Time Team S06E05 Plympton St Maurice, Devon

I'm standing on top of the Mott and Bailey of Plimpton Castle in Devon you know mot and Bailey is from your school days they're those great towering lumps that the Normans threw up all over the country and these walls are all that are left of the original castle that was built here over 700 years ago now in towns and Villages normally the medieval stuff disappears gets built over and we lose it but here in Clon the local people believe there's enough of it left down there for us to be able to work out the layout and the boundary of the medieval town that existed at the same time as that castle and we've got just three days to find it [Music] do we have any idea when this town started oh I think almost certainly in the in the 12th century the the 12th and 13th century was the boom time when lots and lots of New Towns were laid out laid out like Milton Kings yeah exactly with with streets and properties and Lanes or you know deliberately pegged out and and people encouraged to come and live on them we can see very clearly on the plan there's the um motton Bailey castle at the back there yeah and there you see this long Street running through here is that this street that yeah the one we're walking down now this has got these long thin properties these burgage properties which are the town properties laid out at that time time uh and that that's very very typical of of hundreds of New Towns at that time that were laid out but there's no evidence of it now is there well what you what you're seeing when you look down the street is basically 18th 19th century buildings or what appear to be that date because people put new fashionable frontages on them all the time if you really want to know about a place like this you have to go into the buildings and up into the roof and and round the back because they don't bother altering the back bits they only alter the front bits Keith what are we doing here Tony well um David and Sally here want to build an extension and knowing that they live in a historic town they called in a local archaeologist and I came and had a look it doesn't look all that old from the outside but they've been doing some work inside slightly different here yeah what interested Us in here oh yeah was this laser lenal you see it's broken and this Granite Coral is actually part of an older wall that is sitting behind it's an enormously thick wall the coral goes right the way back into it and there would have been a large lentil I mean that would have gone a long way that way wouldn't it could do we do we know how far it would have gone some of them are quite narrow but given the scale of this I suspect it really is supporting a large L big lint on the top massive lint that would have carried on out here yeah through into is that the next room no it's the next property BL so what sort of building might that have been it could have been really massive medieval structure and I don't mean just massive ground floor we could actually mean massive upwards as well because in the same stack but on the next floor up there's another early fireplace what's really interesting is when you go to the outside you can see just how massive this building might let's go to outside outside again so where's the old fireplace the old fireplace is sitting just there on that side you got another fireplace up there and the stacks continuing on up oh yeah Tony if you come here look you can see that be below the stack of that big piece of white wall is where it was wider before you get the tows on the roof so the original roof would have gone up like that would it the stack continued it just would have been a big display stack or you've actually got a third floor which is extremely unusual for medieval townhouse so does that imply that the whole building would have stretched much further this way you've got it you've got your fireplace in there with the LOL continuing on look how this line of wall it's set back now if that's a medieval wall and you've got a medieval marketpl up that way it's I suggest it's likely to be going all the way up to join it is is it likely as as well Keith that it might have gone that way across into the plot next door yeah that's a thought isn't it you could be dealing with a really massive building this building Tan Cottage really could have been huge and could have gone right up to the front street inserted in the Garden Wall at the back is a thick wall going east west is this the back edge of David and Sally's house and how far across into next door does it go it seems to me then we need to do some work in this area that will try and connect up that with with your house but we also need to do some work next door presuming some geophysics can do you think we can do that over there I'm sure you can Peter's a very immutable guy if you ask I'm sure you'll let you do it and should we J F here I don't there's any point here is that it's too restricted space isn't it to to do very much you won't learn very much about it so do we put in the trench do an excavation here how do you feel about us digging up your garden no problem at [Music] all We Begin work at pan Cottage first we have to demolish this garden shed it's right over where we want to dig David and Sally had been planning to take it down anyway to Make Way for their house