Time Team S07E07 coventry.cathedral

this is Coventry Cathedral and this is the earlier one which was bombed by the Luftwaffe during the war but there's actually a third cathedral because under this row of houses lies some Mary's Coventry first Cathedral which was destroyed in a fit of pique by Henry the eighth's now we've got some remains of the West End though we've got some remains at the East End but what time team wants to know is what went on in the middle and as usual we've got just three days to find out medieval Coventry was one of the most important towns in Britain the massive scenaries Cathedral built soon after the Norman Conquest reflected that power and wealth now almost 900 years later this is what Priory Row looks like time team have been asked by Coventry council to excavate this site because they're redeveloping most of the area into new public gardens there are no surviving contemporary illustrations of some Mary's while it stood so this is our last chance to find evidence under this ground and use it to recreate just what that great cathedral looked like five hundred years ago but first with contry council's help we've got to find exactly where that evidence is so where are we on your map mate well we're about here it says John F Kennedy house which is over there we're on the grass out in the frontiers just about there and where would that be as far as the cathedral is concerned well you you know that we've got these bits left so if we put these posh this and this overlay you see we put that over the top there's the West End which is over there with a scaffolding yeah and there's the East End bits which is up against the 1950s Cathedral they don't make much sense so we've got this third layer which is the suggestion of what how that might fit in with the Priory Church and the Cathedral why are we digging here if we know what it looks like well we don't because a lot of this is conjecture based on my ideas and antiquarian accounts and so on and of course this lot is not the Cathedral this is the monster that's attached to it so it is unlikely to be the Cathedral where we are now it's more likely to be the clusters or somewhere yeah the cloisters and the buildings where the monks lived well surely we've got a problem we're in the middle of a town I mean apart from this little bit of grass there's all this kind of built-up area probably well thanks to the church authorities we're free to dig down through this terracing but we do have another problem geophysics aren't getting the results they expect the urban environment with its network of pipes and electrical cables are causing John and his team major problems well I'm not actually seeing these war lines as marked on the map we've surveyed over that area with resistance we've done near-surface and looking at greater depths there's a bit worrying if we know there are Wars in there not on any of the plots that's true critics know it's you physics but ya know that's that's totally unfair I mean will it will explain it all right once we see it and they aren't having much more luck up on the terraces new radar from America and the depth of the site have also conspired against them but times moving on so mix decided to get digging using our conjectural plan of the cathedral and the attached monastery as a guide we're putting in three trenches to start with trench one on the grass outside the John F Kennedy building trench two on the lower terracing and trench three at the top of the terrace why are you digging here and here well this this ought to be in the Cathedral Church and we ought to be somewhere where these huge pillar bases are to support the South aisle so that's on this level here then it drops down this Terrace here so this this lower Terrace here we're looking for the the door coming in from the cloister into the Cathedral and that's leading from the cloister area down there which is where currents trenches in come to the chapter yes over the over the bottom there so coming into there and then into the Church of air we want to make a three-dimensional computer model of some Mary's and digging these trenches will help our graphics team start work on how the Cathedral looked because finding walls or for that matter not finding walls should tell us how accurate our initial plan is as you can see we found you a wall but yes is that what you're expecting this wall here that you can see yes a trench is possibly the north wall of the chapter house this wall here right that does fit there it's fitting quite well what hasn't turned up yet is the west wall what sort of things might you find over the next three days which would give you a clue as to whether or not it was premiership material well I think it is already the sheer size of this building means it is it is of that quality physical size alone indicates wealth and status as some stones may also carry wall painting on them and then of course there'll be all the other archaeological artifacts they come up which may tell us more about the monks style of life the liturgy and so forth I like well-defined walls myself Richard together define war yeah and it looks like Phil may get what he wants sooner than he expected it's just after lunch on day one and trench two has just turned up something rather interesting oh we've got an amazing number Mason oh yeah look that looks probably a wall and it looks so far it's going down on that side is just going straight and down there but it's on the right along side by side yeah look at that face oh that's going straight now I ain't just an isolate yeah yeah and got lovely red mortar on the top and it's all morning is there any is any carved bits commit so no no no I mean I still get expect that though yeah I'm a week we're probably just looking at the coral yeah we they would have robbed the faces off they were one thing we're having no luck with is Coventry is whether one minute there's bright sunshine the next hailstones that means