have found this
sacred object in this place,
which has stayed being a sacred
place through the centuries. It is.
It's an incredible find.
This extraordinary discovery shows
that the medieval church,
which would eventually become
Leicester Cathedral
was built very close to a Roman
religious shrine
in use until at least
the late 3rd century.
It's a reminder of the depths
of history in our cities
and of changing religious
beliefs through time.
Next time on Digging For Britain -
we head to the beautiful ruin
of Tintern Abbey, where
the discovery of three skeletons
could rewrite its history.
The teeth are projecting straight
out. Oh, my goodness! What do
we think is going on here, then?
In the Severn Estuary,
archaeologists are racing
against the elements.
We have to get down there,
lift whatever we're going to lift
and get out again.
And a medieval site with 10,000
finds inspires a community.
I'm the first person to hold
that for hundreds
and hundreds of years.
Come and search for
We who search
and looking for a scarred land
I dig for those
whose stories lie
With buried paths
and futures won
And dig for us as we have done
To lay the dead out in the sun