Time Team (1994–2014): Season 13, Episode 11 - Ffrith, North Wales - full transcript
This is Ffrith in North Wales.
It's a small village of about
400 people, with a main street,
about three other streets, no shops,
and two pubs.
So they've got their
priorities right here.
Anyway, back in the 1960s
in the back garden of this house and
a few other houses down the street,
some local archaeologists
dug some trenches.
Come on. This way!
Underneath that concrete and under
that glasshouse, they discovered
a series of walls, and some bits of
pot and tile and some Roman coins,
and they thought they'd got a
Roman bathhouse. But is it?
And if so, what's it doing here?
Time Team have got just
three days to find out.
Ffrith is here in North Wales, just
across the border from Chester,
the centre of Roman
occupation in the north-west.
People have been finding Roman bits
and bobs here for centuries,
but the reason that the
local archaeologists want us
to dig here is because they think
this is really special
and it's never been
properly excavated.
Harry, have you any idea how
important your garden actually is?
No. I just believe there are some
Roman walls underneath.
What have we got? >
We've got a collection, as
Harry says, of Roman walls.
Excavation was carried out here in
the '60s and we found plans
which show possibly rectangular
buildings, a circular building.
Possibly a building with an
apse on it,
a semi-circular projection
on one side.
But we don't really know what the
building is.
What's that look like to you, Mick?
It's been suggested it's a bathhouse,
but the problem is
all the plans are different,
and if we're gonna understand it,
we ought to re-excavate it and see
what it looks like in the ground.
Is that good archaeology, to re-dig
something that
someone's already dug?
Yes. Where we're trying to
re-interpret this building
trying to work out
what this might be, I think
it's a very good case for going back
and seeing what we can find.
What's your priority
for this morning?
The first thing is to actually check
any records that we got
and to actually try and survey
where walls are supposed to be
so that we actually know
where to put our trenches.
I got a feeling it's
gonna be under the greenhouse myself.
Harry, do you love your greenhouse
and your concrete and your lawn?
I've got a feeling that
I did love my greenhouse
and my grass and my concrete!
I think it's gonna go!
Soon they'll be no more.
Say bye-bye. >
Soon they'll be no more.
Say bye-bye. >
Bye-byel
The evidence from the
'60s is very strong.
These are all walls
which they found.
When they joined the dots, they came
up with this shape, which resembles
the layout of Roman bathhouses
found elsewhere in the country.
We plan to look for these walls.
Then we'll try to find other
sections of wall to see
if the dots are all
joined correctly.
If they are,
then we've got a bathhouse here.
Our first problem, though,
is working out exactly
where the walls are.
Your wall...
...should be, if we take a straight
line through that one there...
and a straight line coming through
there, where they intersect...
< That's going to about
there, isn't it?
So in other words, that Roman wall...
At least it's not
underneath your greenhouse.
It looks like it's
underneath your path.
Can you not get rid of
the greenhouse anyway?
Can you not get rid of
the greenhouse anyway?
We can do that as well! But you
don't mind the path coming up?
Not at all, no.
< We'll give you a
quote on the greenhouse.
< We'll give you a
quote on the greenhouse.
< That's fair enough.
This is where we'll dig in Harry's.
Across the fence in another garden,
there are two more important walls.
This long one
and this one in the corner.
Taken together, they
look like they're curving.
We're beginning to
dismantle Harry's garden.
It's taking a bit of time because
of the path and the stuff around it.
And out comes the sun again, look.
Nice now, isn't it?
Next door,
Phil's moving a bit faster.
He just had grass to go through.
Ooh! There's a old stone
again there, look.
(WOMAN) You're in danger of
having a wall there, Phil. >
No danger.
The fence between the two
gardens just has to go.
It'll be easier to work without it.
The village itself runs north-south
and the main street
follows the line of Offa's Dyke.
The Dyke, built in the 8th century,
is now under these houses.
Behind them is the
village playing field.
It was scheduled as an ancient
monument,, because Roman material
was found along the edges.
The authorities have given us
permission to have a look at it.
Well, looks as though we've got
some people working here already.
Somebody started 20 years ago.
They've already done the geo-phys.
Somebody started 20 years ago.
They've already done the geo-phys.
Is it any good, though, John?
Well, it's rather crude.
They've actually presented
the results by stippling with a pen.
It was pre-computers.
Can you see anything on it?
Look, these thicker dots
are presumably where
they've got higher readings.
It's a resistance survey,
so that could be stone buildings.
Can you tell anything from it?
It's quite
encouraging, to be honest.
It suggests we need
to re-survey the area.
So you've started that already?
So you've started that already?
Yeah, we're on with it.
What do reckon on this place?
This is the biggest open space
in the village,
and although it's got
ridge and furrow covering it,
it won't have destroyed much,
and if John's happy
we can get good geo-physics results,
it's the best place we've got.
The walls found here aren't the
only evidence of Roman occupation.
Hypocaust tiles used for under-floor
heating, particularly in bathhouses,
have been turning
up for hundreds of years.
And in the '60s,
they found masses of stuff -
41 boxes of it,
including shed-loads of pottery.
We begin to sift through the old
finds for clues as to what
might have been happening here.
This little lot looks pretty random.
Does it tell us much?
Much more than I thought it would.
You see that little brooch, broken?
You might find that in almost any
Roman site in the country,
so it wouldn't tell us anything
more than that the place was Roman.
But these are really important.
These are bronze fittings
from Roman armour.
So there were soldiers here.
Is there anything here that
tells us there was anybody else
other than soldiers?
Unless they were very camp,
there's all these glass beads
which suggests there was somebody
wearing jewellery,
and also these bone hairpins, so
there must have been women.
What about the rest of the stuff?
Of course, what brought us here
was traces of buildings.
That's what we know about.
There's a building tower
which has a military
legionary stamp on it.
But there's also wall plaster.
Rather nicely over here, we also
have the remains of a bronze key,
so clearly there is a structure.
What's this little thing here?
Every time you wrote an official
document or a religious document,
something that was important to you,
you would tie the document up
with string, run it through
this little box, pour wax into it,
stamp your seal on it
and then bring over the lid.
Its evidence for reading
and writing,
but possibly also official
documents, which you might expect
in an important site associated
with the army.
It's pouring down now, so the
incident room is suddenly very busy.
Stuart and Henry are looking
at the overall topography.
This is a 3D map of the area...
Victor, Raysan and Sally, a Roman
baths expert, are looking at
what a bathhouse might
have looked like.
...Which is at Ashtead.
It's got very similar layout,
although it's half the size.
And John has now got some geo-phys
results for the playing field.
These are the results
from 20 years ago.
That's our area we've surveyed.
Now, if you compare the two,
take their results...
...almost perfect match.
Very, very similar, aren't they?
It really is good.