trouble for bet Caroline just to sorry show really prefer hail to rains it'll soak in fraught with difficulties together yeah the cable somebody can see how many we've got coming in and out we've not made quite such good progress as we might have done that hope we've got this all opened up but we have fun found some really nice bits and pieces we've got lovely bit of decorated floor tile there and the other really nice bit we've got it's been tucked away in here to protect it from the worst of the weather which is more privileged than the rest of us ahead while it was hailing has been a bit of painted window glass you see them lining in red on them yes a little border or something I think I was probably the edge of the pane there and this there's certainly something in there why do you want to dig here what other kinds of things might we come up with to chapter house is a very important building in the monastery probably next to the church it was the most important building not only because that's where the administration the organization the monastery took place and the other thing of course it's it's where a lot of the the priors are number two of them are actually buried so we might find bodies yeah I mean we could easily find the grave covers either just inside the chap Perce or sometimes just outside look you'll enjoy that thank you finding a Pryor's grave could tell us a lot about how the monks lived but in the meantime hourglass find is a cause for excitement Coventry has a bit of a reputation for painted glass a native of the city John Thornton was one of the great medieval glass artists and other examples of 12th and 13th century glass still exist at Coventry skilled hall and that's where Victor's gone to gain inspiration for our own tribute to this great art with the help of experts Rodney bender and Colin Telford we plan to make our own painted glass window according to the instruction set out in his book on divers arts by the medieval monk and craftsmen Theophilus back a Priory row trenches one and two continue to be some of the most generous first-day trenches we've had on time team as well as helping us build a 3d model of the outside of the cathedral we're now also getting details and clues as to how the inside looked oh look at that Oh on it looks like part of a large shop yeah I mean it is so well preserved that yeah you said you were hoping that this wall might be more than just the Foundation's as it lived up to your expectations more much much more than we ever anticipated I mean the first wonderful thing about it is that we thought we'd have to dig about three meters to get it and what happened look it's just underneath the surface that there is the core of the wall of the Cathedral on the outside we've even got the facing stones we've got about three courses of them so why are you so confident that this is the wall of our Cathedral it is bang on line with where we want it to be it says no question about it so out there is the outside that's right and I'm standing in the Cathedral and you see in here this is going to be our big problem tomorrow that is not another wall that is just an enormous piece of masonry which has come crashing down you see how it's tipping in it's just falling down on top of all this demolition rubble what we would love isn't a nice floor underneath it's got to be a floor underneath all this rubble shows the cathedral was well and truly decimated in fact the only sizable remains left above ground are these remnants of the West front entrance but why was Coventry Cathedral reduced to such a state when so many other medieval cathedrals survived Henry the eighth's dissolution of the monasteries Robin what happened to this Cathedral we're looking at well the snag is that it was not only a cathedral it was also a Benedictine Priory and so when Henry the eighth decided to dissolve the monasteries in the early 1500s Coventry went as part of that grand purge in most cases the Priory or Abbey Church survived but when he offered it or his commission has offered it to the people of Coventry either they couldn't afford it or didn't feel they could stump up enough money to buy it this didn't go down too well with Henry he had a particular dislike of Benedictine monasteries like the one at Coventry because of the wealth they possessed add to that the two large parish churches already in the town and the fact that the diocese had another more king friendly cathedral at Litchfield and some Mary's fate was sealed they decided to demolish it get the lead off the roof these places were used as quarries all a lovely amount of building stone that didn't need to be hacked out of the ground available for sale allegedly and gradually it I suppose got recycled as the city of Coventry well your trenches can we alone there what did he go - well we're turning up a lot of wars now you see we're getting really nice straight walls and they're all looking very square we've had some fantastic finds as well masses a window glass this is just the best bits some LED there look at that you can see the pattern showing up on that beautiful with lens number on our experts told us it's all medieval as well beginning of day two in Coventry and over in Kansas trench the hunt is on for the chapter house and hopefully we're going to find some evidence of ancient burials in films trench we want to get down onto the medieval cathedral floor and here we were going to dig a big long trench looking for one of those central piers that would have supported the cathedral roof and for some evidence of the main Crossing place of the Cathedral underneath the big central tower but as you can see we've done no digging whatsoever what's gone wrong where's your big trench we have got done some big it look terrific it's just exploratory at the moment as soon as you clear on to mich foo we're gonna get on your hair cut off to see a problem with trenches 1 & 2 well underway and Phil finally starting trench 3 