extension in the garden next door in carton house geophysics are looking for signs of a wall so our search for Clinton's past begins in two back Gardens out in four Street the Main Street baric and corenza are looking for evidence of medieval features inside people's houses they're trying to find early fireplaces like those in Tan Cottage medieval walls and any wood we can get to dendro date here they're acting on a tip off oh wow oh that's great look at this Barr that's it's very similar to the bits and pieces we had at oh that's wonderful isn't it yes look we've got the the cor Bell that's the sticking out bit that we had lurking in that house in Tan Cottage on the ground floor and the fireplace above had this big slate on edge and look at this this is good that's a light scon so that you you could have a a lantern or a light here lighting well it would have been a very big room with fireplace that size right across the top of the house we' gone right to the back of the house I guess so yes what about that is that another light scon oh no no no that's interesting cuz that's that's going to be the seating for one of the roof Timbers an open roof coming up and and across this big room yes gosh because you're very different feeling for what the house would have been like compared to this little sort of corridor space yes back at Tan Cottage we're making good progress with the shed Phil is keeping his eye on the archaeology look at that God look is a m look at that curving right around it's it's it's C curved on the other side too God we do we get it out yeah we got it yep pop it down there got in that's beautiful a it everyone in the incident room is incredibly busy Sue has got the oldest no map of Plimpton from 1793 and she's laying over a street plan of present day Plimpton to compare and contrast Steve's going to be recreating some of the older buildings in Plimpton and putting them into his computer giz have got the first plots which they're just feeding in Bernard is doing a survey of the entire area around the village to see if any of the geographical and environmental features tie in with all the rest of the evidence we've got loads of document and Maps this is the tithe map of uh 1843 and what are you doing Robin you name it uh at the moment I'm trying to reconstruct uh four Street by tying in medieval Deeds to individual plots but it's fishlyn with the Parish church or the the chapel of St Thomas as it then was uh the other thing one wants to try and put Plimpton in context because it was the center and focus of the hundred of Plimpton and the Barony of Plimpton it was a huge estate which stretched way out into Devon in the hands of an incredibly important family uh the dedas family who founded the castle here built the burrow and uh dominated life uh in this neck of the woods what sort of period is that well we're talking in the 12th century they were all caught up in the civil war between Steven and Matilda you know good brother cadf stuff I mean there's still an awful lot to sus out amazing I'll leave you to get on with it cheers that's nice too a it as Phil continues to pull stones out of the rubble of the shed we call berin what does he think of this lot that's the reveal there right you're looking at the top of a window right and you're looking at the window that at least two lights two windows and the head of each window is a troil shape right so that fits in there like that right and the other one will be the same we come down with a mullon in the middle here right and being a flat top rather than a pointed top we're not looking at something ecclesiastical we're looking at a a window a rather Posh window in the back of a house I guess this is a posh Posh Building looks like it yeah well comparatively so for for a domestic building yes how old is all this stuff well this can certainly be medieval the character of this stone is very much um indicative of a medieval date because this would have come from the aot of tavo's quaries at robra and when were they working so they well they were working from the 12th century onwards so I wonder where all this stuff comes from well of course it's not accidental where we're standing and who knows it could actually have been part of this big building that we were looking at earlier as we get on with knocking down the shed Phil takes a look next door the resistance our first GE physics results have come through yeah and we've got good news we on the lawn and it's just possible we we've got a wall line John thinks he's found a wall running along one side of the Garden in Calton house could this be the side wall of Tan Cottage we open our first trench of the day we have to be a bit careful here this Garden is home to a Blind Rabbit our work in the town's beginning to spread out as Kenza continue their search for medieval fabric they're concentrating on the Northern side of the main street across the street we're working on Tan Cottage and Carlton house but further north on the other side of the motton Bailey is an open space called the pathfields along the northern Edge is a broken hedge line many locals believe that this is an old boundary dating back to the time when the castle was built they want us to check it out Mick yeah what are your uh first impressions of this area well lot lots of interesting Earthworks like this one here