It really is good.
Yes, it is. It must be the
same anomaly that you're seeing.
You could look at that
and say you've got three
rectilinear buildings, yeah,
aligned to the main street there.
< Yeah.
Or it could be you've just got an
outcrop of geology...
Oh, no.
With ridge and furrow ploughing
cutting through.
You can see ridge and furrow
on some of the aerial photographs.
You can feel it if
you walk over it.
You can feel it if
you walk over it.
Yes, you can see it
in the right light.
The only way to find
out is to dig it.
This is where John suggests we dig.
So, Helen opens a trench.
We hit the ridge and furrow right
away, and then it starts to look
very dodgy.
Where John thought we might have
a building, we found some stones.
But what are they?
We thought that this looked like
a shaped stone.
What really put the icing on it was
it looked like this might be mortar.
But the more we've cleaned it, the
more that it's turned into
kind of creamy mud, really.
I tell you what, it doesn't look
desperately Roman.
It's not really squared off enough,
it's not dressed in the way you
might expect Roman stone to be made,
and that looks like a break.
That looks like an actual flaw
in the stone,
but there's something else much more
important, really.
I can't see any trace
of Roman Britain tile.
If you were on the site of a Roman
building, you would certainly have
quite a lot of fragments of
that very obvious orange Roman
brick and tile, and you've got
none of that.
So that could just
be natural shaping.
It's just not good enough, really.
The two gardens are
coming along nicely.
Have you got anything yet, Matt?
We've got a few random stones here,
but they've still got modern
bits of glass and stuff underneath
them, so I'll keep going.
Keep going, yeah, OK.
Getting like the Somme, isn't it?
Oh, that looks a bit better, Phil.
That looks like we've got on here,
doesn't it?
It is what you got on there, Mick.
That bit there, look.
It's a curved bit of wall, isn't it?
Do you wanna see what
it looked like in the '60s?
Yeah.
Don't get it wet!
Here we are, yeah.
Look, it's exactly...
We can marry this up precisely.
There's this stone here,
which is the long one in the middle,
and there's these two here with this
crack running between them,
which are the two
where the hand shovel is.
We can actually say with some degree
of certainty that that photograph
was taken exactly
where you're standing.
What we've got
is exactly what they got.
< So what do you wanna do now?
< So what do you wanna do now?
We wanna dig a trench over that side
of the path
because from what we know,
in the '60s they stopped here.
< Right.
< Right.
That over there is brand spanking new
virgin ground, never been dug before,
and that will answer the
question of all this rubble.
It will give us a continuation
of the wall.
It will also give us the inside of
the building,
and also, it'll give
us a brand spanking new set of finds.
So, have the old wheelbarrows
going up and down there,
and then you'll put in
another trench here somewhere?
And then you'll put in
another trench here somewhere?
That's right. Just run it parallel.
Would you say at the
moment that this looks like an apse?
No, I don't think we've got
enough of it to say that.
< But we might know more
with this new trench.
It would have
to be butted onto something
to be an apse, and we've no evidence
of that at all at the moment.
For a very simple trench, it
will solve a lot of our problems.
For a very simple trench, it
will solve a lot of our problems.
Yeah.
This is the wall Phil's found.
In the '60s, another wall
was found in this corner.
Phil's new trench will provide
the missing link between the two.
If this lines up, we'll
either have a circular building
or one with an apse, a semi-circular
projection on one side.
Any finds associated with it
will give us a date for this wall.
At the moment, we've no way of even
knowing whether it's Roman or not.
So, OK, the Roman army might
have been here, but why here?
There are a number of possibilities.
First of all, Ffrith is actually on
the line of the main Roman road
which runs from
the fortress at Chester,
down through the centre and up
through this valley
on into central Wales and
eventually the west coast.
So, given the location,
there's a possibility
there was a roadside, official
lodging house, or mansio,
where people could stay overnight and
get changes of horses and vehicles.
The other possibility
is that there are
lead deposits in the area.
So basically, the Romans have come
here to plunder the raw materials?
< If you like
to put it that way, yes.
Lead, of course, was important
for all the pipes they would have
needed for the water mains
inside the legionary fortress,
lining of baths and so forth.
Out in the playing field,
Helen's opened a very large trench
but has very little to show for it.
We were thinking,
were we coming down
onto something structural or not?
Looks horribly natural.
When I saw it at first, I thought,
I wonder if this is not river gravel
or even glacial gravel or rubble.
It's very loose and
churned up, isn't it?
It's very loose and
churned up, isn't it?
Yeah.
I looks like something you
might quarry out to build a road.
I looks like something you
might quarry out to build a road.
Well, exactly.
But we did have a bit of
luck with some Roman finds.
What, from here?
Yeah. From the top layers.
That's our star one.
That's our star one.
That's your star
piece of Roman Britain?
< This was from very much higher up.
< This was from more like
the ridge and furrow...
See, I'd have
thought that was from a flower pot.
Yeah, it crossed my mind, but Guy
identified it as good Roman stuff.
Right.
Right.
And then we got a few bits
of modern brick and tile.
And here we are, nice piece of opus
signinum. Quite a big bit, really.
Right. Oh, yes.
Right. Oh, yes.
< You can see all the flecks in it.
Yeah. But one piece of opus signinum
doesn't make a Roman site, does it?
No, it's not in context at all.
It could have been brought in from
somewhere else in the village.
We know that there's opus signinum
floors and heating systems,
< so I don't know that we're very
much further on.
These finds are the
first evidence found by us
of Roman occupation here.
But the shortage of
finds is very worrying.
We'd expected more by this stage.
Time to hit the pub.
Nightmare weather.
We thought we wouldn't be able to
see anything at all,
but once we got underneath
the ridge and furrow -
we were kind of going for this thing
that could have been a building or
could have been geological -
was this clear loose, hardcore
stuff which might have been natural,
so not really pushing
our knowledge forward much.
So what are you gonna do about it?
So what are you gonna do about it?
We're gonna try and dig a
sondage at one end of the trench.
Like a little inspection trench?
Like a little inspection trench?
To see if there's anything underneath
that could be real archaeology.
And what about you? At least
we've got our round Roman building.
I'm not really sure that we have.
I'm not really sure that it's round.
You mean it's straight?
Well, I'm not sure about that either.
Well, I'm not sure about that either.
LAUGHTER
What is it? Wiggly?
That's a very...
Yeah, that's a very fair assumption.
Look, at the moment,
I simply don't know.
It's going on,
that's the prime thing.
It is actually going on. Trust me.
How much have you had to drink?!
How much have you had to drink?!
Not enough!
So, we came here because we got this
magnificent round building.
Now we discover it's possibly
not round, possibly not straight,
could be wiggly,
but at least it's going on.
That's... Yes!
That's... Yes!
So what is it?
