Time Team (1994–2014): Season 13, Episode 10 - Islip, Oxfordshire - full transcript
The village of Islip near Oxford
has got a claim to fame -
it's said that the great Saxon King
Edward the Confessor
was born somewhere round here,
and the local villagers
want to celebrate
the millennium anniversary
of his birth,
so they've asked us
whether we can find the 13th century
chapel that was built in his honour.
Not only that, they want us to find
the Saxon palace where he was born,
which seems to me
a pretty tall order.
Except the fact is,
nobody has ever dug here before,
and we've got just three days
to try and sort it all out.
Oh, and by the way,
that isn't the chapel
we're supposed to be looking for.
The village of Islip is about
six miles north-east of Oxford,
and these days it's home to some 600
people who'd love to find some actual
evidence in the ground to prove
their link with Edward the Confessor.
I don't know about you but
I always get really confused by
all the English Saxon kings
and their elaborate names
so I'm very pleased
to see this bloke. Sam!
Morning, Tony.
Morning, Tony.
What are the dates of
Edward the Confessor?
1042 to January 5th 1066.
And what's he famous for?
He's famous for keeping
the country safe for a generation
and for the great building
project of Westminster Abbey,
but on the downside, big succession
crisis because no children.
So then you get King Harold,
Harold arrow through the eye,
and William the Conqueror.
and William the Conqueror.
That's right, Battle of Hastings.
and William the Conqueror.
That's right, Battle of Hastings.
Why's he called the Confessor?
It's a name given to him
long after his death,
once he became
regarded as a saint.
A confessor is like
a priest, a monk.
This is very quick
history this, isn't it?
Do we actually know
that he was born here?
As far as we can tell from
the charter in Westminster Abbey
which we're going
to look at tomorrow,
the fact is he was born here
according to his own words.
Most important and difficult
question, where's Mick?
Last seen near
the pub, I believe.
You amaze me.
Is that down there?
You amaze me.
Is that down there?
Yep, straight through there.
You amaze me.
Is that down there?
Yep, straight through there.
Cheers!
'Mick's talking to the two
villagers who invited us here
'and he's showing them Victor's
drawing of the kind of building
'Edward might have been born in
1,000 years ago.'
So we've drawn here a timber hall,
the sort of thing you'd get
on a Saxon palace about 1,000 AD,
and you see it's built of
timber posts, wattle work between,
it's got a timber roof,
it's thatched or shingled,
all perishable materials -
it will be very difficult
to find that in the ground
in the small plots
we've got available to us.
But how many Saxon finds have
there been in the village so far?
None at all.
< So even if we find one
Saxon pottery sherd,
it'll double the amount
of knowledge we've got so far.
We should be able to find
something, shouldn't we?
We should be able to find Saxon
pottery but I'm more optimistic
about finding the chapel
that you wrote to us about.
We've got a drawing by Thomas
Hearne in the 18th century,
and you see at this time,
it's been turned into a barn
but you can see
it was the chapel.
Because this is stone-built,
unlike this one which is timber,
our chances of seeing that in
the ground are much better.
So to begin with, we're going to
have a go at finding
this medieval stone chapel, built
in honour of Edward the Confessor.
And this illustration
by antiquarian Thomas Hearne
is the only clue we have
to what it actually looked like.
Helpfully, Hearne tells us it was
situated to the north of the church
which probably means it's now
buried under one of these gardens,
but the villagers reckon it's going
to be easy work out where it was.
On the face of it,
this looks extremely simple
because I've just spotted the site
of King's Chapel and a big cross.
So what's the problem?
It does look pretty obvious!
Now the problem
with these crosses -
when the mapmakers were coming
round in the late 18th century,
they were soldiers.
They'd speak to the local vicar
or local antiquarian,
and he might have said,
"Ah, there was
a palace over there"
or "There was a moat over there"
or "There was a chapel over there."
And it wasn't that
important to them.
And it wasn't that
important to them.
No it wasn't, so that
could be one of two things.
It could be somebody
precisely knew where that was
and that is bang on,
or alternatively,
it could be just,
"Oh, it was over in
that yard somewhere",
and the surveyor just
put the cross there.
Tricky!
Stewart's has worked out where the
cross would be on the modern map.
And it falls firmly in
the middle of that timber yard.
So are the buried walls
of the chapel under here?
Well, Geophys did a radar survey in
the timber yard earlier this morning,
and they're now ready
to look at their results.
The X marked on the map
is literally here.
Right in the middle?
Right in the middle?
Yep.
That's interesting because
we've got no clear targets
but there is one
in the far corner,
and the second target genuinely
is in the middle, there.
That doesn't look very clear.
It isn't very clear. Erm...
It's not an easy area for us
to survey, all the problems
with things round the outside.
There's only one way we're going
to find out if the chapel was here
and that's by digging a hole.
The trouble is this is
a working timber yard,
and it looks like there
might be one or two delays.
That'd be the delivery then!
BEEPING
How long, do you think?
Depends where it is
on the lorry, really.
Should be half an hour,
three quarters of an hour.
We'll wait, we'll wait.
Yeah.
If you want it down quicker,
you could always give us a hand.
If you want it down quicker,
you could always give us a hand.
There you go, John.
Well, this is a surprise -
no resistance from Geophys.
Let's hope it's all worth it
because of course we can't
trust the big X on the map.
It's quite possible that
the remains of the chapel
could be in the pub car park
or in the garden
of the house next door.
There's no room for Geophys
to survey in this garden,
so we've decided to open
up a few random test pits.
Possibly foolishly,
the owners have given us permission
to dig anywhere we want to
because their property
has a name
that could be a clue
to the location of the chapel.
Yeah this is the one, look -
there's the clue.
Confessor's Gate.
Jonathan, Confessor's Gate -
is it a good clue?
Confessor's Gate - well now,
your deeds, Johanna,
they call the house...
It was called
St Edwards originally.
It's now called Confessor's Gate.
I'm not sure when it was renamed.
And it looks like this gate
has actually taken on that name,
because we have
a figure of a head
right over the top.
The problem is...
this arch and the wall it's in is
no older then about 100 years old,
so we have to look at
that really closely.
'Jonathan's wondering if the figure
head itself could be medieval.'
It's weathered nicely, it's also
stuck around the back with cement,
like it's a found item
that's just been applied.
The trouble is, he doesn't think
it's Edward the Confessor.
He think it's a woman.
I think it's more like
Edwina the Contessa
rather then Edward the Confessor,
the reason being its head gear,
because that to me looks like a
wimple, standard late 14th century.
If that was a mitre, it would be
like this, down over the forehead,
whereas actually, it's pushed
right up back like that.
< Exactly.
Is your heart bleeding? It's
either Victoria or it ain't Edward.
Well, it's not quite what I thought!
I reckon that's
gonna fit easy, innit?
Well, at least now we know
this gateway's not ancient,
we can risk trying to squeeze a mini
digger through to speed things up,
but there's still a very good reason
for digging here in the garden
of Confessor's Gate and that is,
the house deeds include a plan
that marks the site
of the King's Chapel.
That little square there
is where the mapmaker
shows us the chapel. It's tiny
and it's the wrong direction.
Well, but on the other hand,
if that's the east end of it,
it would be over there
somewhere where the blue sheet is,
it would be coming back this way.
That'd be incredibly happy,
if that were right.
That'd be incredibly happy,
if that were right.
That would be better.
And it extends underneath our feet,
something up to that sort of size.
Yeah.
So we're going to extend one
our test pits in this garden
to cover that possibility, even if
one of the residents has other ideas.
(LAUGHING)
Damn thing!
You got it?
So, with a trench in this garden
and one in the timber yard which
has just got going again, we've got
two possible sites for our chapel.
We can see that the chapel
fits many times over
inside Confessor's Gate.
It's bigger then the house again,
actually. It's quite surprising.
Thomas Hearne not only made a sketch
of the chapel but also recorded its
basic dimensions, and this has
allowed Raysan to build a 3-D model.
I wonder whether there's
a direct relationship
of the space within the wood yard
and the size of the chapel,
whether that's a direct result of
demolishing it and using its space.
If that was a barn, after all,
it might have a crew yard
in front of it.
Meanwhile, Victor has gone to church.
He's making a sketch of Edward
based on his image shown in
this copy of the Bayeux tapestry.
History doesn't get any bigger then
this, and I'm still hopeful we might
stumble on the Saxon palace
where Edward was born.
Edward's failure to produce
an heir may have resulted in
the Battle of Hastings in 1066
but he was also responsible
for the building
of Westminster Abbey.
As I understand it,
Edward left the manor of Islip to
the monastery before he died,
Westminster then built
the chapel in Islip in honour
of Edward some years later.
Jonathan's trying to work
out exactly when that was.
There are a group of three windows
and quite fine masonry in there.
These are three lancets
typical of the early 13th century
so are these clasping buttresses
before they become diagonal
in the later 13th century.
To me, those features suggest a date
three decades either side of 1220.
The chapel was built more then
150 years after Edward's death,
which would put it in
the reign of Henry III.
This would make sense
as Henry was obsessed
with the memory of
Edward the Confessor,
who'd been made a saint in 1161.