I'm off to Coventry sister cathedral at Litchfield to find out more about how our building might have looked wow it's so big I know I did it would be this kind of size would Coventry having this kind of size Coventry was that longer than this in fact so enormous bigger yeah and would it have had the same kind of elaborate front we don't know about that no excavations have thrown up any remains of statues we must assume there were some carved figures around the main door area and this is the western Dizon tit and this is the West End we've actually got a bit of Western we've got foundations just like this at Coventry that's right Oh while our graphic designer Meyer collects information for our computer model of Mary's stewards back in Coventry with George and Victor he's trying to work out how the land around the Cathedral looked 600 years ago but it's not an easy task as modern-day Coventry bears little resemblance to its medieval counterpart to imagine that streets not there as a completely modern Street so this is the main body of the church that's right and that's the nave that's right we call this the nadir and is this bit at the end of these chairs the central crossing that's right it's a central crossing so where would our trenches and our trenches are in the left hand area of that underneath appear with the pulpit the equivalent position just just sort of here somewhere yeah that's right so this is the central crossing right that's right Tony Oh plan our our trenches on the terraces right in this area here is the upper trench and then also in the lower trench on day one we found a length of wall there the nave and where does that relate to and I said the equivalent of that piece of wall there this over here that's right that's the one yes so what are we looking for now so now in the upper hole on the terraces we're looking for the imprint of this pier something in there a huge size that's right there are three more as you can see at Litchfield and we'd expect that they normally support a great crossing Tower and what can this tell us if we find from the imprint of the pier you can see there are these projecting mouldings that rise up we call shafts they can tell us quite a lot about the height of the building for example on that side they rise to the full height of the crossing and there are other sides they give arches lower down like the ones in the nave I mean this is a solid piece of masonry it's not just a rafter mortar or anything like that is it then it's horizontal so I'm think it's another piece of collapse masonry I think we might actually got it aren't we really out wait till Mickey is about this filled am i Caston I reckon if you can get yourself up here you'll get a wonderful sight we got a pillar okay I'm on my way Ida be solid in it as it is actually going down still rockin hey still going down go in there wait you got those when I would look at this Mick this is the business look at this look at that oh yeah look out deep it's going and you've got an edge on it as well a nice it is what I mean might be partly smashed for that pot yeah I don't think so and it's coming right the way across here a lot look at the size you look at the size of it well it should be huge well if it's if it's well across going yeah it's still going so you haven't got the edge that side out nor on that side there is lamb Athena I was just saying it would be 3 or 4 metres in each direction if it's going to support the tower so it doesn't surprise me it's going that far or is there Eric he's just come on why it's just one muscle only we got some digging to do so it looks like we've now got our first crossing pier exactly where we thought we'd find it but in trench one we've lost something the chapter house doorway discovered by Brian Hobley in his 1960s excavation what I don't understand carrenza is that you know we must be somewhere in the area of where this the base of this doorways fan you don't seem to have it any fun no you think it'd be easy to find yeah we're definitely in hobb least wrench here that dark cut there is the edge of his trench yeah see it in the section there that line there dark line down the wall the thing is did probably leave that beautifully sculpted stone in Scituate yeah or did he take it away and it's not just making carrenza having problems finding things they know to be there John and geophysics Coventry nightmare continues should be on top of it now enough allure ' oh yeah yeah but other time team endeavors are a success our attempt at making a painted glass window to the specifications of medieval craftsmen Theophilus for example having cut all the glass it's time to paint on Victor's design but it's not just a case of opening a tin we've had to grind our own pigments and that's just the start of it taking Theophilus as our guide mix these three together in such a way that there is one third of copper powder one third of green in one third of blue then grind them on the same stone very carefully with wine or urine we've got some urine here something to prepare there exactly I think once you mix I'm not going anywhere near that one so once this is all dry and ready what happens to it right and then it needs to go into a kiln and be fired and it fuses it to the surface of the glass we've never actually fired this mixture before so we don't know how it's going to react in in the kilns that work and the temperature we're going to fire it the only concern might be that the glass doesn't melt at that temperature so it could turn out a total disaster it could be absolutely brilliant talk about the glazed windows come on look at this we actually found a piece of the lead with the glass still in it look through it and see the red light through that look at that yeah what else you got I tell it was absolutely brilliant here with we've come down to the floor here and we've got um imprints of where the tiles would actually have set this is the mortar floor you can see the little