We'll find out tomorrow.
What was all that about, then?!
I dunno, just keep drinking!
Yesterday evening, Mick and I
had this bizarre conversation
in the pub with Phil, where we
both assumed he'd been drinking
too much crazy juice, cos we were
trying to press him about the wall
in this garden, about whether it's
curved, about whether it's straight.
He said it might be wavy. But now,
this is the extension, isn't it?
Yeah, this one here, yeah.
We've dug this new extension to
try and find the logic of the wall.
Phil! Your wall.
Straight, curved or what?
I told you in the pub
last night, Tony, I really did,
and you don't believe me.
It really is a bit of both.
Look, you see on this print-out,
it's straight through there
and then it does actually go
into a bit of a curve.
You can actually see that on the
ground. This bit here is straight.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When it gets beyond that bucket,
it does actually begin to curve.
The chap who dug this before had
a piece of wall in the corner
of the garden over here, didn't he?
Exactly. He was saying the whole
thing was circular
and there was just a little
bit of a circle in that corner.
If we've now got this
wall across here,
that can't connect with that,
obviously, can it?
No, it clearly can't do that.
Funny old thing, isn't it? >
Yeah, it's very peculiar.
It doesn't look very much
like a Roman bathhouse to me.
There's no demolition rubble.
You'd expect roofing tiles...
That's right. >
That's right. >
...plaster, you'd expect
loads of stuff.
That wall there, the way it's
built at the moment,
looks as if it might be the base of
a wall between a couple of fields.
And it could be mediaeval
or later.
That's great.
We came here because we thought
we had a site of possible national
significance and a Roman bathhouse.
And now you're saying it
could be a wall round a field.
It's what that looks like to me.
It's what that looks like to me.
What have we
got in the next fence over here?!
'Matt's just next door to
Phil, but we've no idea
'if anything in his trench is
related to anything in Phil's.'
< That's looking like
proper archaeology now.
< We've got undisturbed Roman wall
there
and undisturbed Roman floors
at the bottom there.
Yeah, but it's undisturbed Roman
only since the mid-1960s,
when they dug it up last time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Have you nothing new at all?
Over on that side of our
little fence line there,
< we're not getting all this modern
stuff, so the '60s trench
< probably ended about where that
fence is.
On that side, we've got proper,
kosher untouched Roman buildings.
Not only Roman, but Jewish!
So is this finished?
We've got a lot more to do. We're
gonna take out the fence,
join the two up
and then keep cleaning it.
Right. Come on.
It is weird, isn't it.
Why did we make the mistake
of assuming
that this was a Roman bathhouse?
Mick and I were just about to film
getting into the car, as we do,
and he walked round the back of it,
and he looked down, and he went,
"Blimey," and burst out laughing
and he's rushed off to get Phil.
Come on, show him.
What's this?
Don't you think this
line of stones here
is very similar to what
you've got in there,
and it's probably the same line?
Ooh!
In other words, whatever that
wall is, it's not going >
anywhere else
but it's coming down here. >
anywhere else
but it's coming down here. >
It does line up, does it?
We need to get Henry in,
don't we, to ask him to?
Look, if you stand here,
you can see the shed.
Eh?
Eh?
If you stand over here, you can see
the corner of the shed, look.
So it must be going under
this garage, mustn't it,
to come out under the fence?
If he's right,
it's not a bathhouse,
it's a wall at
least 15 metres long.
And it looks more like, again,
as if it's a field wall, doesn't it?
It do, don't it?
It do, don't it?
...That was here before
the houses were put here.
Don't curve either, does it?!
Don't curve either, does it?!
No, it doesn't!
We'll get Henry to plot
and see what it looks like.
We'll get Henry to plot
and see what it looks like.
And we'll get back to what we
were supposed to be doing.
I'll see you later.
The wall that Mick
tripped over is here.
It looks like it lines
up with Phil's here.
Now the whole thing looks even
less like a bathhouse wall.
So Mick,
no bathhouse.
No, it doesn't look like it, does it?
There's none of the characteristic
features of plasterwork,
hypocaust tiles, anything like that
that you'd expect to get.
What do we do with this
extension to the wall, if it is one?
I think we'll pop a little trench in
and see if it's related to any
Roman structures.
We don't need to dig a lot
to demonstrate that.
But wouldn't it be on an
old map if it's mediaeval?
Yes, I wondered about that, but
there isn't a tithe map for the area.
Tithe maps are usually drawn
about 1840.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And normally they show the situation
before all the villages come in,
before roads are laid out,
but there isn't one for this area.
So we don't have an early map that
might show it. It's just unfortunate.
Stewartl Major Time Team crisis.
The bathhouse isn't a bathhouse.
Why shouldn't that surprise
me after all these years?!
Is there anything about this
place that we actually do know?
I've been looking at some
excavations which were done
just where you've driven in
on Offa's Dyke.
There were some done in the '20s,
and some done fairly recently
which were properly recorded.
And what they showed,
you can see in the photograph here,
is where the trench was cut,
that Offa's Dyke, which was
built in the late 8th century?
< Something like that, yeah.
< Something like that, yeah.
It was built almost entirely
of re-deposited Roman material,
pottery, brooches,
all this sort of thing.
This is the original ground surface.
Offa's Dyke, this has got all this
re-deposited Roman material in it.
Yeah. >
Yeah. >
Where did it come from?
We know elsewhere
that Offa's Dyke's got
a ditch on that side.
Is this where the road is now? >
Is this where the road is now? >
Yeah, the road would be... take
off about that much there.
So I think what's happening is
they're digging all this material
out of here, popping it up there,
so do we have Roman activity
over here?
So they've dug through
a Roman settlement
when they're digging
a ditch for the dyke?
Whether it's a settlement is another
issue. It could be rubbish pits,
but it's definitely Roman.
Whatever it is, how does it help us?
What we need to be doing is looking
on this side of the road over here,
and we've got a
piece of ground in there
which is big enough to get into.
It's got chickens in it,
that's big enough to have a look at.
Let's have a pop in there.
So far, we've been digging
up here, to the north.
This is the chicken run
Stewart's talking about,
at the southern end of the village.
It's just opposite the spot
where Roman material was found
in the 1920s.
So, we pop a trench
into the middle of that area.
We open up the wall that Mick
tripped over.
It does seem to line up with Phil's,
and is on the same height.
In the extension to Phil's trench,
he's found the wall,
and he's also found this ditch.
Inside the ditch, we're coming
across a range of good finds,
and they're all Roman.
Piece of glass. Could be Roman.
I'm sure it is, actually.
You see the
little projection on the side?
And then the thinness of the glass.
And also, I think you can make
out some little air bubbles in it.
Very characteristic of Roman glass.
And the star exhibit,
a Roman brooch.
Oh, yes.