Henry rebuilt Edward's
Abbey at Westminster
and may have been responsible
for building the chapel in Islip.
He was keen to popularise the
figure of St Edward and encouraged
the cult following for him that
was growing in the 13th century.
The cult of St Edward is one that's
been growing through the reigns of
previous kings, really flowers in
Henry III's time, and what it seems
to represent is a way of those
Norman and Plantagenet kings
giving legitimacy
to their rule over the English,
at the same time as,
for the English themselves,
Edward being the last of
the legitimate old English Kings.
It does represent
a reconciliation focus
for the French
and the English.
So it's as though the Normans
are saying, "It's all right, Saxons,
"cos we're related to Edward
the Confessor, who you like."
Exactly!
But why would they
want to come here?
I can understand them wanting
to go to Westminster Abbey
where Edward the Confessor was,
but why would any pilgrims
want to come to this place?
Well, it's widening
the base of the cult
and the opportunity
for pilgrimage centres,
by celebrating his birth place.
But would a pilgrim expect
to see something here?
Yeah, when you walk through the
door, what are you going to see?
Well, that's the tempting thing.
There must be some cult object,
some of his personal clothing
or perhaps his old nursery toys,
we just don't know.
So secondary items,
not the body, but clothing.
Anything he's touched during
his life, even the water
in which he washed his hands
was deemed to be crackling
with spiritual radioactivity.
It was that potent,
and could then be used for miracles.
I think a load of 13th century
dinky toys would be brilliant
or the equivalent.
Well, it would be nice to
find anything, because so far
there's no sign of the chapel
in any of our trenches.
This is a really lovely
garden and of course,
we're doing our best to wreck it.
We've got a trench in here
and that's an 18th or 19th century
cobbled farmyard surface.
We've got another trench just
round here and, hang on one minute,
just turn round here,
you can see our family
having a cup of tea,
but anyway, we've got our
farmyard cobbled surface
still in this trench, and here...
cobbled surface again.
As usual, Phil's working
incredibly hard for the cause,
but is he wasting his time?
Stewart's got some news for us.
Whatever you're going
to say to us, say it soon
or you're going to get buried,
the way Phil's going at it there.
Am I right in the understanding
you put this trench in
on the basis of a deed?
Yeah. A little map
in the deeds, yeah.
Supposed to show
the site of King's Chapel.
Supposed to show
the site of King's Chapel.
That one.
This deed showing site
of King's Chapel
and the little building
there is actually a straight copy
of the 1922 map over here,
we see the little building.
And in fact, the antiquities
sign is in the wrong place.
It's in the plot next door.
It's in the plot next door.
In the lumber yard over there.
Hold on, so where it says here,
"Site of King's Chapel",
and we've dug in this one, it's
actually referring to this cross.
And that's the cross that's
in the lumber yard.
And they didn't put
the cross on there, look.
Phil!
You're digging in the wrong garden!
Mick misinterpreted the map.
Hey hang on, hang on, hang on!
Several people
misinterpreted the mapI
Hang on, hang on, hang on?
Why am I in the wrong garden?
Because the big X that says
"Site of the chapel"
is actually next door.
Over there.
All right.
It's only the writing
that's across this garden.
Well I'm still not
going to leave this one
until we resolve what's here.
Quite right.
Quite right.
Thank you.
Quite right, but don't hold your
breath, I think is the answer.
Phil's absolutely right -
we have to finish these trenches.
The map on the deeds may be wrong
but we don't know for sure
that the chapel isn't in this
garden, not only that,
but there could be Saxon material to
find here that's much deeper down.
There are local historians...
'I'd love to find some Saxon
pottery for the villagers
'at least, and I've heard that this
car park might be the place to look,
'because there are written accounts
'that say this was
the site of the Saxon palace.'
Is this the kind of place
they might have built a palace?
Well, yes, because it's well
sited at the top of a hill.
Without the buildings, you'd have
a commanding view of the valleys
and you can see people approaching,
it's an important crossing point
and we've got a very good
Anglo-Saxon place name here.
What, Islip?
It comes from the Old
English "Yikslepper",
meaning the slipway or the slope
by the river, the old river name.
There's no doubting Islip
was a Saxon settlement
and this could be the place to dig
in search of the palace tomorrow.
But now, as we approach
the end of the day,
there's bad news about our trench
here in the wood yard.
It's turned up nothing
but natural geology,
there's no sign of the chapel.
But there is still hope,
because Stewart's been studying
the maps and has a new theory
that we might find evidence
of the chapel in this garden.
We know it was a detached building,
from the sketch,
it was orientated east-west.
It says that on
the sketch as well.
And it was about 15 yards
by seven, so we know that much,
and we know from the references
it was likely to be standing in...
1805,
a barn standing on the site of the
chapel is definitely there in 1805.
Now, this map here is 1806,
so it should be on this map, really.
And actually, when you
look at the map closely,
there are two detached buildings
orientated east-west, so...
It could be one of those two.
Now, one is very
close to the church,
but it's too small
when you measure it,
there's another one
which is the right size
and that's in this garden here.
Ah!
So logic-wise, we should,
if we can, examine both those,
but this one looks the better
candidate on this side.
The way things are going, I
reckon we should dig both sites.
The trouble is this building
is buried under the extension
to the graveyard
but we might still might be able
to get permission to dig there
with help from local contacts.
Johanna, did you manage
to speak to your old man?
Yes, what we need is
an Archdeacon's licence
rather than waiting for a faculty
cos that would take too long,
but the office doesn't
open till 9am tomorrow.
As soon as the office opens, we'll
get on to the Archdeacon's office.
Thanks very much,
that's very good news.
So is the chapel in Johanna's
house? Is it next door?.
Is it under the churchyard?
We'll find out tomorrow.
Beginning of day two here at Islip
in Oxfordshire and one of our main
jobs is to look for the 13th century
chapel of Edward the Confessor.
Now we know it's this way to
the north of the church and we've
already looked in this back garden,
so far with no success.
Our next two targets are this
back garden and here which is this
extension of the cemetery.
Look! We don't even know whether
we'll get permission to dig it but
even if we do, how will we geophys?
Frankly, it's turning
into a nightmare.
But although we have to wait for
special permission to excavate in
the graveyard, there's nothing
to stop us starting work here
as the owner of this garden has
agreed to sacrifice their small lawn
in search of the chapel.
What's clear is
the whole village wants to find this
building which was built in honour
of King Edward the Confessor,
because if we can find it, it
will give them some evidence in
the ground to back up their claim
that 1,000 years ago, this village
was the birthplace of the last great
Saxon king of England.
The villagers would also love us
to find Ethelred's palace
where Edward was supposedly born.
This would have been a wooden
building that would have
looked like this
but likely to have perished
over the last 1,000 years.
We're opening up a trench in the pub
car park, because there are some
documentary references to both the
chapel and the palace
being on this site.
There are two parts to this
reference which is in 1823.
It says, "On the site of a small inn
known by the sign of the Red Lion...
Yeah.
"stood the palace of King Ethelred,"
so suggests there's a palace
somewhere in this area.
It also says, "In the same yard
also stood an ancient building
"long used as a barn, that's said
to have been the identical chapel
"appertaining to the Saxon palace."
With mention of Ethelred's
palace and the chapel in this area
it's got to be worth
putting a trench in. At
least we might find some
Saxon pottery for the villagers.
We're still digging in the garden
of Confessor's Gate, which has
turned up what looks like medieval
pottery for our expert to look at.
Hello, stranger. Good to see you.
And you.
We have a problem.
And you.
We haven't yet found the palace
or the chapel, but the one thing
people really want is Saxon pottery.
What, like this?
Is that really Saxon?
Yeah.
How do you know that is Saxon?
It's Wiltshireware from somewhere in
the region of Newbury - I'd say Saxon
Norman, 1050 to 1100.
It's right
on the date we're interested in.
This is Edward the Confessor?
Yeah.
It overlaps with the end
of his reign.
You've taken
the wind out of my sails!
That's good!
Do you reckon you could trawl round
the village and see whether you can
come up with Saxon? Because until
this magnificent find there had been
no Saxon found in this village.
There's this piece as well.
Oh, come on!
But this is probably a lot earlier.
This may be earlier -
early or middle Saxon.
It's well before
Edward the Confessor.
'Fantastic!
Not only have we found the first
'Saxon pottery ever discovered here,
'but one bit that dates to the
lifetime of Edward the Confessor.
'When this pottery was made,
around 1050, Edward was
'building Westminster Abbey,
'and that's
where Helen and Sam have gone now
'to see the original documents
that link Edward with Islip.'
Westminster Abbey
is by far the best place to come
to find out about medieval Islip.
Yes, because
the Abbey owned the manor
and most of the documents have ended
up in the archives at Westminster.
This is a 14thC manuscript
which contains a lot of the early
charters to do with Islip, including
these ones of Edward the Confessor.
Oh, yes, I can see the lovely E there
for Edward King...
Now my Old English peters out there!
< (READS)
Edward the King greets
Wolseley the Bishop...
in a friendly manner.
"I wish it
"to be known
"that I have given
"to St Peter and Christ
at Westminster...
"the little dwelling
in which I was born.
"by the name of Islip.
"My mother, the great
Norman lady, on my birthday
"as first-born gave to me."
