Time Team

- Season 10

(2002)

On the edge of the river Thames, a series of posts driven into the riverbed have been found. Also 2 Bronze Age spearheads. Are these the remains of London's first bridge or the supports of a platform where Bronze-Age people made offerings.

The Lincolnshire town of Ancaster lies on Ermine Street, which is a major Roman road heading north from London. The only remains visible today are some earth banks and ditches, which have been dated to the 4th century. What was here before?

Originally discovered by divers from RAF Lossiemouth, an amazing shipwreck lies some 20 metres down on the seabed just off the coast of Kinlochbervie, in north-west Scotland.

A military base in the heart of Bedfordshire is home to the joint armed services intelligence departments. The Team was invited to try to discover more about the history of the officers mess which was once a part of a 13th century monastery.

In the village of Leighton the Team is investigating a particularly interesting cellar; the archaeology could take us back nearly 400 years. The cellar, based in a pub, contains the remains of a blast furnace - used for making iron.

Back in the 1950s & 60s, 2 families of amateur archaeologists excavated some Roman remains in what is now a park in Cheshunt. They were asked to keep quiet about it because the British Museum believed this might be an important Roman site.

Two large earthworks can be seen at Gear and Caer Vallack in Cornwall. Sited on top of adjacent hills, they were thought by Victorian archaeologists to be Iron-Age hillforts but little is understood about their origins.

High Ercall Hall, in Shropshire, is the very picture of rural tranquility today, but 355 years ago, at the height of the English Civil War, more than 200 Royalist troops were crammed inside the walls fighting for their lives.

In the village of Throckmorten a disused RAF bomber base with the longest runway in the country. The government commissioned a Geophysics survey which found what looks like an Iron or bronze age settlement.

Previous excavations in Castleford suggest there are important Roman remains here.

A huge medieval castle once stood on this site. Now all that can be seen is a single standing stone on a hill. What happened to the rest.

While digging a water pipe trench, a local archaeologist found evidence of high status Roman occupation.

Return to the site of the previous season 3 day live dig. Double burials on the mound. Byzantine buckets, Anglo Saxon spear heads. An important site for the Dark Ages.