That's P-shaped, a P-shaped brooch.
There should be another one
of these on this side.
So there's a gap down the middle,
they join at the bottom for the tail
but it is an unusual type
of brooch, and I think
it probably belongs to the late
second century and into the third.
These finds give us some relief,
but they date the ditch
in Phil's trench.
The wall is still a mystery.
This gives Phil a bit of a problem.
I'm absolutely happy
in my own mind that that's Roman.
The ditch is Roman, but how
can he get a date for the wall?
...Clean up the section...
I've just had a thought.
< I thought you'd gone pensive.
< It's usually a bad
sign with you, isn't it?
Mmm. It's just struck me.
Mmm. It's just struck me.
< Go on.
I wonder if we went through there...
Yeah?
...whether we'd find the wall
running over that ditch. >
Cos the angle's different, isn't it?
So somewhere over there, the
alignment of that ditch like that
is gonna meet the alignment of
that wall like that,
about where the spade is, in fact.
< That would be better,
wouldn't it, than trying to
< perhaps clean it all up
and not quite get the relationship?
That would be better still.
That would be better still.
It means shifting a lot more muck.
Yeah, but isn't it better to invest
the time in that and get the answer
rather than invest the same time
cleaning this up and
possibly not getting the answer?
It's the right way to do it.
It's the right way to do it.
It is.
So digging here
might give us a point where
this wall and this ditch cross.
That way, we'll be able to
tell if the wall's Roman
or if it comes after
the Roman period.
It's funny. 35 years ago a group
of archaeologists came here.
They dug a load of trenches, got
some finds, and then joined the dots
and conjectured that
there was a Roman bathhouse here.
And all these years later, we're
doing the same thing,
digging trenches, finding stuff,
creating pictures.
The only difference is that the
picture that we're creating
is likely to be different
from the one
that the earlier archaeologists did.
'We can confirm some of their
findings, like this wall.
'But this one tears their
theory of a bathhouse apart,
'and our investigation of the wider
village is getting us nowhere.
'In the playing field,
the sondage produced nothing.
'We're down to the natural.
'Down in the chicken run, Helen's
got a few finds, but nothing much.'
What do you think?
What do you think?
Yeah, that's a piece of Roman
mortarium, the round mixing bowl
with grits in the bottom.
So that's the rim? >
So that's the rim? >
Yeah, that's the rim.
You can see the grit's beginning
to show through the dirt.
You can see the grit's beginning
to show through the dirt.
Oh, yes, those little white flecks.
Yeah.
But there's no evidence of
any structures down here.
This is all very worrying.
In the north of the village,
we're also having problems.
The wall Mick tripped
over isn't Roman.
It's sitting on
top of Victorian bricks.
In Matt's trench, he's very
unsure about what he's got.
It looks like mortar or something.
Have a look.
That looks more like a very degraded
wall plaster or a packing...
Right. >
Right. >
...into a timber
building or something.
All the timber's gone, or they've
destroyed it in the 1967 excavation.
It doesn't have anything to do
with that stone wall.
I don't believe that's
Roman for one minute.
I can't see a relationship
between the two.
< Apart from the flooring, have you
got any signs of anything structural?
< Apart from the flooring, have you
got any signs of anything structural?
I've got this dark patch
here, coming like that.
That's clearly been cut into this.
< Bit small though, isn't it?
< Bit small though, isn't it?
It is quite small, yeah.
It could be the end of a beam or
something like that. Small beam.
Post hole, something like that.
And now Phil's having
some second thoughts.
Well, what do you think of that?
It's turning again, isn't it?
We thought
it was gonna come through... there,
somewhere like that.
And what's it doing?
Coming back like that.
So, you wouldn't build a wall
that close to the edge of the ditch,
would you?
It would collapse into the ditch.
It would collapse into the ditch.
That's right. But if the
ditch was already filled up,
then you could build the wall.
You wouldn't know
the ditch was there.
That's right.
That's right.
In other words, the wall
would have to be later.
Might not be...
Might not be...
His wall isn't Roman either.
Because the ditch in Phil's
trench is full of Roman material
and the wall is right beside it,
the wall must have been built
some time after the ditch filled up.
So it's much later than Roman.
So we found this wall of Phil's,
this of Matt's,
and this, where Mick tripped over.
None of them are Roman.
And we're running out of
places we can actually dig.
There's only one wall left
from the '60s dig, and it's here,
just outside Harry's garden.
After this, we're on our own.
Hello, Chris. I think you've got
some plans for me, have you?
Hello, Chris. I think you've got
some plans for me, have you?
Yeah, we've been trying
to marry up these plans
from the '60s excavation with the
modern Ordnance Survey map.
There's a quiet sense of
desperation settling in.
Our only hope of finding
a Roman building may now lie
beneath these Victorian bricks.
Well, with one possible exception.
There's only one part of the
village we haven't touched yet.
In front of the pub.
Desperate times
call for desperate measures.
What we've got is this sort of
rectilinear arrangement here.
There's reported Roman finds
just over the road there.
That's such a positive result,
I think we ought to...
That's such a positive result,
I think we ought to...
Pop a hole in and have a look.
Which is what we do.
And pretty soon, there's
quite a crowd around, having a look.
Over in his new trench,
Phil seems to be getting somewhere.
Well, that's solid enough,
isn't it? >
< That is, isn't it?
I'd say you'd got a good 'un there.
I'd say you'd got a good 'un there.
Looks like a mortar floor.
It does.
It's nice and thick, isn't it? >
And I was gonna say,
where I dug down in that hole,
it's still carrying on down.
And this is a wall. >
And that's a mortared wall. >
There's lovely bits
of mortar in there, mortar there.
All the way along.
And it's still running.
Going on under my feet here.
Does that relate to this plan
that we were looking at before,
where we've got this
little stub of wall coming in here?
Do you think that's what it is?
Well, I think it'll have
to be, won't it? Gotta be.
'At last. Something decent
for us to pursue tomorrow.
'Time to try out the second pub
in the village.'
Thank you!
Thank you!
Cheers. Thanks a lot.
If anybody deserves a drink,
it's you two
after what we've done
to your gardenl
Have you seen this?
This is our star find so far.
It's a dice, like a
snakes and ladders dice,
that has not been thrown
for 1,800 years.
If we'd been chucking it,
given our luck over the last
couple of days, what would we have
got? Ones and twos?
Oh, come on, Tony! At least twos and
threes, I would have thought!
And what about day three?
What do we get?
And what about day three?
What do we get?
Six!
It's gotta be a six!
I'll let you know tomorrow!
Oh! Come on!
Day three, and Mick and Phil are
attempting to reach new heights.
I don't usually see the road
from up here, Mick.
It's a special treat for you
cos it's your birthday.
It's not my birthday.
Well, it's still a
special treat for you.