So that says...
It's a birthday present.
It's as clear as it could be.
What date was this written down?
This manuscript dates from about
1310, but it consists of a lot of
copies of manuscripts
of a much earlier date.
So if they're copying it,
could they be slipping in
a few things that weren't quite true?
That's quite possible,
but it seems unlikely that they
would make up a fact like Edward
the Confessor being born at Islip.
There's no point in making that
up, especially because people
in the early 12th century might have
known if he was born somewhere else,
they might have known that.
There's no doubt Edward
was born in Islip and just now
in the garden of Confessor's Gate
we've made a remarkable discovery
celebrating that very fact.
Isn't this
what
every archaeologist in the world...
Wow!
would like to see if they're digging
a historical character? "Fessor."
Fantastic! >
What do you think of this?
Can I see?
It looks like its early Victorian -
something of that period.
Early 19th century.
I suppose it's not professor...
Can't be.
No, it must be Edward the Confessor.
It wouldn't make sense otherwise!
It's after the chapel is used
as a barn, so I'm not sure it's
from there. Do you think there's a
portrait of him above or something?
Or maybe there's a rhyme.
Come on - theory!
We've also found "in",
or "it", possibly,
so it doesn't quite
tie in as well but...
Maybe in a garden
of Edward Confessor,
He kept us a bit of a guesser.
Slow down, Jonathan.
We'd hoped to find more,
But, oh, what a bore
Instead we found Edward the lesser!
Maybe that's it.
Thank you for your contribution.
Oh, that's nice.
Sadly, these pieces of glass
aren't from the Confessor's chapel.
They've been found mixed up with
a whole lot of other Victorian
rubbish dating to around 1840,
and they must have come from a
decorative window somewhere nearby.
The news from the trench next door
is what we didn't want to hear.
There's no sign of the Confessor's
chapel. Raksha's found nothing
except the undisturbed natural soil,
although the trench is being
extended to make sure
we haven't just missed anything.
To make matters worse,
in the pub car park
Phil can't find anything, either.
He reckons any archaeology that
was here has been quarried away.
Everything could
have been dug away if they were
after stone for subsequent building.
The only thing is that you can be
sure of is
there's no Saxon archaeology,
there's no medieval archaeology here,
there's no archaeology here at all -
it's all been quarried away.
So there's no archaeology here?
I think Phil's fed up digging
trenches with nothing in them,
but I'm disappointed too - I was
dreaming we might find Ethelred's
palace here, but then suddenly I
hear Mick and Stewart know more
then they're letting on.
I've got a bone to pick with you!
Why's that?
Have you been
holding something back?
Have you been
Almost certainly!
We try and keep you
in the dark as long as possible!
What is it?
This on the map.
< Supposed site
of Ethelred's Palace here.
Look! Come here!
Look -
supposed site of Ethelred's Palace.
I thought you'd like that.
We've been looking
for the damn thing for hours!
There is a reason
we've not told you much about this.
We're digging over here in
this side of the village - this
is on the other side of the village.
This map was made in 1876, and
Stewart reckons it's another example
of the mapmaker recording what the
locals thought was in the field,
rather than knowing what was there.
locals thought was in the field,
There is documentation that suggests
the abbots of Westminster
are building themselves a new
manor house or a new palace
in the 14thC, and because this
is a rectangular moat,
that's the most likely site for that
but we'll do some geophysics in
that area and put a trench across
it, if nothing else to dismiss it.
If it's 14th century
we need to know that.
Geophys are
only too pleased to escape the
problems of small back gardens, and
they've already surveyed a small
area of this open field, and
the first trench will go in here.
So far,
all of our trenches have been put in
without any real target from geophys
and now that we've got something
solid to go for, Phil's keen to get
the first trench started.
It's very, very compacted.
Right.
And very, very broken limestone.
I wonder if this could be the
wall line that John has picked up.
Could it be? Of course it is!
It looks more obvious
on your geophysics than this.
Looks a bit more obvious
on the geophysics than that.
Believe the geophysics.
< You didn't tell me
that it was specifically a wall.
You said there was
a large anomaly there.
There's a wall coming
through diagonally
and then you've got a sort of
tower,
gate,
double storey building here.
Why am I bothering to dig it?
I don't know.
No-one's ever excavated here before,
but our experts reckon that the
lumps in this field, which are clear
in this 3-D model, all point to
this being the site of a medieval
manor house that we know was built
in Islip by Westminster Abbey.
What we don't know is if the
medieval house was built on the
site of an earlier Saxon palace.
Helen and Sam can investigate
by looking at the original medieval
documents kept at Westminster Abbey.
John Fleet's chronicle dates from
the middle of the 15th century
and this is one of the
manuscripts of it and it says here
"William de Kirklington,
the Abbot."
This father built the manor of Islip
in the earldom in the county of
Oxford from the foundations
from new very splendidly.
So that must be our building
down as Ethelred's palace that
we know is a medieval manor.
So we know its very
splendidly built, newly builti..
From the foundations. And it
dates from between 1315 and 1333.
Well, for once the archaeology
is agreeing with the documents.
There's no Saxon palace
in this field,
but what we have here is a chance
to investigate a forgotten Medieval
manor house that's very much
part of the story of Westminster
Abbey and medieval Islip.
The most important thing
is we've actually got
part of the wall that runs around
the outskirts of the manor.
We've got one edge there -
that's the inside edge,
and then on the outside edge here,
so we've got the wall running
parallel with the moat and on the
outside we've got a lot of clay
which I think is part of the bank
which is stacked up against the wall.
This is where we've put
the trench, over these
anomalies here.
Now we've extended
the survey across the field.
Look at these responses.
CorI
The main building
is about 30 metres over there.
We're only in
outbuildings over here.
Mick wants to investigate
the main building tomorrow.
We should be able to tell the
villagers a lot about one fancy
building built by Westminster Abbey,
but what about the other building -
the chapel of Edward the Confessor
which was up on the hill.
We've put in trenches
in the garden of Confessor's Gate,
and the wood yard and the pub
car park without any success.
Last I'd heard, our latest trench
had found only natural soil, but
apparently, all that's changed.
This trench must be important
if Jonathan's got his hands dirty.
Got to dig for me supper!
You've done the extension! >
Yes.
Nobody tells me anything.
Could it be the chapel?
I think it can, it's roughly
where Stewart had mapped it.
We've got a wall coming down here,
it's cut into this shade of mucus
there in the clay - that's
the outside, that's the inside.
The wall's thickness is about right.
If that's is the north wall,
this is the west one,
then we're looking for a door just
the other side of the garden wall.
So it could be this corner here,
northwest corner, like that.
Who's queen of the dig?
(SINGS) MeI
Brilliant! This was one of the two
buildings on this 1806 map that are
the right east-west orientation.
We haven't got permission
to dig this one
which is under the graveyard,
but we don't need to dig it now,
because it looks like
this is the building we're after.
We think we've found one
of the 4ft wide walls of the chapel
in this tiny garden.
We'll see more of it tomorrow,
but right now we all need a drink.
The last two hours
have been quite remarkable!
Amazing finish to the day!
I think we're in for
a fairly long evening.
ALL: Cheers!
Beginning of day three in our search
for Edward the Confessor's Chapel
and in this garden yesterday we
put in loads of trenches and found
virtually nothing except a rather
manky, cobbled farmyard surface and
then about 4.45pm, beyond that wall
there, Raksha put in a trench and
found what we think is the corner
of the chapel. How did she do it?.
Well, she went below what we'd
previously thought was undisturbed
natural earth and got the wall below
so today this is what we think is
the natural here but we're going
to get our archaeologists to go
below that to see if we've
got anything medieval too.
The theory is we've discovered
the north-west corner of
the chapel in this garden
and it's possibly the only bit
that survives as we've dug other
trenches close by and found nothing.
We can't open any more trenches,
which is why it was worth
digging deeper here just to
see if we get any related finds.
But every one of us, I think,
is just relieved to have found it.
This picture shows the chapel
after it had been
turned into a barn in the 1700s
but it was built in the 1220s
to promote the cult of St Edward.
Pilgrims could not only visit
his tomb at Westminster Abbey
but also worship here
at the place of his birth in Islip.
Was it a popular cult? Did people
flock to worship at the shrine of
Edward the Confessor?
There isn't a single
pilgrim badge from Islip known
and there aren't
very many known from Westminster.
Nearly all our pilgrim badges
seem to be from
Canterbury, which is a popular place.
Westminster just never had
that popular appeal -
it was always somewhere for Kings,
not somewhere for your normal person.
So Canterbury had its own shrines?
That was Thomas Beckett who was
really the people's saint
and St Edward was more
of the King's saint.
How long did the cult last?
Well, it doesn't seem to have
functioned terribly successfully,
despite the great ideals with
which it begins and there were
investigations because allegedly
they didn't maintain daily services
in St Edward's Chapel for the soul
of St Edward, which was
clearly part of that duty to
give them that tax-free status.
So everyone flocks to Thomas Beckett
at Canterbury,
the King's
pumping money into this cult of
Edward the Confessor but it's not
really working. Would that be fair?
I think so, yes.
But Westminster Abbey
can't have been doing too badly
because out in this field
we're digging up a large manor house
built by the abbott around 1320.