I'm standing on where's that well there a there's a Terrace here look just just here yeah which I think is probably on the line of the Hedge yeah but then there's others up here look Well's here yeah you see there's a like a step there where you yeah and then another one above that look don't come with me I'll come back don't worry I won't just here yeah what are they well I think they're probably what we call strip lits they are artificial teres that have been plowed but what happens is if you have a boundary and you plow up to it the soil builds up and if you plow away from it then eventually you get a step so they probably indicate early fiels with early plowing so what do you think we ought to be doing here this week well I think we'll do some geophysics on it and Stuart can obviously record these Earth Works he's good that we all sort a lot out from it uh and yeah certainly cut a trench across there probably one across the bottom over there as well because there's another Earth workor in that field that we could sort of have a look at we're beginning to try to untangle the story of the path fields we open our second trench of the day it's a long one from the hedgeline which may have formed the old boundary to the Earthworks further up the hill Stuart begins to survey while geophysics are looking for a t Target area for a second trench up here there's a lot of work to be done if we're to understand the relationship between this area and the town back at Tan Cottage the shed is almost down our next job here is to clear away the rubble and dig out the top soil on their hunt for medieval fabric Beric and corenza are learning a lot to hold the floor when that was one big room so this their thing hot on their heels is a dendro chronologist dating their finds and here it is wow Perry look at that God it's enormous it's very large isn't it it's a goodie it's a goodie it looks a bit like the one in town Cottage doesn't the stone one but course this is wood well in the sense that it's very Broad and of course Very Thin which is which is really quite unusual this this of course this room we've come through right through where the medieval house and as it were out of the back in medieval terms so this is a stack that would have gone in in medieval times and probably survived all the changes around it so we might be looking at something that really is Medieval here end of day one Phil succeeded in digging what must be the ugliest trench we've yet dug on time team but we've spent most of today coming to grips with what happened in Plimpton above the ground beginning of day two and before we even had time to have a cup of tea we get this excited message from Beric saying he's found something at number 10 it's this one I think right this is too early for me Tony I I don't get up this it's early you know you behave you my life support system doesn't come on till 10:00 hello hello hi is yes yes come on in come on in thank you hello hello we're going to go through to the back right I'll show you something there look you've been looking for some medieval oh look that yes well it's got to be very late 15th century or sometimes through the 60s what was it made of granite mstone laboriously carved into this molding come outside as well cuz there's a window out here that's very much the same oh this one here oh yeah that's it look at that yep the same slack head and definitely medieval too I think so yeah 16th century so you've got a window and a door together what what are they part of well come upstairs and see what's right up the top here and then I think it'll be to make sense good right it's great what you find in people's houses isn't it we're now going up into the attic space this is parallel this along here is parallel to the street and so have been a great hall under here yeah and then through here running back through the house is that gosh truth look at that what date's that then well I guess it's the end of the 15th century but there's enough Timber to get to dendro date so we'll get we'll get Bob onto that right why would you have such an elaborate roof for an attic well it wasn't an attic look let me explain to you oh a bit old for this sort of thing now don't admit that don't admit it right look this was an open roof the floor level wasn't here it was right down underneath about another 10 ft down so you'd have looked up and you'd have seen this magnificent roof and it's an arch braced roof with this these members here arching underneath this tie which takes up the the weight and holds the rest of the roof and that sort of roof is a West country special that we have down here in the west country all from the end of the thir 14th century right through into the 16th this roof is a really important Discovery it's very well preserved and it's unusual to find a full arched brace roof like this in a town Robert arrives to dendro date it and Victor's drawing it so we can reconstruct what the building might have looked like a Tan Cottage Phil has at last started to dig and he's already getting results looks like you've got a good back Edge to the East West Wall running through there that's this one here yeah that's what that's that one down there this is a much much bigger wall it's bigger than anything you've excavated so far infinite but you're looking exactly the same proportion so the