Well, it's still a
special treat for you.
It is!
Last night,
Phil hit one of these walls.
He now needs to extend his trench,
but doesn't know
which direction he should take.
Has he hit this wall?
Or this one?
Ooh.
Oh, no, just looking.
Just looking...
Yeah?
Yeah?
That isn't a return
on that wall, is it?
On the right?
On the right?
No. Going back on the left.
Um... Who've we got down there?
< Matt?
Hello.
Hello.
Can you just come with your
trowel and point a bit for us.
< Now then,
come forward towards the wall.
< Now then... No, no, no.
Outside edge of the wall. That's it.
Follow backwards.
Back, back, back, back, stop!
Does that return
away from you there?
Through here?
Through here?
Yes.
It's going on.
By your right hand, Matt.
Where your right hand is and
your trowel, does it actually go on
towards the garage then?
Er...
Yeah, there it is there.
Can you see the white there?
All right, well, that's
my theory scuppered then.
We've learned not to
trust this, haven't we?
Well...
Well...
It might go straight on, which
is what he seems to be implying.
Well, yeah, but you know...
I mean, it does look as though,
at the minute, the best money
is that that wall, that right-hand
wall, is the one that we've found.
Yeah.
So Phil thinks he's got this wall.
He now needs to dig on this side of
it to see if there's a floor here.
There might be, given the
shape of the adjoining walls.
If there is a floor, we might just
be able to get a date for the wall.
So this actually
runs up to those sandstone blocks.
We don't know whether
it goes beyond it, but...
Right.
Do that again.
That's the first time
I've actually...
I've never seen you
move dirt before, Henry.
Really? I don't
know about my trowel, is that right?
I suppose one must actually
demonstrate to you how it's done,
but you'll get there eventually.
The pub trench has delivered
nothing. The geophysics we saw
may well have been buildings
from the 19th century.
All we're left with is a pipe.
And Harry's garden is beginning to
look like it might not have much
in it either.
But Stewart, as always,
still holds out hope.
I suppose you're wondering
why I'm hijacking you.
Yes, very surprised.
Pleasant, but very surprised.
I must confess, since we've
been here, I can't really see
where we are geographically.
No.
We're not that far from Chester,
yet Chester's in the middle
of a flat plain.
Yeah, it actually seems miles
away cos you're in Wales as well.
Yeah, it actually seems miles
away cos you're in Wales as well.
Yeah.
I climbed up these hills
yesterday on foot and it
just about wiped me out.
Whatever type of settlement
or activity
we've got down in this village here,
part of the key to it
is where it sits in these
two valleys that come together.
Where do those valleys go to?
Well, this valley up here
heads north.
Eventually heads up towards Flint.
And we know
there's a big Roman industrial site
at Penta Farm in Flint.
This valley up here to the west...
Yeah? That's the one with the
railway viaduct at the bottom?
That's the one there, yeah.
The valley heads due west.
And we know that about a day's march
or so in military Roman terms, there
is a Roman fort in that direction.
Ah, right.
And 15 miles in that direction is
the big legionary base of Chester.
I think Chester is the key
to what's going on down here.
So it would useful to have some
sort of supply base, wouldn't it?
You could send stuff off
in different directions.
So you've got a crossing and you've
got access through these steep
valleys and across the terrain.
But what else have you got here?
I mean, why are they here?
And I think being up
in the helicopter helps us because
when you're down in the gardens,
it's quite hard for you to see.
But up on the far side,
can you see all those quarry faces?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's all limestone that's been
quarried away in the 19th century.
Oh, right.
Was this carboniferous limestone?
That's it. That's a huge great blob
of limestone there.
There's a source
for making lime here.
Which you'd need in building work
in places like Chester.
Exactly. You're building this
massive great fortress in Chester.
Huge great place.
All the stone buildings and
mortar and everything else.
People forget, nothing stands
up if you don't put mortar in it.
You need shed loads of limestone.
And this hill, it's the nearest
source of limestone to Chester.
It's a day's cart
from here to Chester.
That's why this Roman settlement
down here is here.
It's not a settlement,
it's a mining community.
If Stewart's right,
the settlement here might not
necessarily have been made of stone.
It may well have been
more transient,
more like a series
of temporary buildings.
By accident rather than design,
you seem to have turned the
archaeology of this place
on its head.
Parts of the site that were
previously interpreted
as a bathhouse
now no longer seem to be a bathhouse
and may not even be Roman.
I don't have a problem with
there being a bathhouse here.
That's exactly what you might
expect on an official building.
There's all the records from
the 1966 excavations of tiles
associated with a bathhouse.
We just happen not to be on there.
But aren't you just making the
same kind of assumption that the
archaeologists made in the 1960s?
Just because there's a hypocaust
here, that doesn't necessarily
mean we've got a bathhouse.
I didn't say
it has to be a bathhouse.
I didn't say
it has to be a bathhouse.
It sounded pretty much like it!
It's a possibility
there's a bathhouse here
and that's quite likely,
given the description
of the hypocaust tiles
which you might well expect.
What does the antiquarian
actually say?
"Near Hope, while I was
writing this, a gardener digging
"somewhat deeper than ordinary
discovered a very ancient work."
Guy, it doesn't say this place.
He says "near Hope".
Look, there was no Ffrith.
He didn't have the word to use.
We are very close to Hope.
There must be 100 places
that are very close to Hope.
There must be 100 places
that are very close to Hope.
Up on that hill?
There must be 100 places
that are very close to Hope.
Up on that hill?
Why not?
Down here is where you have
buildings, so this is one of
the most likely candidates.
Oh, hello! Suddenly it's one
of the most likely candidates.
What's the difference?
You're doing exactly
the same thing as them.
No I'm not, I'm not, because...
No I'm not, I'm not, because...
You are the person
who says you can't
make the kind of assumptions
that archaeologists always make.
Just because people have
said something in the past,
you don't just dig
and perpetuate this myth.
Yet you seem to be doing that.
We've got the evidence here that
they found a Roman site which
they thought was baths.
We've got hypocaust tiles
found on the site. What we have shown
is that the people in the 1960s,
who took this material then found
a couple of big hefty stone walls,
assumed that was a bathhouse.
We took one look at it and realised
that was a totally implausible
association of the artefactual
evidence, the documentary evidence
and the structure,
which are completely separate.
Outside, Phil is at last making
real progress with his stone wall.
Ah, Mick.
Come and have a look at this.
I've been taking out all this
brick rubble which must be what they
must have shifted during the '60s.
And in the side of their
trench, look what I've got.
Look, this beautiful mortar floor.
So it must be under this lump
in the corner.
Well, yeah. I mean, it probably goes
all the way that way.
A room with a proper
plaster floor in it, then.
Exactly. I mean, that,
unquestionably, is in the building.