We decided to dig here
because an old map had this
field marked as the site of
Ethelred's palace where Edward the
Confessor was born 1,000 years ago.
But we've now proved that the only
important building remains
in this field belong to
the medieval manor.
Yesterday, geophys revealed
this plot showing the extent of it
and today we're opening up trenches
here over what we think is the manor
house itself - a building that
must have been one of the biggest
and grandest houses in the area.
It must have been special because
Isabella, Edward II's Queen,
stays here and so it's
certainly fit for a royal residence.
This would have been
sumptuous whereas Ethelred's
palace, or so called palace,
which was allegedly on this site,
probably was a simple hunting lodge.
And we don't know that for sure
but we do know that he had
a hunting lodge at Brill,
quite a nice place there.
And that's very close.
Do you think that's more important
than this then in Ethelred's time?
Yes, I think it probably is except
that this is where Edward is born.
We've been rather assuming it's a
fairly big, extensive complex
but it may not be from the
implication of what your saying.
It isn't. If you look at Domesday,
it's quite small.
It still seems most likely that
the Saxon settlement was
on top of the hill but it could be
that Islip was an even smaller
place than Victor's drawn here.
Have I got enough houses in there
or should I put any more in there?
I don't think you want a lot of
houses - going by Domesday book
it's really quite small,
it's about five hythes, I think.
You might have to rub some out!
If it is a very
small settlement outside,
that might be one of the reasons
we're not finding much pottery.
And we're only digging in
very limited areas as well
so the chances of finding it can get
quite remote from digging that way.
As team leader, its Mick's job
to gather up the information
and try and make sense of it.
So what's he thinking at the moment?.
I don't think there's any doubt
Edward the Confessor's born here
but there's a series of assumptions
after that that are questionable.
Like what? >
Edward's born here, there must be a
royal estate here.
Buckingham Palace!
There must be a royal palace here so
you go royal birth derdunk,
derdunk and in no time at all
you're looking for a royal palace.
What the archaeology has shown us is
that there isn't much up on
top of this hill that we can find
that's before Saxo-Norman times.
There's not a great
palace complex, there's not masses
and masses of pottery and so on.
And it's not until
you get the ownership by Westminster
Abbey and the cult develops
that you start to get
the interest in the place.
Helen's got a theory about
how Edward came to be born here
that perhaps hasn't been
considered by other historians.
As I'm pregnant at the moment -
my baby's supposed to arrive soon -
I'm becoming aware that where you
give birth
may not be deliberate choice,
it might be accidental happenstance.
Are we reading too much into the fact
that Edward was born here at Islip?
That's an interesting idea -
there is
a big question mark about what sort
of residence Ethelred has got here.
We know he's got a really very fine
hunting lodge at Brill, which is not
very far away at all and possibly
here all he has is
a simple wooden building where he
would perhaps
sometimes stay overnight from Brill.
Maybe Emma indeed does
get her dates wrong. >
So she could have been passing
through Islip and got caught short?.
Who knows?
Who knows?
I hope it doesn't happen to me!
It's good precedence!
It's an idea the villagers have
to consider as they plan to
celebrate the Millennium anniversary
of Edward's birth.
While they might be disappointed
that we don't think there was
a Saxon royal palace in Islip we
reckon the posh medieval manor house
that we're uncovering should more
then make up for it.
Phil!
Yo!
Yo!
That's a nice wall.
Absolutely magnificent. Look at the
size of it.
We can actually tell that where
Ian is is outside the building.
It's just dirt and soil.
Where I'm standing is inside
the building so we would
expect to find the other wall
somewhere there just inside the moat.
Can you definitely say
that that's medieval?
Yes, I can because
all the pottery above it is medieval.
There's nothing earlier and nothing
later so it's sealed by medieval
pottery. More importantly, it's
got a superb assemblage of roof tile.
Have a word with Paul -
he's eulogising about it.
Paul.
Hello.
Hello.
Phil's waxing lyrical
about what you've found.
Yeah, this is
a stunning collection of
medieval glazed roof tiles. It's
these incredible posh ridge tiles.
You would have got this on a posh
house in the medieval period.
They are a weird shape.
They call these cockscombs
with the jagged top.
Cos they
look like a cockscomb, I suppose.
Paul's not easily impressed
but it's unusual to get so
many finds of such quality.
Personally, I'm intrigued by
this bit of medieval glass.
If you look at it can you see how
there's that flat bit there?
Well, that's the interior
and the base of the vessel
and if I turn it over,
you can see this dimple here
and that's the outside base of it
on which the vessel would have stood.
And Paul and I have been
looking through this book here
and we've come up with what we
think it is and that is a urinal.
A urinal?
Pretty exciting?
Do you mean like
a potty, a long potty?
They were used for medicinal
purposes.
In the medieval period, the urine
was a key to recognising
the symptoms of diseases
by the medical practitioners
so you'd have these glass
vessels - you'd put the urine in,
hold it up and they'd make
pronouncements.
Wash your hands before lunch.
Wash your hands before lunch.
LAUGHTER
It's been so much easier
digging in this field
as opposed to up on the hill where
we can only put in small trenches.
But no-one can accuse us
of not trying hard enough.
Today, here in the garden of
Confessor's Gate, we've been
digging deeper just to make sure
we haven't missed any evidence
relating to the medieval
chapel we've found next door.
Wilf, yesterday I was giving your
wife a really hard time because
it seems your garden wasn't
riddled with history in the way
you both hoped it would be. But
this morning we had a reassessment.
We realised that we hadn't gone down
as far in these trenches
as we needed to go.
Matt's spent virtually the whole
day re-excavating these trenches
and the news is, I was right
there is no history in your garden.
Nothing?
Nothing?
Nothing here.
As you can see, look at that.
< It's a lovely hole.
But the good news is
that it looks as though next door
we've got the chapel. so the value
of their house is gonna rocket now.
I'm thrilled for them.
We'll sell them the name.
As ever, back garden archaeology is
a tricky business and there's no
predicting how it will turn out.
Raksha! How's our chapel getting on?
It's not really a chapel any more.
You're kidding.
No, it's a more humble
building...it's a privy.
You're joking.
< No
So you've got a cesspit.
Why? How do you know?
Found lots of
degraded faeces, I'm afraid.
There you go.
What's this?
What's this?
It's a cauldron
vessel cooking pot that we found.
And you found it down the toilet?
I can't imagine what
it was doing there.
What date is the cesspit?
The cesspit is about 17th century.
I can't believe it!
Yesterday we were convinced we had
a medieval chapel here. What
happened?
Raksha, as queen of the trenches,
how could you mistake a medieval
chapel for a 17th-century toilet?
Well, it just shows it's
an easy mistake to make.
It also highlights that it's best to
dig down and find what archaeology
is underneath - you can't tell
by looking at the top of it.
What made you think we could have
the chapel here?
It was when I'd just dug down a
little bit and you could just see
the stones peeking out.
They are foundation stones of a wall
but of a smaller building.
We only had this one trench
open at this stage, didn't we?
It's only when we went further
back...
That we found the other side.
Stewart thought the chapel was
here too. What's his excuse?
We were reasonably confident this
was gonna be the site of the chapel.
We know there was a barn here until
relatively recently and there's
this quote written in 1843 which
illustrates why it's so difficult to
find some of these things.
They say it continued to be used as
a barn or outhouse until about 1780
when, being found dangerous,
it was taken down and the present
barn constructed.
So it was actually physically
taken down.
We'd kind of hoped we'd find some
evidence of it but it ain't there.
The right vicinity.
The right vicinity.
There's no doubt we're in
the right patch for it, yeah.
But just can't see it in any of
the sections we've got.
So it's not here.
What a way to end. I don't think
I've ever felt so disappointed.
What hacks me off is that
I'd assumed that at the end of the
programme I would be standing here
surrounded by one of those fantastic
Time Team graphics of the chapel
with those great walls shooting
up in the air and the huge roof
and those very interesting windows.
And instead, I guess you'll have to
make do with a drawing of
some old bloke sitting on
a 17th-century loo.
And now with a
big turn out of villagers all eager
to hear how we've got on, Mick has
to explain that we haven't found
any evidence of the Confessor's
chapel.
Its one of the problems -
you dig lots of holes -
and I've said this for 13 years -
you can't guarantee
what you're gonna find.
He also has to tell them that we
don't believe
there was a Saxon royal palace here
either.
But you do think it's quite likely
that he was born here, don't you?
I don't think there's
any doubt about that.
It's not all bad news -
what we can show them
is the impressive remains of
the moated medieval manor house
that once occupied this field.
Built around 1320 by Abbott
Curtlington
of Westminster Abbey,
this would have been a collection of
separate stone buildings
set around a great hall
and with its newly-channelled water
supply, fishponds and extensive
grounds this was a manor house
literally fit for royalty to visit.
And yet it had largely
been forgotten until now.
Have we contributed something to the
Millennium celebrations?
(ALL) YesI
Well, that's a relief.
I think we've certainly shown
how important Islip is to
English history in that it was the
birthplace of Edward the Confessor.
But I think from our point of view,
what we've learnt yet again,
if we needed to,
was that archaeological reality
is always far more complicated
than the stuff of legend.