lines there yeah that's actually where tiles would have sat so we can work out the pattern we've got tiles like these coming up to the pattern on those of Lacrosse little birds so you have fur this is nothing that yeah some beautiful examples of tiling and a good indication of how part of the chapter house floor would have looked but trench one still hasn't given us the doorway we know to be there the entrance to the chapters was a great doorway with very elaborate architectural features on the side and that side it's clearly been trashed its disappear yeah this is in situ but it isn't what we'd expect right so we're going to extend this trench back because of this tantalizing stone what about bodies are we likely to find any back there it's very common if you visit a monastic site and you go to the chapters to find lots of grave slabs in the floor and very often they've got the names of the the abbot or priors on them it's as if when they held the chapter meetings which were if you like where all the decisions were taken they needed the expertise and the wisdom of the previous chaps to mean on it right it's almost as if they're about their present but they're there they're on their graves times getting on and it doesn't look like we'll hit the floor in trench 2 today there's just too much rubble and masonry to remove as we dig but all three trenches are still throwing up fantastic evidence for our Cathedral reconstruction yeah hell of a face down so why couldn't your physics detect it John we've found more walls than I think we did an entire last series and yet you haven't been able to find any of them with your radar have you no it's actually been quite embarrassing to say the least what's the problem the problem is this too much rubble the rubble we can't see the difference between the wall foundations and the rubble there's also all the pipes going across the electric cables it's not an easy sight from our point of view so you go just pack up your stuff and go home I'll feel like it almost but no we've got some good targets now we're going to look for graves within the chapter house below the floor surfaces because we should get good responses from those this just isn't John's day as he sets out to regain some pride for geophysics Coventry is notoriously unpredictable weather takes a turn for the worse John do you think there's any chance that machine will be able to find any graves or whatever under here I'm hoping I'm gonna find a plastic oh yeah as the rain continues Viktor gives us his impression of how the chapter house may have looked 500 years ago is that portly one on the right supposed to be me I'll Freeport leasing ticket right thanks a bundle this has changed a bit since you saw me yeah I know how that is yeah I saw this morning isn't it yeah I told you it's big didn't I but how big is this pier compared with the one that we saw at Litchfield well actually it's not quite as big boy you got to remember is half of its under that building now so it goes a good way that way as well and what can you tell about it well we've got this face which Phil's exposed here where you can see pretty clearly an original face with this plaster on the wall there fellas they're definitely plaster you just see it just peeling away from there not only that look what the walls look like oh yeah look I love because I always that paint nice paint well lays it yeah that's wonderful in it it's been a good day make yeah what I'm gonna do tomorrow well have you found that a big pillar over there we're going to pursue it this way and see if we can find the next one that'll tell us a great deal and in this change here we're going to carry on down and actually get the floor in the church are you sure yeah I'll be well I think we've got another meter to go but we've got this big stone to move and then we carry on down there and charondas trace has been fantastic today yeah I'll get some more good stuff yeah yeah what have you got here have you seen this yet no look at that oh it's thank you beautiful I just cut 11 the flanges fell at the trend it's a rose presume yeah yeah so where is that likely to come from well Richard was saying he reckons it's a ceiling boss so it's been up a bit of luck ain't Adhir yeah I mean it's just absolutely beautiful it's so perfect fantastic and this would have been a Benedictine monastery right yeah and every evening for the last 700 years Benedictine monks have been saying the same thing all over the world at 8 o'clock in the evening and tonight the reading is by brother Robin take heed that your hearts be not weighed down by surfeiting and drunkenness goodness and the cares of this world and finally complan prayers which end Kinkaid a misery cause Deus Fraggle Atari nah stray Presidium prayin dem Christum Dominum Nostrum our men day 3 in our hunt for Coventry is first Cathedral we've already found the chapter house down there and up there we've discovered one of the big central columns which supported the roof of the whole Cathedral and they're starting to look for where the second one might be why are we looking for another one well there ought to be a row running off from that one down the aisle to support the nave which is the building going off in that direction and it ought we need to know where that is to pick up the intervals of them but there is that so important well hang on let me see if we find it a certain distance away we'll know it's the aisle because they come at foot fairly regular intervals along the top if on the other hand it's much further away then it might be another pillar holding the tower up in which case the whole tower would be this way so the whole Cathedral would have to shift about Bob's I mean it's only for the middle of it would yeah so the alignment of this wall coming across in this trench here would suggest that there's a pillar up here for the aisle but if there isn't then we've got a whole new ball game up there so we need to dig that trench