main there it is you've got it there the other Edge right well we really are looking at a substantial structure there but does this wall line up next door now that we know where it lies in Tan Cottage we have to rethink and we decide to extend our trench in cartton house that should be fine that gets the wall well into the trench we've got enough space the other side to work on it yeah we need enough space to work down hill from it back in the incident room corenza is piecing together old Maps she's searching for evidence of earlier buildings that may have disappeared 93 93 is a [Applause] [ __ ] so that's pathfields isn't it yeah they sort of boomerang shaped trench and you can see the patch of uh clay at one end which must be the bank of the old field bound we talked about a Castle's quite prominent look with the the m and then the classic mot and Bailey shape sort of AG shape of the the round Mound with the with the stone tower on the top it's odd how all the houses on the Main Street are so tight to the road and then you've got just that one pulled back where there oh on the corner there yeah oh well that's great why well that that could mean that there's a many of a building in the front garden of that one and they've set it back later is see what I mean yeah it could be buried in the front garden so we ought to get on to Ken's look at the maps Ken are there it's me we we just spotted a building up here I just spotted a building T just spotted a building which is set back from the road it's right down the Western end yeah we we just have been actually yes it's 103 set back from the road and in fact in 1793 there's a series of properties butting right up against the road there so they may be still there in the garden over okay that what I think I'll do Mick is I'm it's the only chance we're going to have of getting to archaeology at that end of the town so I think I'll run down and see if we can maybe open a trench up there if that's all right with you over yeah I think that's a great idea let me just relay that to Tony yeah she's saying on the on the 1793 map there are buildings there in the front of that property so she suggested we put a trench in and see if there are actually any buildings there that's coren isn't it yeah running down to the building look go it's quick yeah she's she's got the right one look I actually saw something from the air this time you're coming on you'll get M eventually you are a smarty pants aren't [Laughter] you oh hello um we're from time team we're um investigating the sort of medieval history and archaeology of climton and K is excited about the possibilities here on the 1793 map of the town this house doesn't exist but in what is now the present front garden there was a row of buildings these could be medieval we've measured on the map and um we worked out the building should be about 7 MERS wide what we'd like to do is um try and put in a trench that would hit that that back wall 7 m out so we just measured out here you see we're 6 6 70 80 no s 7 m out there so you want to dig a trench as long as that would you no no no not not all the way to hopefully the back wall of this building would be about here okay so in the 18th century you've been standing inside the building here so if we started the trench there maybe about 2 m long so just as far as this all right just a small trench then and we make it about a meter and a half wide so take about there so basically just with this small square here and hopefully this will be outside the building this will be inside it and the back wall of the building should come through about here hopefully we'll find it in the trench would you be happy to have us dig that we'll take the turf off very carefully and put it to one side then when we finish digging all the spoil all the Earth will'll get back in the hole and we'll lay the turf over the top just as they would do if you were getting Turf from the garden center to turfing area oh okay well okay if you yes well it be very interesting wouldn't it right okay right that's wonderful we'll catch up with you later well you'll be able to watch us from the dry of your house while we get wet you be a digger in now do you no I'm mean digger I mean archaeologists rather than mechanical diggers we won't bring a mechanical Digger in here far too much from this further along the street Phil's wall is getting bigger and we're beginning to find pieces of pottery next door we're also making Headway we've found what looks to be a wall it's not as substantial as phills but it is a start Damien Goodburn joins us he's a carpenter who specializes in working wood using Medieval tools over the next two days he'll be trying to reconstruct one of the roof beams we found earlier from one single piece of Oak as they would have in medieval times do we know that's the way they' have done it in medieval times this stage of the work the hueing stage uh yeah pretty much they' have Mark the log first with a chalk line like you can see just here as a guide um it may look crude but actually it has to be done reasonably accurately um then they would cut weakening Cuts or scores these lines here with a narrow heavy axx and then split off the waist in between they wouldn't use a sore then uh they would use a saw later in this case we're actually going to square the beam up and then saw