Subtitles by
Red Bee Media Ltd
has got a claim to fame -
it's said that the great Saxon King
Edward the Confessor
was born somewhere round here,
and the local villagers
want to celebrate
the millennium anniversary
of his birth,
so they've asked us
whether we can find the 13th century
chapel that was built in his honour.
Not only that, they want us to find
the Saxon palace where he was born,
which seems to me
a pretty tall order.
Except the fact is,
nobody has ever dug here before,
and we've got just three days
to try and sort it all out.
Oh, and by the way,
that isn't the chapel
we're supposed to be looking for.
The village of Islip is about
six miles north-east of Oxford,
and these days it's home to some 600
people who'd love to find some actual
evidence in the ground to prove
their link with Edward the Confessor.
I don't know about you but
I always get really confused by
all the English Saxon kings
and their elaborate names
so I'm very pleased
to see this bloke. Sam!
Morning, Tony.
Morning, Tony.
What are the dates of
Edward the Confessor?
1042 to January 5th 1066.
And what's he famous for?
He's famous for keeping
the country safe for a generation
and for the great building
project of Westminster Abbey,
but on the downside, big succession
crisis because no children.
So then you get King Harold,
Harold arrow through the eye,
and William the Conqueror.
and William the Conqueror.
That's right, Battle of Hastings.
and William the Conqueror.
That's right, Battle of Hastings.
Why's he called the Confessor?
It's a name given to him
long after his death,
once he became
regarded as a saint.
A confessor is like
a priest, a monk.
This is very quick
history this, isn't it?
Do we actually know
that he was born here?
As far as we can tell from
the charter in Westminster Abbey
which we're going
to look at tomorrow,
the fact is he was born here
according to his own words.
Most important and difficult
question, where's Mick?
Last seen near
the pub, I believe.
You amaze me.
Is that down there?
You amaze me.
Is that down there?
Yep, straight through there.
You amaze me.
Is that down there?
Yep, straight through there.
Cheers!
'Mick's talking to the two
villagers who invited us here
'and he's showing them Victor's
drawing of the kind of building
'Edward might have been born in
1,000 years ago.'
So we've drawn here a timber hall,
the sort of thing you'd get
on a Saxon palace about 1,000 AD,
and you see it's built of
timber posts, wattle work between,
it's got a timber roof,
it's thatched or shingled,
all perishable materials -
it will be very difficult
to find that in the ground
in the small plots
we've got available to us.
But how many Saxon finds have
there been in the village so far?
None at all.
< So even if we find one
Saxon pottery sherd,
it'll double the amount
of knowledge we've got so far.
We should be able to find
something, shouldn't we?
We should be able to find Saxon
pottery but I'm more optimistic
about finding the chapel
that you wrote to us about.
We've got a drawing by Thomas
Hearne in the 18th century,
and you see at this time,
it's been turned into a barn
but you can see
it was the chapel.
Because this is stone-built,
unlike this one which is timber,
our chances of seeing that in
the ground are much better.
So to begin with, we're going to
have a go at finding
this medieval stone chapel, built
in honour of Edward the Confessor.
And this illustration
by antiquarian Thomas Hearne
is the only clue we have
to what it actually looked like.
Helpfully, Hearne tells us it was
situated to the north of the church
which probably means it's now
buried under one of these gardens,
but the villagers reckon it's going
to be easy work out where it was.
On the face of it,
this looks extremely simple
because I've just spotted the site
of King's Chapel and a big cross.
So what's the problem?
It does look pretty obvious!
Now the problem
with these crosses -
when the mapmakers were coming
round in the late 18th century,
they were soldiers.
They'd speak to the local vicar
or local antiquarian,
and he might have said,
"Ah, there was
a palace over there"
or "There was a moat over there"
or "There was a chapel over there."
And it wasn't that
important to them.
And it wasn't that
important to them.
No it wasn't, so that
could be one of two things.
It could be somebody
precisely knew where that was
and that is bang on,
or alternatively,
it could be just,
"Oh, it was over in
that yard somewhere",
and the surveyor just
put the cross there.
Tricky!
Stewart's has worked out where the
cross would be on the modern map.
And it falls firmly in
the middle of that timber yard.
So are the buried walls
of the chapel under here?
Well, Geophys did a radar survey in
the timber yard earlier this morning,
and they're now ready
to look at their results.
The X marked on the map
is literally here.
Right in the middle?
Right in the middle?
Yep.
That's interesting because
we've got no clear targets
but there is one
in the far corner,
and the second target genuinely
is in the middle, there.
That doesn't look very clear.
It isn't very clear. Erm...
It's not an easy area for us
to survey, all the problems
with things round the outside.
There's only one way we're going
to find out if the chapel was here
and that's by digging a hole.
The trouble is this is
a working timber yard,
and it looks like there
might be one or two delays.
That'd be the delivery then!
BEEPING
How long, do you think?
Depends where it is
on the lorry, really.
Should be half an hour,
three quarters of an hour.
We'll wait, we'll wait.
Yeah.
If you want it down quicker,
you could always give us a hand.
If you want it down quicker,
you could always give us a hand.
There you go, John.
Well, this is a surprise -
no resistance from Geophys.
Let's hope it's all worth it
because of course we can't
trust the big X on the map.
It's quite possible that
the remains of the chapel
could be in the pub car park
or in the garden
of the house next door.
There's no room for Geophys
to survey in this garden,
so we've decided to open
up a few random test pits.
Possibly foolishly,
the owners have given us permission
to dig anywhere we want to
because their property
has a name
that could be a clue
to the location of the chapel.
Yeah this is the one, look -
there's the clue.
Confessor's Gate.
Jonathan, Confessor's Gate -
is it a good clue?
Confessor's Gate - well now,
your deeds, Johanna,
they call the house...
It was called
St Edwards originally.
It's now called Confessor's Gate.
I'm not sure when it was renamed.
And it looks like this gate
has actually taken on that name,
because we have
a figure of a head
right over the top.
The problem is...
this arch and the wall it's in is
no older then about 100 years old,
so we have to look at
that really closely.
'Jonathan's wondering if the figure
head itself could be medieval.'
It's weathered nicely, it's also
stuck around the back with cement,
like it's a found item
that's just been applied.
The trouble is, he doesn't think
it's Edward the Confessor.
He think it's a woman.
I think it's more like
Edwina the Contessa
rather then Edward the Confessor,
the reason being its head gear,
because that to me looks like a
wimple, standard late 14th century.
If that was a mitre, it would be
like this, down over the forehead,
whereas actually, it's pushed
right up back like that.
< Exactly.
Is your heart bleeding? It's
either Victoria or it ain't Edward.
Well, it's not quite what I thought!
I reckon that's
gonna fit easy, innit?
Well, at least now we know
this gateway's not ancient,
we can risk trying to squeeze a mini
digger through to speed things up,
but there's still a very good reason
for digging here in the garden
of Confessor's Gate and that is,
the house deeds include a plan
that marks the site
of the King's Chapel.
That little square there
is where the mapmaker
shows us the chapel. It's tiny
and it's the wrong direction.
Well, but on the other hand,
if that's the east end of it,
it would be over there
somewhere where the blue sheet is,
it would be coming back this way.
That'd be incredibly happy,
if that were right.
That'd be incredibly happy,
if that were right.
That would be better.
And it extends underneath our feet,
something up to that sort of size.
Yeah.
So we're going to extend one
our test pits in this garden
to cover that possibility, even if
one of the residents has other ideas.
(LAUGHING)
Damn thing!
You got it?
So, with a trench in this garden
and one in the timber yard which
has just got going again, we've got
two possible sites for our chapel.
We can see that the chapel
fits many times over
inside Confessor's Gate.
It's bigger then the house again,
actually. It's quite surprising.
Thomas Hearne not only made a sketch
of the chapel but also recorded its
basic dimensions, and this has
allowed Raysan to build a 3-D model.
I wonder whether there's
a direct relationship
of the space within the wood yard
and the size of the chapel,
whether that's a direct result of
demolishing it and using its space.
If that was a barn, after all,
it might have a crew yard
in front of it.
Meanwhile, Victor has gone to church.
He's making a sketch of Edward
based on his image shown in
this copy of the Bayeux tapestry.
History doesn't get any bigger then
this, and I'm still hopeful we might
stumble on the Saxon palace
where Edward was born.
Edward's failure to produce
an heir may have resulted in
the Battle of Hastings in 1066
but he was also responsible
for the building
of Westminster Abbey.
As I understand it,
Edward left the manor of Islip to
the monastery before he died,
Westminster then built
the chapel in Islip in honour
of Edward some years later.
Jonathan's trying to work
out exactly when that was.
There are a group of three windows
and quite fine masonry in there.
These are three lancets
typical of the early 13th century
so are these clasping buttresses
before they become diagonal
in the later 13th century.
To me, those features suggest a date
three decades either side of 1220.
The chapel was built more then
150 years after Edward's death,
which would put it in
the reign of Henry III.
This would make sense
as Henry was obsessed
with the memory of
Edward the Confessor,
who'd been made a saint in 1161.
Henry rebuilt Edward's
Abbey at Westminster
and may have been responsible
for building the chapel in Islip.