The big question, of course,
is whether or not this wall
is the outside of the building or
whether it's an internal partition.
What do you make of it, Chris?
What do you make of it, Chris?
Yes, I think we're
certainly inside a fairly
substantial Roman building here.
I told Tony we were
gonna throw a six today.
I wonder if we shouldn't
have this block out, Phil,
with the machine to give you
a bit more room to work there.
I reckon if we're gonna
move that at all, one good bloke
could do the job as just as well.
Right.
He don't mean me.
He doesn't?
He doesn't?
No.
Or indeed me.
Or indeed me.
Or indeed you, yeah.
And I'd expect you to use
a shovel bigger than this.
Three days in, and this is all
we've got left - Matt and Phil.
We opened another trench
close to Phil's.
This is a view we don't often
show you on Time Team, but it's
probably the thing we see
more than anything else
during the three days.
But when we came here three days
ago, we thought that we were gonna
get a Roman bathhouse and all
we've got somewhere underneath Phil
is that rather manky old wall.
You must be very frustrated.
Yeah, I think I am because we've sort
of worked our way through
where to dig and what to look for and
what evidence we've got and so on and
we still don't have a lot
to show for it.
But we're now in the area where
most of the structures that have
been recorded in the past
have turned up.
I mean, under this building here,
for example, there was a hypocaust
system found,
or probably under this building,
somewhere in this area.
And then over the back where
that house is, number one,
is where they found a lot of
hypocaust tiles and a lot of finds,
including glass and stuff like that.
Plus, of course,
what we originally came to
look at which is back where Phil is.
So somewhere in the middle of
those three bits seem to be the
logic of this trench here.
OK, so after three days, we're
focusing down on an area about
seven metres from where we started.
What happens if we
don't find anything here?
What happens if we
don't find anything here?
We may not do. We may not do.
Don't build your hopes up
because you see where Phil is?
It's sort of dropping away from him.
It's quite likely,
when they built all these buildings,
that they planed it all off.
It may be that the material we've got
in the finds that people have hung
onto and the museum's got
is all that's left because
the rest of it's been removed.
That's why we've put this trench
in here through this gravel,
because there's not much
on the geophysics.
Part of the reason is that we
may have the bottoms of features
that show us
that it has been planed off.
So it's fingers crossed time?
So it's fingers crossed time?
Yeah. But, you know, it's
the process of sort of, you know,
trying to find out what's there.
Three days ago, this
was our starting point -
a map of stone walls joined together
by archaeologists and historians
in a way that suggested a very big
bath complex in this area.
We now know that they were wrong.
Most of these walls
weren't even Roman.
Except for this one.
But then,
just when we thought that was it...
Bridge, things starting to
come together in your trench?
Yeah, it's been absolutely brilliant.
We've got a Roman ditch
coming up here.
Just uncovered what looks like a
Roman post hole and the piece de
resistance is this piece of daub.
Daub as in wattle and daub?
Daub as in wattle and daub?
Yeah.
So where would the wattle have gone?
Two pieces would have
fitted just in there.
So where would the wattle have gone?
It is extraordinary how things
always start to come together
towards the end of day three.
And it being day three, we've
got, as usual, three quarters
of the local population.
But what's so strange is that,
in addition to all the things
that we've got in Brigid's trench,
in Matt's trench
we've got something similar.
We're on the bottom clay floor
and if you look really carefully,
you can see these circular,
evenly spaced stains.
That's where wooden stakes
would have been, holding up
a small wall, a partition wall.
So there is Roman here.
It's just much more ephemeral
than we thought it would be.
It's wattle and daub and mud and
post holes. It's not made of stone.
The post holes in this trench
are Roman and they explain
why we haven't found much.
It's all gone.
What we're left with
is one wall and some floor.
I've seen loads of walls on this dig,
but that is the only one
I'd label as Roman.
Oh, it's a cracker, innit?
Absolutely crackin'. And we've
got the inside and the outside.
But the really nice thing...
What do you think of that?
I reckon that's a tessera.
You know what, I think you're right.
You've got the flat surface
on the top here.
You've got the mortar
round these sides here.
But I do think it's been broken off
on that side
so it should really
be square like that.
But I don't think I can re-create
a brilliant mythological scene on
a mosaic pavement out of that.
If that is a tessera, it means,
absolutely cast iron, we've got
a mosaic floor in this building.
No, it doesn't.
It means we've got a tessellated
pavement, probably of one colour,
like down a corridor.
OK. That to me is a mosaic.
Well, but you don't get brightly
coloured mosaics usually in a
military context, but I would expect
this kind of thing in a slightly
higher status building and I think
that fits with a lot of the stuff
we've got here.
Those stories about the baths
or heated rooms here.
I think that does fit with it.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Helen, three days in sunny North
Wales. What have you come up with?
For me, I've been in
charge of finding nothing.
I've had the most important places
in the village, the scheduled ancient
monuments. I found nothing in one
and I found nothing in the other.
So I've been sent to the chicken run,
and there I finally managed to find
something,
so I became an expert on local Roman
mortaria as well as the natural.
Phil?
Phil?
Oh, well, I'm over the moon.
I mean, we came looking for a
bathhouse and it's always nice to
be able to put the record straight.
We now know that
there is no bathhouse.
And to cap it all,
we've been able to confirm
some of their results
which was this wonderful stone-built
wing of a Roman building,
tessellated floor, lovely floors.
It's been a stonker, it really has.
What a great optimist you are.
What a great optimist you are.
I am!
What is it that we've got?
What is it that we've got?
What we've got is a whole complex
of buildings here.
Quite what it is is more difficult
to interpret cos it's clearly
not a Roman villa,
neither is it
something like a Roman fort.
But Stewart came up with the idea
that this is actually the nearest
supply of limestone to Chester
and why that's important is you
need vast amounts of limestone to
make lime for the mortar and the
plaster and everything when you're
building a permanent fort there.
And you'd need a gang of
labourers to do that.
So we probably ought to think of this
as an industrial military compound
and of people who are producing
all that material to send back over
to Chester,
and I quite like that idea.
It's wonderful having a quiet little
conversation at the end of the day
with just the five of us and,
er, 350 local people.
Go away!
It's a small village of about
400 people, with a main street,
about three other streets, no shops,
and two pubs.
So they've got their
priorities right here.
Anyway, back in the 1960s
in the back garden of this house and
a few other houses down the street,
some local archaeologists
dug some trenches.
Come on. This way!
Underneath that concrete and under
that glasshouse, they discovered
a series of walls, and some bits of
pot and tile and some Roman coins,
and they thought they'd got a
Roman bathhouse. But is it?
And if so, what's it doing here?
Time Team have got just
three days to find out.
Ffrith is here in North Wales, just
across the border from Chester,
the centre of Roman
occupation in the north-west.