to find out exactly where the pillar is and what size it is great little they should be getting on with it so we're going to dig a sister trench to the original trench 3 to solve this architectural mystery there's no time to waste and Phil and George are raring to go the pier if it's aligned with the west wall of the chapter is going to come through there and under this under the toe and if the middle the middle of that pier yep is sort of so it should emit the Middle's on the wall in trench - how seemingly endless dig for the cathedral floor has been halted as we try to remove a rather large piece of rubble I think we get the stone onto the board perhaps get one end of the board up on there well you're anyways Vernon haha hey long's a piece of string well you go we tried through what's lifting it and we just about going to waste out so it's probably wait a little bit more than I do let's go not running out the trench just to her at the end of this gentle yeah well done that's very good but now it's out yeah what do they do well we're gonna go carry on going down through this demolition rubble obviously we'll sort out any architectural fragments like this until we come to the floor on a resting place Phil still hasn't started the trench three extension because as has happened so many times during this dig the countless drains and underground services are causing problems what we were bothered by we got two man olds over there and we got an electric cable running underneath here I know whoa whoa what's the hell's that down there good lord it's like a grape is it a bunch of graves no cool-ass rather beautiful it's a roof boss tony i think and i mean that's just one detail of something that's gonna be pretty big part of that tour three feet across and the roof boss sits out the other way so we locking it up in the box like that yeah anything else in it no I mean at the minute where we are actually coming back and really if we're going to get a pier we probably expect to get it a little bit further back and probably a little bit further this way now correct me if I'm wrong see if I've got this right we've just found the face of a wall there where there barber mickey's yeah yeah now until that moment we'd thought that this massive lump here was the wall and that it would be going that way but because that's further forward than the face that wall we now realize it can't be the wall in which case it is probably a buttress like the ones that you showed me yesterday relating both to the chat house out there it's all the same alignment that back down that wall right excuse me who's eating this yeah but on the inside it's part of an arch which would come all the way over like that and plunk the other side would be where the next period is all right and the term for that Tony is a respond because it responds to the pier so that's what we've got in there it's a respond respond all right yeah I'm not sure I'm allowed to say anything the bunch of grapes is just the latest of scores of fines that have our pot washers stretched to the limit along this is of course roof tile and floor tile yeah BAM we've got some really nice floor tile fragments coming up oh yeah this one I mean this is a super little shield on here and do we know who this is yeah this is Edward the Confessor oh right so they've given him a coat of arms later on in fact right yep and the compressors and everything oh yeah the birds are very sweet yeah right that's superb now what about glass cuz we seem to be getting me faster man we are we're getting a lot less and it's all medieval and it's super stuff yeah we've got this one here there's a bird on it can you see that here we go it never got to make this air until you get your eye in isn't it if I'm blown up alright okay so you got the beak here the other head has an eye and the eye and you can some splashes of plaster or something over it nice to be quite nice is that our glass reconstruction is basically a big bird isn't it super view only to find this on two finds and it's crunch time for our window made using traditional medieval methods having been painted yesterday the pieces have been cooking overnight in one of Coventry University's kilns it's still quite warm Oh super it's not beautiful you must be very pleased with how this is turning out hundred percent as far as I can see well I wouldn't call it a an absolutely unqualified sense so how does what step do we go through next given our short time says we're going to move straight into letting up back at wrench 1 we finally found the doorway that's been eluding us well some of the doorway the ornate decoration we've seen in photographs has gone I think that the previous excavators have objected yeah Raiders are the last arch very droll yeah this is the doorway one side of the doorway all the debt could have stone what it's obviously gone from it the other side of the door way someone over here has also had the stone taken away from it yes just where make your search be about here mustn't it yeah the debt could have stone ways been robbed out but we're confident now that the doorway into the chapter house was here entrench one has also given geophysics their first proper success of an otherwise miserable three days if you remember yesterday John actually braved the weather and he used two different techniques we've actually got a couple of positions which look like they may just be burials or certainly something significant Waltham's about here and I guess the other ones about a meter further back so just over here it's very significant because if if we got the doorway here now they're right in front of it and I'm in the cloister then this is the sort of area that you'd expect some of the priors and more important people to be buried you then come through the doorway into the chapter house and on many many sites you've got these things up the middle of the chapter house you think that might be what you've got I don't know so