He was keen to popularise the
figure of St Edward and encouraged
the cult following for him that
was growing in the 13th century.
The cult of St Edward is one that's
been growing through the reigns of
previous kings, really flowers in
Henry III's time, and what it seems
to represent is a way of those
Norman and Plantagenet kings
giving legitimacy
to their rule over the English,
at the same time as,
for the English themselves,
Edward being the last of
the legitimate old English Kings.
It does represent
a reconciliation focus
for the French
and the English.
So it's as though the Normans
are saying, "It's all right, Saxons,
"cos we're related to Edward
the Confessor, who you like."
Exactly!
But why would they
want to come here?
I can understand them wanting
to go to Westminster Abbey
where Edward the Confessor was,
but why would any pilgrims
want to come to this place?
Well, it's widening
the base of the cult
and the opportunity
for pilgrimage centres,
by celebrating his birth place.
But would a pilgrim expect
to see something here?
Yeah, when you walk through the
door, what are you going to see?
Well, that's the tempting thing.
There must be some cult object,
some of his personal clothing
or perhaps his old nursery toys,
we just don't know.
So secondary items,
not the body, but clothing.
Anything he's touched during
his life, even the water
in which he washed his hands
was deemed to be crackling
with spiritual radioactivity.
It was that potent,
and could then be used for miracles.
I think a load of 13th century
dinky toys would be brilliant
or the equivalent.
Well, it would be nice to
find anything, because so far
there's no sign of the chapel
in any of our trenches.
This is a really lovely
garden and of course,
we're doing our best to wreck it.
We've got a trench in here
and that's an 18th or 19th century
cobbled farmyard surface.
We've got another trench just
round here and, hang on one minute,
just turn round here,
you can see our family
having a cup of tea,
but anyway, we've got our
farmyard cobbled surface
still in this trench, and here...
cobbled surface again.
As usual, Phil's working
incredibly hard for the cause,
but is he wasting his time?
Stewart's got some news for us.
Whatever you're going
to say to us, say it soon
or you're going to get buried,
the way Phil's going at it there.
Am I right in the understanding
you put this trench in
on the basis of a deed?
Yeah. A little map
in the deeds, yeah.
Supposed to show
the site of King's Chapel.
Supposed to show
the site of King's Chapel.
That one.
This deed showing site
of King's Chapel
and the little building
there is actually a straight copy
of the 1922 map over here,
we see the little building.
And in fact, the antiquities
sign is in the wrong place.
It's in the plot next door.
It's in the plot next door.
In the lumber yard over there.
Hold on, so where it says here,
"Site of King's Chapel",
and we've dug in this one, it's
actually referring to this cross.
And that's the cross that's
in the lumber yard.
And they didn't put
the cross on there, look.
Phil!
You're digging in the wrong garden!
Mick misinterpreted the map.
Hey hang on, hang on, hang on!
Several people
misinterpreted the mapI
Hang on, hang on, hang on?
Why am I in the wrong garden?
Because the big X that says
"Site of the chapel"
is actually next door.
Over there.
All right.
It's only the writing
that's across this garden.
Well I'm still not
going to leave this one
until we resolve what's here.
Quite right.
Quite right.
Thank you.
Quite right, but don't hold your
breath, I think is the answer.
Phil's absolutely right -
we have to finish these trenches.
The map on the deeds may be wrong
but we don't know for sure
that the chapel isn't in this
garden, not only that,
but there could be Saxon material to
find here that's much deeper down.
There are local historians...
'I'd love to find some Saxon
pottery for the villagers
'at least, and I've heard that this
car park might be the place to look,
'because there are written accounts
'that say this was
the site of the Saxon palace.'
Is this the kind of place
they might have built a palace?
Well, yes, because it's well
sited at the top of a hill.
Without the buildings, you'd have
a commanding view of the valleys
and you can see people approaching,
it's an important crossing point
and we've got a very good
Anglo-Saxon place name here.
What, Islip?
It comes from the Old
English "Yikslepper",
meaning the slipway or the slope
by the river, the old river name.
There's no doubting Islip
was a Saxon settlement
and this could be the place to dig
in search of the palace tomorrow.
But now, as we approach
the end of the day,
there's bad news about our trench
here in the wood yard.
It's turned up nothing
but natural geology,
there's no sign of the chapel.
But there is still hope,
because Stewart's been studying
the maps and has a new theory
that we might find evidence
of the chapel in this garden.
We know it was a detached building,
from the sketch,
it was orientated east-west.
It says that on
the sketch as well.
And it was about 15 yards
by seven, so we know that much,
and we know from the references
it was likely to be standing in...
1805,
a barn standing on the site of the
chapel is definitely there in 1805.
Now, this map here is 1806,
so it should be on this map, really.
And actually, when you
look at the map closely,
there are two detached buildings
orientated east-west, so...
It could be one of those two.
Now, one is very
close to the church,
but it's too small
when you measure it,
there's another one
which is the right size
and that's in this garden here.
Ah!
So logic-wise, we should,
if we can, examine both those,
but this one looks the better
candidate on this side.
The way things are going, I
reckon we should dig both sites.
The trouble is this building
is buried under the extension
to the graveyard
but we might still might be able
to get permission to dig there
with help from local contacts.
Johanna, did you manage
to speak to your old man?
Yes, what we need is
an Archdeacon's licence
rather than waiting for a faculty
cos that would take too long,
but the office doesn't
open till 9am tomorrow.
As soon as the office opens, we'll
get on to the Archdeacon's office.
Thanks very much,
that's very good news.
So is the chapel in Johanna's
house? Is it next door?.
Is it under the churchyard?
We'll find out tomorrow.
Beginning of day two here at Islip
in Oxfordshire and one of our main
jobs is to look for the 13th century
chapel of Edward the Confessor.
Now we know it's this way to
the north of the church and we've
already looked in this back garden,
so far with no success.
Our next two targets are this
back garden and here which is this
extension of the cemetery.
Look! We don't even know whether
we'll get permission to dig it but
even if we do, how will we geophys?
Frankly, it's turning
into a nightmare.
But although we have to wait for
special permission to excavate in
the graveyard, there's nothing
to stop us starting work here
as the owner of this garden has
agreed to sacrifice their small lawn
in search of the chapel.
What's clear is
the whole village wants to find this
building which was built in honour
of King Edward the Confessor,
because if we can find it, it
will give them some evidence in
the ground to back up their claim
that 1,000 years ago, this village
was the birthplace of the last great
Saxon king of England.
The villagers would also love us
to find Ethelred's palace
where Edward was supposedly born.
This would have been a wooden
building that would have
looked like this
but likely to have perished
over the last 1,000 years.
We're opening up a trench in the pub
car park, because there are some
documentary references to both the
chapel and the palace
being on this site.
There are two parts to this
reference which is in 1823.
It says, "On the site of a small inn
known by the sign of the Red Lion...
Yeah.
"stood the palace of King Ethelred,"
so suggests there's a palace
somewhere in this area.
It also says, "In the same yard
also stood an ancient building
"long used as a barn, that's said
to have been the identical chapel
"appertaining to the Saxon palace."
With mention of Ethelred's
palace and the chapel in this area
it's got to be worth
putting a trench in. At
least we might find some
Saxon pottery for the villagers.
We're still digging in the garden
of Confessor's Gate, which has
turned up what looks like medieval
pottery for our expert to look at.
Hello, stranger. Good to see you.
And you.
We have a problem.
And you.
We haven't yet found the palace
or the chapel, but the one thing
people really want is Saxon pottery.
What, like this?
Is that really Saxon?
Yeah.
How do you know that is Saxon?
It's Wiltshireware from somewhere in
the region of Newbury - I'd say Saxon
Norman, 1050 to 1100.
It's right
on the date we're interested in.
This is Edward the Confessor?
Yeah.
It overlaps with the end
of his reign.
You've taken
the wind out of my sails!
That's good!
Do you reckon you could trawl round
the village and see whether you can
come up with Saxon? Because until
this magnificent find there had been
no Saxon found in this village.
There's this piece as well.
Oh, come on!
But this is probably a lot earlier.
This may be earlier -
early or middle Saxon.
It's well before
Edward the Confessor.
'Fantastic!
Not only have we found the first
'Saxon pottery ever discovered here,
'but one bit that dates to the
lifetime of Edward the Confessor.
'When this pottery was made,
around 1050, Edward was
'building Westminster Abbey,
'and that's
where Helen and Sam have gone now
'to see the original documents
that link Edward with Islip.'
Westminster Abbey
is by far the best place to come
to find out about medieval Islip.
Yes, because
the Abbey owned the manor
and most of the documents have ended
up in the archives at Westminster.
This is a 14thC manuscript
which contains a lot of the early
charters to do with Islip, including
these ones of Edward the Confessor.
Oh, yes, I can see the lovely E there
for Edward King...
Now my Old English peters out there!
< (READS)
Edward the King greets
Wolseley the Bishop...
in a friendly manner.
"I wish it
"to be known
"that I have given
"to St Peter and Christ
at Westminster...
"the little dwelling
in which I was born.
"by the name of Islip.
"My mother, the great
Norman lady, on my birthday
"as first-born gave to me."
So that says...