it in half to make a matched pair of principal Rafters as Beric and Robert continue to dendro dat along the northern side of the main street we turn our attention to to the other side many of the houses on this side have cellers oh yes it actually looks like it's part of a Cellar and you can see the opening down there some of which may have early walls six or seven Keith and corenza are following up a lead that's much more the kind of thing that we're looking for for earlier walls I mean this could this is sort of could be medieval couldn't it that sort of thickness it's it's possible it could yeah this is what uh brought my interest down was this beam here well it is really mive is shord on the top here really what does that mean well that would mean it would have been sitting on top of a wall and would have effectively been like a wall plate that took the line of the roof upwards oh I see so what's it doing down here well quite well that's interesting isn't it because it's a 17th century house on top of this beam therefore this beam must be pre 17th century the beam sitting on top of that wall y that wall could be pre pre 17th century been yeah the wall would have been sitting here and then this would have been brought down because it's such a massive beam to take the weight of the floors of the 17th century house that's fantastic Phil that's more like it I'm glad you approve of our excavation Mick what is this thing it's a beautiful wall stone-built wall nice facing clay packing I mean there's a sheer scale of it this is a big wall of a big building it's not just a little boundary wall so what will we do with it now will we look for a turn or will we well the the first thing is to get the whole area area cleaned up so that we can record it photograph it draw it and then we should start to excavate either side of it can you say it's medieval we'd pretty much like to think that it is yeah I mean it's almost a yes yeah the nearest you ever I mean we're getting we're getting masses of pottery out of it well that's where we've had to press Sally in and we got so much material coming out I mean all this stuff looks pretty recent to me am I wrong it is very mixed actually t we got some very very good medieval Pottery I mean there's that for example which Keith's got very very excited about I me pretty sure that that is an imported medieval pot but look at that Lord presuming that's not just a Jam Jar no right it's a a small drinking goblet or something like that you can see how delicately thin water it is and then that rather nice little decorative band put around it I'm pretty sure that's that's old I mean I think what we actually need is somebody to go through this stuff for you know local po tell us what sort of date it is don't we is it phone call time I think he probably is see you later you yeah okay see you then next door we have a puzzle we now have two walls here the top one is running East West and is probably late but the one at the bottom looks like it could be a boundary wall for our big building we can't be sure about this until we remove the top layer so we record it before cutting through it it's good job we haven't got Rob in here I don't think we'd get him through this hole wow look at that all right yes do you think wow is that a window isn't it it is it looks like a formal window there's a playay on on that side I think aren't we below ground here it looks if the ground level is about that floor level yes and you've got this floor it's Ted across the top but then if that's a window the ground level must have been lower at some point that's right there's a w the window down here is an important Discovery if the ground levels have changed this much then there may be other medieval walls under other buildings this could be a very useful lead so we begin to survey the street to see if we can find any evidence we've been finding loads of this kind of stuff it's been coming out of the trenches like there's no tomorrow and it's virtually all medieval but the problem is around here medieval can mean anything from 12th century through to 16th century so what we need now is dating evidence you're right yeah yeah look at that what is it well it looks like a window looks old doesn't it well yeah I mean it's a sort of 17th century or something like that but all blocked up I think we should open that up and have a look behind it what smash through yeah we can do that oh yeah come out this way cuz we're actually at ground level at the back here look through that door there out into the garden if you come up the stairs here cuz we know that this place was rebuilt in the about 1590 1600 this looks 18th century it's yeah so there's there's there's several later phases to it but you go out the front door yeah you see that when you get out here yeah that window that we were looking at is is somewhere down here well below the ground it's cuz we've come up the stairs there so it's actually down there then what's the point in hacking through surely what all we're going to get is the earth under the pavement well probably not we think there might be a gap because if you come around the corner look and look at this this tube in the ground Shine Your Light down it look yeah ah there's the original edge of the building and there's a space next to it oh yeah yeah right well if that goes around