interesting the geophysics you need to dig it in oh absolutely if we walk away and we don't and frankly we've done ourselves the decision to find these tombs we're going to dig a Sun - that's a small exploratory trench that won't destroy too much archaeology but will give us a cross-section of the chapter house floor over at Coventry is guild hall we're coming to the end of our painted glass window oh it is coming on nicely again as you know I think that we might even get it finished we might do yeah so what we're going to do is we're going to put this piece in one of these painted pieces so go careful I broke it we're going to place that into that area there yep so it's just half way over the black line okay and that that seems to fit nicely place that piece of lead over the glass first right and just cut yourself a piece of red off that will fit and work its and then push that s lovely yeah you just press that piece down a bit - yes lovely that's the one so the glass shoots in a groove on either side just there much yet and then take the lead away from the glass so you don't damage the glass and cut it on the hold yeah so we need to turn to that now out if you take that now out you could be okay so we put a little bit of tallow on the joint that we know solder take our soldering iron okay so when we finished soldering all the joints on that side it has to be turned over and done on the other side and that more or less completes the process yes I want to sweep this chrome super map what's that back a trench one our search for a grave has unearthed some human remains the problem is though they weren't where we expected them in fact we may have stumbled across something much more sinister you got some bone yes it's getting a bit confusing though we found some bits that look really very very recent dental Margaret yeah we had a reason I like the sort of stuff you together out of the back garden at the dog buried a few years ago 10 15 20 50 years if it's not archaeological what we may have is a crime scene so how to call the coppers in well we have a legal obligation to notify the coroner and then the coroner notifies the police and how can we prove whether or not these bones are old if this bone is the same as this bone than the association of this bone within a very secure stratigraphy underneath medieval floors will demonstrate that all of this bone is still old despite the way it looks and that what we're actually looking at some very interesting science rather than some possibly very interesting legal proceedings so if that bone looks new we know it's underneath the modeun layer yeah and so that will prove that these bones even though they look new and probably really really old so we don't have no problem yes so what are you gonna do goes out we're going to get to that yep so trench one may have to be closed down if these bones proved to be recent as we wait for Margaret to reach her conclusions phil has solved the sort of mystery we're more used to on time team he's discovered the other crossing pier entrenched 3 I don't know whether it is gonna be quite get that though correct you've got the edge on that side yeah I think I have I mean I got stonework plummeting on that ear here grab all of this tape that's just right see what sort of an east-west doing mention we got okay well that's about the edge you on yeah well I got about two point seven that's good that one just to the east bossy about two point eight we're looking at anyway we're looking at the core I written we could have the cross in well that's good that's right because that's so definitely sealed it just shows the value of the archaeology if you like in this if we hadn't excavated this like that we wouldn't know what we were doing we'd have to call the coroner and I have to stop so look at that Caroline and that's very very similar isn't it so this is the one that we thinks but we thought was very new yeah and what's one this one we know isn't we know that that one isn't and they're very very similar some is another one isn't are you happy that we're okay is an ancient burial yes to be a coroner as part of me that's incredibly relieved because we can get on with the archaeology but this part of me that was really loved us to suddenly become an episode of the bill drama over it's back up to trench three where Phil's new crossing pier is really taking shape as it keep going down Phil it's a monster make an absolute monster good it goes is still disappearing yeah underneath that man oh it's going along nicely on that side look at it is still going know is your nail is enormous you sound as if you're very confident that this is the same as that and olive oil pet imeem not only that this so long here this edge along here yeah is more or less exactly in a dead straight line to the south side of that pillar there so I mean the the whole symmetry of the theater just so much better and as if to underline the find the chapter house wall also lines up with the new PS right known space weather we're going to get an extra what five days at least there that's really no no I totally yeah we're very excited by this actually I'm what you can sees happened is where we were thinking we had the northwest corner pier of the crossing we now know as a result of digging today that that pier is actually the Northeast pier of the crossing we've now got two crossing piers the new pier we've discovered today is the new northwest crossing pier that's that one there that means the nave now is shortened it's only nine Bay's long but the conviction that is the northwest pier the actual one is because it now aligns extremely well with the west front of the chapter house which was discovered in one of the other holes so Phil's find in trench three means for the first time we know exactly where the central crossing stood and we can alter our cathedral plan accordingly but our dig has confirmed other elements of the plan in trench to four meters below the surface