It's a birthday present.
It's as clear as it could be.
What date was this written down?
This manuscript dates from about
1310, but it consists of a lot of
copies of manuscripts
of a much earlier date.
So if they're copying it,
could they be slipping in
a few things that weren't quite true?
That's quite possible,
but it seems unlikely that they
would make up a fact like Edward
the Confessor being born at Islip.
There's no point in making that
up, especially because people
in the early 12th century might have
known if he was born somewhere else,
they might have known that.
There's no doubt Edward
was born in Islip and just now
in the garden of Confessor's Gate
we've made a remarkable discovery
celebrating that very fact.
Isn't this
what
every archaeologist in the world...
Wow!
would like to see if they're digging
a historical character? "Fessor."
Fantastic! >
What do you think of this?
Can I see?
It looks like its early Victorian -
something of that period.
Early 19th century.
I suppose it's not professor...
Can't be.
No, it must be Edward the Confessor.
It wouldn't make sense otherwise!
It's after the chapel is used
as a barn, so I'm not sure it's
from there. Do you think there's a
portrait of him above or something?
Or maybe there's a rhyme.
Come on - theory!
We've also found "in",
or "it", possibly,
so it doesn't quite
tie in as well but...
Maybe in a garden
of Edward Confessor,
He kept us a bit of a guesser.
Slow down, Jonathan.
We'd hoped to find more,
But, oh, what a bore
Instead we found Edward the lesser!
Maybe that's it.
Thank you for your contribution.
Oh, that's nice.
Sadly, these pieces of glass
aren't from the Confessor's chapel.
They've been found mixed up with
a whole lot of other Victorian
rubbish dating to around 1840,
and they must have come from a
decorative window somewhere nearby.
The news from the trench next door
is what we didn't want to hear.
There's no sign of the Confessor's
chapel. Raksha's found nothing
except the undisturbed natural soil,
although the trench is being
extended to make sure
we haven't just missed anything.
To make matters worse,
in the pub car park
Phil can't find anything, either.
He reckons any archaeology that
was here has been quarried away.
Everything could
have been dug away if they were
after stone for subsequent building.
The only thing is that you can be
sure of is
there's no Saxon archaeology,
there's no medieval archaeology here,
there's no archaeology here at all -
it's all been quarried away.
So there's no archaeology here?
I think Phil's fed up digging
trenches with nothing in them,
but I'm disappointed too - I was
dreaming we might find Ethelred's
palace here, but then suddenly I
hear Mick and Stewart know more
then they're letting on.
I've got a bone to pick with you!
Why's that?
Have you been
holding something back?
Have you been
Almost certainly!
We try and keep you
in the dark as long as possible!
What is it?
This on the map.
< Supposed site
of Ethelred's Palace here.
Look! Come here!
Look -
supposed site of Ethelred's Palace.
I thought you'd like that.
We've been looking
for the damn thing for hours!
There is a reason
we've not told you much about this.
We're digging over here in
this side of the village - this
is on the other side of the village.
This map was made in 1876, and
Stewart reckons it's another example
of the mapmaker recording what the
locals thought was in the field,
rather than knowing what was there.
locals thought was in the field,
There is documentation that suggests
the abbots of Westminster
are building themselves a new
manor house or a new palace
in the 14thC, and because this
is a rectangular moat,
that's the most likely site for that
but we'll do some geophysics in
that area and put a trench across
it, if nothing else to dismiss it.
If it's 14th century
we need to know that.
Geophys are
only too pleased to escape the
problems of small back gardens, and
they've already surveyed a small
area of this open field, and
the first trench will go in here.
So far,
all of our trenches have been put in
without any real target from geophys
and now that we've got something
solid to go for, Phil's keen to get
the first trench started.
It's very, very compacted.
Right.
And very, very broken limestone.
I wonder if this could be the
wall line that John has picked up.
Could it be? Of course it is!
It looks more obvious
on your geophysics than this.
Looks a bit more obvious
on the geophysics than that.
Believe the geophysics.
< You didn't tell me
that it was specifically a wall.
You said there was
a large anomaly there.
There's a wall coming
through diagonally
and then you've got a sort of
tower,
gate,
double storey building here.
Why am I bothering to dig it?
I don't know.
No-one's ever excavated here before,
but our experts reckon that the
lumps in this field, which are clear
in this 3-D model, all point to
this being the site of a medieval
manor house that we know was built
in Islip by Westminster Abbey.
What we don't know is if the
medieval house was built on the
site of an earlier Saxon palace.
Helen and Sam can investigate
by looking at the original medieval
documents kept at Westminster Abbey.
John Fleet's chronicle dates from
the middle of the 15th century
and this is one of the
manuscripts of it and it says here
"William de Kirklington,
the Abbot."
This father built the manor of Islip
in the earldom in the county of
Oxford from the foundations
from new very splendidly.
So that must be our building
down as Ethelred's palace that
we know is a medieval manor.
So we know its very
splendidly built, newly builti..
From the foundations. And it
dates from between 1315 and 1333.
Well, for once the archaeology
is agreeing with the documents.
There's no Saxon palace
in this field,
but what we have here is a chance
to investigate a forgotten Medieval
manor house that's very much
part of the story of Westminster
Abbey and medieval Islip.
The most important thing
is we've actually got
part of the wall that runs around
the outskirts of the manor.
We've got one edge there -
that's the inside edge,
and then on the outside edge here,
so we've got the wall running
parallel with the moat and on the
outside we've got a lot of clay
which I think is part of the bank
which is stacked up against the wall.
This is where we've put
the trench, over these
anomalies here.
Now we've extended
the survey across the field.
Look at these responses.
CorI
The main building
is about 30 metres over there.
We're only in
outbuildings over here.
Mick wants to investigate
the main building tomorrow.
We should be able to tell the
villagers a lot about one fancy
building built by Westminster Abbey,
but what about the other building -
the chapel of Edward the Confessor
which was up on the hill.
We've put in trenches
in the garden of Confessor's Gate,
and the wood yard and the pub
car park without any success.
Last I'd heard, our latest trench
had found only natural soil, but
apparently, all that's changed.
This trench must be important
if Jonathan's got his hands dirty.
Got to dig for me supper!
You've done the extension! >
Yes.
Nobody tells me anything.
Could it be the chapel?
I think it can, it's roughly
where Stewart had mapped it.
We've got a wall coming down here,
it's cut into this shade of mucus
there in the clay - that's
the outside, that's the inside.
The wall's thickness is about right.
If that's is the north wall,
this is the west one,
then we're looking for a door just
the other side of the garden wall.
So it could be this corner here,
northwest corner, like that.
Who's queen of the dig?
(SINGS) MeI
Brilliant! This was one of the two
buildings on this 1806 map that are
the right east-west orientation.
We haven't got permission
to dig this one
which is under the graveyard,
but we don't need to dig it now,
because it looks like
this is the building we're after.
We think we've found one
of the 4ft wide walls of the chapel
in this tiny garden.
We'll see more of it tomorrow,
but right now we all need a drink.
The last two hours
have been quite remarkable!
Amazing finish to the day!
I think we're in for
a fairly long evening.
ALL: Cheers!
Beginning of day three in our search
for Edward the Confessor's Chapel
and in this garden yesterday we
put in loads of trenches and found
virtually nothing except a rather
manky, cobbled farmyard surface and
then about 4.45pm, beyond that wall
there, Raksha put in a trench and
found what we think is the corner
of the chapel. How did she do it?.
Well, she went below what we'd
previously thought was undisturbed
natural earth and got the wall below
so today this is what we think is
the natural here but we're going
to get our archaeologists to go
below that to see if we've
got anything medieval too.
The theory is we've discovered
the north-west corner of
the chapel in this garden
and it's possibly the only bit
that survives as we've dug other
trenches close by and found nothing.
We can't open any more trenches,
which is why it was worth
digging deeper here just to
see if we get any related finds.
But every one of us, I think,
is just relieved to have found it.
This picture shows the chapel
after it had been
turned into a barn in the 1700s
but it was built in the 1220s
to promote the cult of St Edward.
Pilgrims could not only visit
his tomb at Westminster Abbey
but also worship here
at the place of his birth in Islip.
Was it a popular cult? Did people
flock to worship at the shrine of
Edward the Confessor?
There isn't a single
pilgrim badge from Islip known
and there aren't
very many known from Westminster.
Nearly all our pilgrim badges
seem to be from
Canterbury, which is a popular place.
Westminster just never had
that popular appeal -
it was always somewhere for Kings,
not somewhere for your normal person.
So Canterbury had its own shrines?
That was Thomas Beckett who was
really the people's saint
and St Edward was more
of the King's saint.
How long did the cult last?
Well, it doesn't seem to have
functioned terribly successfully,
despite the great ideals with
which it begins and there were
investigations because allegedly
they didn't maintain daily services
in St Edward's Chapel for the soul
of St Edward, which was
clearly part of that duty to
give them that tax-free status.
So everyone flocks to Thomas Beckett
at Canterbury,
the King's
pumping money into this cult of
Edward the Confessor but it's not
really working. Would that be fair?
I think so, yes.
But Westminster Abbey
can't have been doing too badly
because out in this field
we're digging up a large manor house
built by the abbott around 1320.