here there should be a space behind that window yeah I think the answer is that this building formerly faced out onto the market place here with a church at the back look and at some stage when they rebuilt it cuz you can see this fantastic building at the front it's a real Georgian front isn't it what they must have done is lifted the road up so it gives a nice grand entrance to the house and in so doing it they buried the earlier front of the house underground to make a c out of it so if we can get through there we'll be able to find out what the fascia was like at the front yeah yeah you see why I like buildings they're fantastic you know always finding new bits about them you're a big kid really I do like buildings up in pathfields we're beginning to get some answers to the question of the boundary line but what we don't have yet are concrete dates so we're opening a second trench across another earthwork to see if we can find anything [Music] there inside the old rectory we get underway with the [Music] drilling and that last bit just splits off like that look at that at Tan Cottage Phil is finding more Pottery oh look at that look it while next door we're still looking for the Eastern edge of the building down at 103 we found some stone work it looks like it's running away from the street rather than parallel to it we dig [Music] on back in the incident room we've called in a conservator to help us date the finds while Sue is reconstructing the glass work we found at Tan Cottage yeah you're back really oh hi we were just discussing the results these are the dendro resultes are we've got one or two really I think quite exciting dates perhaps from four houses timers from four houses I'll going to show you which ones they are on the screen Sue can you pop up that here we are look they're all in the same part of the town so where should we start well let's start with chap chap house okay right right that's that really fine roof that's a good roof now I get the the faing date for the Timbers uh up there between about 1460 and 148 we're all right why you say ah we're all that's what we were that's what we were saying stylistic grounds the roof is integral with the structure using our sense of of what it should be judged by others ones we've seen the form of the roof is right and the quality of the craftsmanship all those sort of intangible things you're both the first time this weekend well I think I think the results are are reasonably unbelievable but um should we move on to uh let's say penous Yes um in the passageway there are those Timbers um underneath the fireplace or that's right they Bridge across the passageway support that fireplace on the first floor well one of those has a faing DAT at about 1270 to 1305 would you believe that's the timber right at the back underneath that inserted fireplace that's right that's more like it if that fireplace is inserted surely there's another possibility that might emerge here you're saying that that beam that you've got the early date from runs underneath the fireplace so doesn't it suggest that if you've got something like a half Stone that's resting partly over that Timber that your so-called inserted fireplace might actually be of that early date it would if I could buy it stylistically but I find it very difficult to think that that five place is that early but I mean the problem isn't it surely that we are always arguing from stylistic criteria back to the the structures and as we build up more and more uh dating with dendro chronology we can actually start to perhaps rethink some of the so-called fluoresent es of these Styles and some individual features we might be able to take back you may not be and maybe that's true okay let's go on then all right well the next fireplace and I dare say this will cause equal argument is number 24 and uh we got a really interesting date for that and that is a faing date of sometime between let's say about 1275 and about 30 same problem again only one timber remember i' feel quite happy if that was a reused Timber from somewhere else built into that stack at the end well at some time I don't know when the end of the 16th century again these two men have are being incredibly polite but in fact I think they're having a furious argument the basis of it seems to me essentially Beric you're saying that if a fireplace looks like another fireplace or a series of other fireplaces that are of a certain date then it's likely to be of that date whereas you're saying actually if you look at things like the dendro chronology even though you might think that it's later it might actually be much earlier I don't think we've built up enough evidence from a range of other sites to be able to be absolutely sure that a certain style will actually date the fireplace what I'm interested in is the Timbers that are used in and this L lentil is crucial because I think that that lentil is integral with the stonework which looks fine medieval stonework the structure looks a good medieval structure and I like the idea that that is integral and it's a 12th century late 12th early 13th century I like the idea too but there are things about it that worry me there's a molding along the front and a and a detail that I find difficult to put so early so we're back to the stylistic side again and what's the significance of