Mick the dig is the first man to stand on the cathedral floor in over 400 years so that really is the floor that you're standing on there Mick is it yeah what I've actually go I got to a plaster bedding yeah I've got one one medieval tile still in six you just there you see that and if you actually look at the plaster you can see that the shadow were well yeah high reduce debates yeah running in there so I've got I've got plaster floor going that way underneath you yeah behind me though I've got this big piece of stone wall with whitewash on it yeah which is a part of the original cathedral so after three days of serious digging time team can now show what's Mary's Coventry --hz first Cathedral would look like where it's still standing today because of our discoveries we now know that the central crossing was a Norman build while the east and west ends were over later Gothic style and the two crossing piers we found not only give a precise position for the central crossing but they're also too small to support a stone spire so a wooden spire would have stood atop some Mary's and inside this massive building with its fantastic columns and piers the walls were plastered but simply whitewashed whilst the floor was covered in green tiles and thanks to Stuart and Victor's work on the positioning of the cathedral we now know it was built on the side of the hill to allow conduit from the river Sherbourne to flow into the monastery buildings we've achieved what we set out to do but there's still more work to be done following our earlier intrigued with the Anglo Saxon bones in trench one we now at the end of day three have a major historical find what is it what is it we have got a stone lined grave cut into the chapter house brought just that's out the door it's exactly what we were hoping for and that's just where Jeff is said they thought it would be it's exactly where we've all been hoping it would be yes tastic could there still be a body in it it could be but it's not impossible that it might have been robbed out in sort of tantalizer and we've got how long we got just about awfully yeah that's the slightly less good side of it we can't leave it we've got to carry on with it we're just going to have to do what we can and see where we've got to the end of the day and then think about it then butter would be there's going to be a building on this site we've got to carry on and we can't leave it oh good luck I'll let you get on with it there it is and there's the crucial bit of the wing in just three days we've made our own painted glass window using authentic medieval methods we're going to give it to the people of Coventry as a tribute to those who lived and worked on this site all those centuries ago so how'd you see your first bit of stained glass link Victor well I promise so this back at out probable priors grave we're working as fast as we can unearthing more and more of the smashed tomb lid but it's seven o'clock day three we've all got to go home and we still don't know what's inside this burial chamber so and this is a first for time team as this is such an important site we're going to leave a team of our diggers here to work alongside the Coventry archaeologists so we can tell you exactly what's down there day four and the first task for Caroline our digger and Coventry archaeologist Paul Thompson is the removal of the broken fragments of tomb lead from the grave do you think there been something placed in here fill in fill you something out of you yeah I do think that'd be some sort of decorative panel in there yeah you're looking on ones of purposes from a brass plaque latinum sort of nice decorative metal that would be very visible very impressive uh-huh I think whoever is in here is it's quite an important significant person we've not got all all of it obviously when you've got a small element on the stand so it may be they've taken of the stone on one side smashed through here and throwing the pieces back yeah unfortunately there isn't enough of the tomb lid left to give us a good idea of how it might have looked and as the day carries on the evidence in spite of some interesting finds is beginning to suggest that the grave has been completely desecrated ah I have a bit of somebody's femur it's not a very good condition that it's not going to be messed up when we're in the dissolution comes in and yeah who knows I mean somebody I mean it's um to find a bit of femur at this end of the day what you would expect to find feet of this by suggest that somebody's been in here before as I think mmm but just as we're beginning to give up hope Caroline Walker's but I've got a void hello you see I mean but more than a void and I think you got those bone in there I think that a lot stacked around the outside she's gonna be part of the school excellent lower jaw it's some teeth of it sure are the nice ones but we seem to have is the jaws rolled to one side and a skull seems to have rolled one to the soccers we've got the eye orbit just here who was this person what was his story unfortunately a lack of records prevent us from putting a name to him but we can tell a lot the prime position of his grave strongly indicates he was a prior his life wasn't without its tribulations forensic tests on his bones show he was overweight and probably diabetic but the indications are he lived in too late middle age and through luck or judgment his tomb survived the wrath of Henry the eighth and like the rest of son marries the Cathedral in which he lived and worshipped if you fancy hearing about even more history head over to science now for jurassica it's tea time next on Discovery Channel though as Jesse James and Cole Turner Porsche into a golf ball collecting machine with a surprise in store for some careless players you

Channel: Reijer Zaaijer

Views: 459,118

Keywords: time, team, full, episodes, season

Id: vVuqwzgOUrk

Length: 46min 30sec (2790 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2013