We decided to dig here
because an old map had this
field marked as the site of
Ethelred's palace where Edward the
Confessor was born 1,000 years ago.
But we've now proved that the only
important building remains
in this field belong to
the medieval manor.
Yesterday, geophys revealed
this plot showing the extent of it
and today we're opening up trenches
here over what we think is the manor
house itself - a building that
must have been one of the biggest
and grandest houses in the area.
It must have been special because
Isabella, Edward II's Queen,
stays here and so it's
certainly fit for a royal residence.
This would have been
sumptuous whereas Ethelred's
palace, or so called palace,
which was allegedly on this site,
probably was a simple hunting lodge.
And we don't know that for sure
but we do know that he had
a hunting lodge at Brill,
quite a nice place there.
And that's very close.
Do you think that's more important
than this then in Ethelred's time?
Yes, I think it probably is except
that this is where Edward is born.
We've been rather assuming it's a
fairly big, extensive complex
but it may not be from the
implication of what your saying.
It isn't. If you look at Domesday,
it's quite small.
It still seems most likely that
the Saxon settlement was
on top of the hill but it could be
that Islip was an even smaller
place than Victor's drawn here.
Have I got enough houses in there
or should I put any more in there?
I don't think you want a lot of
houses - going by Domesday book
it's really quite small,
it's about five hythes, I think.
You might have to rub some out!
If it is a very
small settlement outside,
that might be one of the reasons
we're not finding much pottery.
And we're only digging in
very limited areas as well
so the chances of finding it can get
quite remote from digging that way.
As team leader, its Mick's job
to gather up the information
and try and make sense of it.
So what's he thinking at the moment?.
I don't think there's any doubt
Edward the Confessor's born here
but there's a series of assumptions
after that that are questionable.
Like what? >
Edward's born here, there must be a
royal estate here.
Buckingham Palace!
There must be a royal palace here so
you go royal birth derdunk,
derdunk and in no time at all
you're looking for a royal palace.
What the archaeology has shown us is
that there isn't much up on
top of this hill that we can find
that's before Saxo-Norman times.
There's not a great
palace complex, there's not masses
and masses of pottery and so on.
And it's not until
you get the ownership by Westminster
Abbey and the cult develops
that you start to get
the interest in the place.
Helen's got a theory about
how Edward came to be born here
that perhaps hasn't been
considered by other historians.
As I'm pregnant at the moment -
my baby's supposed to arrive soon -
I'm becoming aware that where you
give birth
may not be deliberate choice,
it might be accidental happenstance.
Are we reading too much into the fact
that Edward was born here at Islip?
That's an interesting idea -
there is
a big question mark about what sort
of residence Ethelred has got here.
We know he's got a really very fine
hunting lodge at Brill, which is not
very far away at all and possibly
here all he has is
a simple wooden building where he
would perhaps
sometimes stay overnight from Brill.
Maybe Emma indeed does
get her dates wrong. >
So she could have been passing
through Islip and got caught short?.
Who knows?
Who knows?
I hope it doesn't happen to me!
It's good precedence!
It's an idea the villagers have
to consider as they plan to
celebrate the Millennium anniversary
of Edward's birth.
While they might be disappointed
that we don't think there was
a Saxon royal palace in Islip we
reckon the posh medieval manor house
that we're uncovering should more
then make up for it.
Phil!
Yo!
Yo!
That's a nice wall.
Absolutely magnificent. Look at the
size of it.
We can actually tell that where
Ian is is outside the building.
It's just dirt and soil.
Where I'm standing is inside
the building so we would
expect to find the other wall
somewhere there just inside the moat.
Can you definitely say
that that's medieval?
Yes, I can because
all the pottery above it is medieval.
There's nothing earlier and nothing
later so it's sealed by medieval
pottery. More importantly, it's
got a superb assemblage of roof tile.
Have a word with Paul -
he's eulogising about it.
Paul.
Hello.
Hello.
Phil's waxing lyrical
about what you've found.
Yeah, this is
a stunning collection of
medieval glazed roof tiles. It's
these incredible posh ridge tiles.
You would have got this on a posh
house in the medieval period.
They are a weird shape.
They call these cockscombs
with the jagged top.
Cos they
look like a cockscomb, I suppose.
Paul's not easily impressed
but it's unusual to get so
many finds of such quality.
Personally, I'm intrigued by
this bit of medieval glass.
If you look at it can you see how
there's that flat bit there?
Well, that's the interior
and the base of the vessel
and if I turn it over,
you can see this dimple here
and that's the outside base of it
on which the vessel would have stood.
And Paul and I have been
looking through this book here
and we've come up with what we
think it is and that is a urinal.
A urinal?
Pretty exciting?
Do you mean like
a potty, a long potty?
They were used for medicinal
purposes.
In the medieval period, the urine
was a key to recognising
the symptoms of diseases
by the medical practitioners
so you'd have these glass
vessels - you'd put the urine in,
hold it up and they'd make
pronouncements.
Wash your hands before lunch.
Wash your hands before lunch.
LAUGHTER
It's been so much easier
digging in this field
as opposed to up on the hill where
we can only put in small trenches.
But no-one can accuse us
of not trying hard enough.
Today, here in the garden of
Confessor's Gate, we've been
digging deeper just to make sure
we haven't missed any evidence
relating to the medieval
chapel we've found next door.
Wilf, yesterday I was giving your
wife a really hard time because
it seems your garden wasn't
riddled with history in the way
you both hoped it would be. But
this morning we had a reassessment.
We realised that we hadn't gone down
as far in these trenches
as we needed to go.
Matt's spent virtually the whole
day re-excavating these trenches
and the news is, I was right
there is no history in your garden.
Nothing?
Nothing?
Nothing here.
As you can see, look at that.
< It's a lovely hole.
But the good news is
that it looks as though next door
we've got the chapel. so the value
of their house is gonna rocket now.
I'm thrilled for them.
We'll sell them the name.
As ever, back garden archaeology is
a tricky business and there's no
predicting how it will turn out.
Raksha! How's our chapel getting on?
It's not really a chapel any more.
You're kidding.
No, it's a more humble
building...it's a privy.
You're joking.
< No
So you've got a cesspit.
Why? How do you know?
Found lots of
degraded faeces, I'm afraid.
There you go.
What's this?
What's this?
It's a cauldron
vessel cooking pot that we found.
And you found it down the toilet?
I can't imagine what
it was doing there.
What date is the cesspit?
The cesspit is about 17th century.
I can't believe it!
Yesterday we were convinced we had
a medieval chapel here. What
happened?
Raksha, as queen of the trenches,
how could you mistake a medieval
chapel for a 17th-century toilet?
Well, it just shows it's
an easy mistake to make.
It also highlights that it's best to
dig down and find what archaeology
is underneath - you can't tell
by looking at the top of it.
What made you think we could have
the chapel here?
It was when I'd just dug down a
little bit and you could just see
the stones peeking out.
They are foundation stones of a wall
but of a smaller building.
We only had this one trench
open at this stage, didn't we?
It's only when we went further
back...
That we found the other side.
Stewart thought the chapel was
here too. What's his excuse?
We were reasonably confident this
was gonna be the site of the chapel.
We know there was a barn here until
relatively recently and there's
this quote written in 1843 which
illustrates why it's so difficult to
find some of these things.
They say it continued to be used as
a barn or outhouse until about 1780
when, being found dangerous,
it was taken down and the present
barn constructed.
So it was actually physically
taken down.
We'd kind of hoped we'd find some
evidence of it but it ain't there.
The right vicinity.
The right vicinity.
There's no doubt we're in
the right patch for it, yeah.
But just can't see it in any of
the sections we've got.
So it's not here.
What a way to end. I don't think
I've ever felt so disappointed.
What hacks me off is that
I'd assumed that at the end of the
programme I would be standing here
surrounded by one of those fantastic
Time Team graphics of the chapel
with those great walls shooting
up in the air and the huge roof
and those very interesting windows.
And instead, I guess you'll have to
make do with a drawing of
some old bloke sitting on
a 17th-century loo.
And now with a
big turn out of villagers all eager
to hear how we've got on, Mick has
to explain that we haven't found
any evidence of the Confessor's
chapel.
Its one of the problems -
you dig lots of holes -
and I've said this for 13 years -
you can't guarantee
what you're gonna find.
He also has to tell them that we
don't believe
there was a Saxon royal palace here
either.
But you do think it's quite likely
that he was born here, don't you?
I don't think there's
any doubt about that.
It's not all bad news -
what we can show them
is the impressive remains of
the moated medieval manor house
that once occupied this field.
Built around 1320 by Abbott
Curtlington
of Westminster Abbey,
this would have been a collection of
separate stone buildings
set around a great hall
and with its newly-channelled water
supply, fishponds and extensive
grounds this was a manor house
literally fit for royalty to visit.
And yet it had largely
been forgotten until now.
Have we contributed something to the
Millennium celebrations?
(ALL) YesI
Well, that's a relief.
I think we've certainly shown
how important Islip is to
English history in that it was the
birthplace of Edward the Confessor.
But I think from our point of view,
what we've learnt yet again,
if we needed to,
was that archaeological reality
is always far more complicated
than the stuff of legend.
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