all this as far as Tan Cottage is concerned well in Tan Cottage there's a chimney stack with two with two fireplaces in it one like one of the ones we've been talking about and one like the other and they're both presumably the same date either very early or very late late and I think they got to be quite late because and he thinks they got to be early and there's a reason why I do and that is because the lint of the upper five is going to go on all through the rest of the day I think we should break for lunch and let them sort it out hopefully by the end of the day we'll have come to some conclusion you're still yeah basically now what I'm doing is I'm using your stylistic argument against you as Beric and Keith argue on let's take a closer look at these dates this roof dates from before Shakespeare's time and these fireplaces from not long after the Norman Conquest when Plimpton was first set up so our search for early medieval fabric has come up trumps we now have pieces going back over 700 years to the very time the castle was being built how you getting on then Kenza it's a long time since I was around here we're doing quite well actually I think we've got about as much information out of this as we're going to get yeah we've um effectively we've got a wall coming through there yeah it's running you can see it's running right Les to the street we thought when we put this trench in that we were we were putting it across the middle of this building here yeah whereas in fact because we're right up against this property boundary we've obviously put it against the long bit of this building so I think un we probably won't get the back wall in the trench John's actually out there GE fizzing at the moment and um well we a better of luck you might have the results well let's go and see he should be able to pick that up shouldn't he he should be yeah and it was Canard as well yeah so it would have been sort of smelly on the edge of yeah so you wouldn't really good Lord what's that what's that l have we not seen this what are they words of pre aren't they we're using a new technique here known as fulry get off come on no we're sending electric currents through those probes that they're sat on it's giving us a detailed picture what did you get anyway the birds we've got some really nice results have you fantastic I've actually put them onto the the plan all right and good Lord there's several things of interest the first one being this rather broken coming through on this line and it's purely of interest because the boundary you were talking about that's more less in line with the where the wall is in excavation that's right cuz the trench is shows the property boundage about there but then there's a this clear one curving through on this line and then a second linear uh and they're both Crossing at the sort of angles you were talking about earlier k I'm really interested in that line because baric and I yesterday were looking at this whole question of where how far the burges plots went on the south side of Fourth Street um and we had a look sort of down people's back Gardens and things and noticed there's a change in the makeup of the wall at about that point on that wall and there's a whole series of modern well boundaries that survive onto the modern map now along there then the back of Tan Cottage there's a change in the makeup of the wall there and so we were sort of wondering if the backline of the blots on the South Side came at about there originally and this feature that John's got there which is just by this little building here yeah which is that one on the map here so that's that's running through about there we've got that bit surviving a yeah so that then suggests there's a line coming like this which gives us a nice a series of very nice regularly laid out Burgess plots all along the south side of stre you they were even size either other side of the street well they are aren't they that side they were extended on the south side but they couldn't on the North side because of the castle because there wasn't the space and we've proved that the new technique of falconry works so you'll be getting your own Falcons now you so now we can say that the southern boundary of the Town actually stopped here halfway down the plots as they stand today and we know that the northern Edge was along the side of the castle but what of the path fields can we say what happened to the boundary of the field system up there neither trench has produced any firm dating evidence but we can confirm that the medieval field system continued across the hedgeline so we can give the area a history the field system stretched across the northwest corner of the site it was used for farming in early medieval times then the enclosed area complete with hedgeline was placed on top of that possibly as early as the 14th century when this was common practice when Clon House was built in the 17th century the area was used as a deer park what our excavations have shown is of something of the relative sequence of things there basically we set out with Earthworks that you can see that form part of medieval Fields our excavations have found the boundaries that were cut to form those and the banks that made up the the line of them so you've got a medieval field system and your enclosure is a bit later it doesn't quite