People have been finding Roman bits
and bobs here for centuries,
but the reason that the
local archaeologists want us
to dig here is because they think
this is really special
and it's never been
properly excavated.
Harry, have you any idea how
important your garden actually is?
No. I just believe there are some
Roman walls underneath.
What have we got? >
We've got a collection, as
Harry says, of Roman walls.
Excavation was carried out here in
the '60s and we found plans
which show possibly rectangular
buildings, a circular building.
Possibly a building with an
apse on it,
a semi-circular projection
on one side.
But we don't really know what the
building is.
What's that look like to you, Mick?
It's been suggested it's a bathhouse,
but the problem is
all the plans are different,
and if we're gonna understand it,
we ought to re-excavate it and see
what it looks like in the ground.
Is that good archaeology, to re-dig
something that
someone's already dug?
Yes. Where we're trying to
re-interpret this building
trying to work out
what this might be, I think
it's a very good case for going back
and seeing what we can find.
What's your priority
for this morning?
The first thing is to actually check
any records that we got
and to actually try and survey
where walls are supposed to be
so that we actually know
where to put our trenches.
I got a feeling it's
gonna be under the greenhouse myself.
Harry, do you love your greenhouse
and your concrete and your lawn?
I've got a feeling that
I did love my greenhouse
and my grass and my concrete!
I think it's gonna go!
Soon they'll be no more.
Say bye-bye. >
Soon they'll be no more.
Say bye-bye. >
Bye-byel
The evidence from the
'60s is very strong.
These are all walls
which they found.
When they joined the dots, they came
up with this shape, which resembles
the layout of Roman bathhouses
found elsewhere in the country.
We plan to look for these walls.
Then we'll try to find other
sections of wall to see
if the dots are all
joined correctly.
If they are,
then we've got a bathhouse here.
Our first problem, though,
is working out exactly
where the walls are.
Your wall...
...should be, if we take a straight
line through that one there...
and a straight line coming through
there, where they intersect...
< That's going to about
there, isn't it?
So in other words, that Roman wall...
At least it's not
underneath your greenhouse.
It looks like it's
underneath your path.
Can you not get rid of
the greenhouse anyway?
Can you not get rid of
the greenhouse anyway?
We can do that as well! But you
don't mind the path coming up?
Not at all, no.
< We'll give you a
quote on the greenhouse.
< We'll give you a
quote on the greenhouse.
< That's fair enough.
This is where we'll dig in Harry's.
Across the fence in another garden,
there are two more important walls.
This long one
and this one in the corner.
Taken together, they
look like they're curving.
We're beginning to
dismantle Harry's garden.
It's taking a bit of time because
of the path and the stuff around it.
And out comes the sun again, look.
Nice now, isn't it?
Next door,
Phil's moving a bit faster.
He just had grass to go through.
Ooh! There's a old stone
again there, look.
(WOMAN) You're in danger of
having a wall there, Phil. >
No danger.
The fence between the two
gardens just has to go.
It'll be easier to work without it.
The village itself runs north-south
and the main street
follows the line of Offa's Dyke.
The Dyke, built in the 8th century,
is now under these houses.
Behind them is the
village playing field.
It was scheduled as an ancient
monument,, because Roman material
was found along the edges.
The authorities have given us
permission to have a look at it.
Well, looks as though we've got
some people working here already.
Somebody started 20 years ago.
They've already done the geo-phys.
Somebody started 20 years ago.
They've already done the geo-phys.
Is it any good, though, John?
Well, it's rather crude.
They've actually presented
the results by stippling with a pen.
It was pre-computers.
Can you see anything on it?
Look, these thicker dots
are presumably where
they've got higher readings.
It's a resistance survey,
so that could be stone buildings.
Can you tell anything from it?
It's quite
encouraging, to be honest.
It suggests we need
to re-survey the area.
So you've started that already?
So you've started that already?
Yeah, we're on with it.
What do reckon on this place?
This is the biggest open space
in the village,
and although it's got
ridge and furrow covering it,
it won't have destroyed much,
and if John's happy
we can get good geo-physics results,
it's the best place we've got.
The walls found here aren't the
only evidence of Roman occupation.
Hypocaust tiles used for under-floor
heating, particularly in bathhouses,
have been turning
up for hundreds of years.
And in the '60s,
they found masses of stuff -
41 boxes of it,
including shed-loads of pottery.
We begin to sift through the old
finds for clues as to what
might have been happening here.
This little lot looks pretty random.
Does it tell us much?
Much more than I thought it would.
You see that little brooch, broken?
You might find that in almost any
Roman site in the country,
so it wouldn't tell us anything
more than that the place was Roman.
But these are really important.
These are bronze fittings
from Roman armour.
So there were soldiers here.
Is there anything here that
tells us there was anybody else
other than soldiers?
Unless they were very camp,
there's all these glass beads
which suggests there was somebody
wearing jewellery,
and also these bone hairpins, so
there must have been women.
What about the rest of the stuff?
Of course, what brought us here
was traces of buildings.
That's what we know about.
There's a building tower
which has a military
legionary stamp on it.
But there's also wall plaster.
Rather nicely over here, we also
have the remains of a bronze key,
so clearly there is a structure.
What's this little thing here?
Every time you wrote an official
document or a religious document,
something that was important to you,
you would tie the document up
with string, run it through
this little box, pour wax into it,
stamp your seal on it
and then bring over the lid.
Its evidence for reading
and writing,
but possibly also official
documents, which you might expect
in an important site associated
with the army.
It's pouring down now, so the
incident room is suddenly very busy.
Stuart and Henry are looking
at the overall topography.
This is a 3D map of the area...
Victor, Raysan and Sally, a Roman
baths expert, are looking at
what a bathhouse might
have looked like.
...Which is at Ashtead.
It's got very similar layout,
although it's half the size.
And John has now got some geo-phys
results for the playing field.
These are the results
from 20 years ago.
That's our area we've surveyed.
Now, if you compare the two,
take their results...
...almost perfect match.
Very, very similar, aren't they?
It really is good.
It really is good.
Yes, it is. It must be the
same anomaly that you're seeing.
You could look at that
and say you've got three
rectilinear buildings, yeah,
aligned to the main street there.
< Yeah.
Or it could be you've just got an
outcrop of geology...
Oh, no.
With ridge and furrow ploughing
cutting through.
You can see ridge and furrow
on some of the aerial photographs.
You can feel it if
you walk over it.
You can feel it if
you walk over it.
Yes, you can see it
in the right light.
The only way to find
out is to dig it.
This is where John suggests we dig.
So, Helen opens a trench.
We hit the ridge and furrow right
away, and then it starts to look
very dodgy.
Where John thought we might have
a building, we found some stones.
But what are they?
We thought that this looked like
a shaped stone.