go with your desire to find an Integrity for this field though does it I think what we thought was just a simple Big Field that turned out to be far more complex and and had a real history over hundreds of years there's even been talk of maybe it been a deer park and I can visualize a herd of deer going through perhaps that' be really nice but you know still as a local imunity for people to enjoy I think you know that's what it should be there for it's an open space has been there preserved for hundreds of years and we ought to continue with that across the incident room Robin has been busy these documents date from 1305 they property deeds and relate to specific buildings next to the church the buildings have long gone but they give a fascinating insight into early life here here you've got the the shop and solar uh which Henry Lea gives to to his daughter Joan and he talks about the latrine house and uh the hall that he has behind he even talks about how he sold uh a property opposite to Peter Crispen just before 1306 it's amazing you've got names dates is you go one further down the street and here you have the house of Gilbert the Taylor G and later owned by John the son of Gilbert the Taylor and then one further down to where Martin of of chaes witch lived but it's lovely that you can recreate this this tiny little bit of the old bur uh by piecing together these medieval Deeds simply because they were next to the Parish Church oh this is absolutely fantastic you think what couple of days ago that was one round log look what we've done created this wonderful piece of roof furniture back at Tan Cottage we're finishing off even at this stage we're still finding things like this pin which dates from from The 14th Century the vase Phil found is also 14th century this jug dates from the 15th and that wonderful glass workor also dates from the 15th many of these finds and the stonework in both Tan Cottage in Carlton house suggest an important building and now we can work out what it might well have looked like meanwhile at the old rectory we've almost broken through the cellar wall this Cellar was once actually the ground floor of a medieval house this new house was simply built on top with the Earth raised to bury the ground floor into a Cellar a gap was left around the edge possibly as a very early means of damp proofing behind here we may see the out outside of the medieval building it's a pretty exciting moment have you got that camera well yeah let's uh try the technology is the light on I'll poke it through the hole and we'll have a look and see what you watch the Telly Mickey Mouse comes on we in the wrong one oh I don't know yeah got that oh yes hang on a sec wow was that good yeah it's brilliant that's the bottom of our wall that we've just uh this wall here that's the F uh yeah down down down a bit like that yeah that's brilliant down a bit more if possible down a bit more yeah yeah that's fantastic bit more that's the foundation that's the big stones at the bottom and uh there's a there stones aren't they and what's this well that's a big buildup of the road surface I tell you what yes I think so these are the footings Keith yes I think those are the footings down there I mean Keith what those remind me of is um Carl house and at was it York Lodge that we were looking at they've got these sort of foot footings where you've got Stones laid on edge and we've seen them in two of the burges plot boundaries and that really gives a suggests that the whole of the town was laid out really as one sort of operation we know it's very regularly laid out one operation a single event and it all buil in the same way it Foundation Foundation same WS Foundation bar estate yeah Victorian Terrace yeah it's basically you're looking at 12th century town planning when you finished this historical discussion can somebody else come and have a go at this stop moaning and just carry on M bloody crucifying what started out as a hunt for a boundary has turned into a fascinating journey into plimpton's past the medieval finds from DAV Sally's house tell us that here there used to be a high status medieval building and it was huge it stretched from way over there in that Garden all the way back to here and then right up this Alleyway but from our point of view what's most interesting is that the r that we've all been having over the past three days has been resolved and now everyone's happy that this is part of a 13th century chimney stack we've managed to sort out the story of the pathfield Parklands complete in some people's minds with a Park full of deer we've managed to work out what the boundaries of medieval Plimpton were and we've got precise dat in for pieces of wood which tell us that some of them were part of buildings that the Normans put up over 700 years ago and if we'd been around during that time behind us there would have been a thriving bustling medieval Market with streets full of shops and behind them big medieval halls and on top of them beautiful roofs the whole place buzzing with ordinary people going about their everyday lives not bad for 3 days work [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Reijer Zaaijer

Views: 442,679

Keywords: time, team, full, episodes, season

Id: ARgYkhRF36Q

Length: 47min 6sec (2826 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2013