What really put the icing on it was
it looked like this might be mortar.
But the more we've cleaned it, the
more that it's turned into
kind of creamy mud, really.
I tell you what, it doesn't look
desperately Roman.
It's not really squared off enough,
it's not dressed in the way you
might expect Roman stone to be made,
and that looks like a break.
That looks like an actual flaw
in the stone,
but there's something else much more
important, really.
I can't see any trace
of Roman Britain tile.
If you were on the site of a Roman
building, you would certainly have
quite a lot of fragments of
that very obvious orange Roman
brick and tile, and you've got
none of that.
So that could just
be natural shaping.
It's just not good enough, really.
The two gardens are
coming along nicely.
Have you got anything yet, Matt?
We've got a few random stones here,
but they've still got modern
bits of glass and stuff underneath
them, so I'll keep going.
Keep going, yeah, OK.
Getting like the Somme, isn't it?
Oh, that looks a bit better, Phil.
That looks like we've got on here,
doesn't it?
It is what you got on there, Mick.
That bit there, look.
It's a curved bit of wall, isn't it?
Do you wanna see what
it looked like in the '60s?
Yeah.
Don't get it wet!
Here we are, yeah.
Look, it's exactly...
We can marry this up precisely.
There's this stone here,
which is the long one in the middle,
and there's these two here with this
crack running between them,
which are the two
where the hand shovel is.
We can actually say with some degree
of certainty that that photograph
was taken exactly
where you're standing.
What we've got
is exactly what they got.
< So what do you wanna do now?
< So what do you wanna do now?
We wanna dig a trench over that side
of the path
because from what we know,
in the '60s they stopped here.
< Right.
< Right.
That over there is brand spanking new
virgin ground, never been dug before,
and that will answer the
question of all this rubble.
It will give us a continuation
of the wall.
It will also give us the inside of
the building,
and also, it'll give
us a brand spanking new set of finds.
So, have the old wheelbarrows
going up and down there,
and then you'll put in
another trench here somewhere?
And then you'll put in
another trench here somewhere?
That's right. Just run it parallel.
Would you say at the
moment that this looks like an apse?
No, I don't think we've got
enough of it to say that.
< But we might know more
with this new trench.
It would have
to be butted onto something
to be an apse, and we've no evidence
of that at all at the moment.
For a very simple trench, it
will solve a lot of our problems.
For a very simple trench, it
will solve a lot of our problems.
Yeah.
This is the wall Phil's found.
In the '60s, another wall
was found in this corner.
Phil's new trench will provide
the missing link between the two.
If this lines up, we'll
either have a circular building
or one with an apse, a semi-circular
projection on one side.
Any finds associated with it
will give us a date for this wall.
At the moment, we've no way of even
knowing whether it's Roman or not.
So, OK, the Roman army might
have been here, but why here?
There are a number of possibilities.
First of all, Ffrith is actually on
the line of the main Roman road
which runs from
the fortress at Chester,
down through the centre and up
through this valley
on into central Wales and
eventually the west coast.
So, given the location,
there's a possibility
there was a roadside, official
lodging house, or mansio,
where people could stay overnight and
get changes of horses and vehicles.
The other possibility
is that there are
lead deposits in the area.
So basically, the Romans have come
here to plunder the raw materials?
< If you like
to put it that way, yes.
Lead, of course, was important
for all the pipes they would have
needed for the water mains
inside the legionary fortress,
lining of baths and so forth.
Out in the playing field,
Helen's opened a very large trench
but has very little to show for it.
We were thinking,
were we coming down
onto something structural or not?
Looks horribly natural.
When I saw it at first, I thought,
I wonder if this is not river gravel
or even glacial gravel or rubble.
It's very loose and
churned up, isn't it?
It's very loose and
churned up, isn't it?
Yeah.
I looks like something you
might quarry out to build a road.
I looks like something you
might quarry out to build a road.
Well, exactly.
But we did have a bit of
luck with some Roman finds.
What, from here?
Yeah. From the top layers.
That's our star one.
That's our star one.
That's your star
piece of Roman Britain?
< This was from very much higher up.
< This was from more like
the ridge and furrow...
See, I'd have
thought that was from a flower pot.
Yeah, it crossed my mind, but Guy
identified it as good Roman stuff.
Right.
Right.
And then we got a few bits
of modern brick and tile.
And here we are, nice piece of opus
signinum. Quite a big bit, really.
Right. Oh, yes.
Right. Oh, yes.
< You can see all the flecks in it.
Yeah. But one piece of opus signinum
doesn't make a Roman site, does it?
No, it's not in context at all.
It could have been brought in from
somewhere else in the village.
We know that there's opus signinum
floors and heating systems,
< so I don't know that we're very
much further on.
These finds are the
first evidence found by us
of Roman occupation here.
But the shortage of
finds is very worrying.
We'd expected more by this stage.
Time to hit the pub.
Nightmare weather.
We thought we wouldn't be able to
see anything at all,
but once we got underneath
the ridge and furrow -
we were kind of going for this thing
that could have been a building or
could have been geological -
was this clear loose, hardcore
stuff which might have been natural,
so not really pushing
our knowledge forward much.
So what are you gonna do about it?
So what are you gonna do about it?
We're gonna try and dig a
sondage at one end of the trench.
Like a little inspection trench?
Like a little inspection trench?
To see if there's anything underneath
that could be real archaeology.
And what about you? At least
we've got our round Roman building.
I'm not really sure that we have.
I'm not really sure that it's round.
You mean it's straight?
Well, I'm not sure about that either.
Well, I'm not sure about that either.
LAUGHTER
What is it? Wiggly?
That's a very...
Yeah, that's a very fair assumption.
Look, at the moment,
I simply don't know.
It's going on,
that's the prime thing.
It is actually going on. Trust me.
How much have you had to drink?!
How much have you had to drink?!
Not enough!
So, we came here because we got this
magnificent round building.
Now we discover it's possibly
not round, possibly not straight,
could be wiggly,
but at least it's going on.
That's... Yes!
That's... Yes!
So what is it?
We'll find out tomorrow.
What was all that about, then?!
I dunno, just keep drinking!
Yesterday evening, Mick and I
had this bizarre conversation
in the pub with Phil, where we
both assumed he'd been drinking
too much crazy juice, cos we were
trying to press him about the wall
in this garden, about whether it's
curved, about whether it's straight.
He said it might be wavy. But now,
this is the extension, isn't it?
Yeah, this one here, yeah.
We've dug this new extension to
try and find the logic of the wall.
Phil! Your wall.
Straight, curved or what?
I told you in the pub
last night, Tony, I really did,
and you don't believe me.
It really is a bit of both.
Look, you see on this print-out,
it's straight through there
and then it does actually go
into a bit of a curve.
You can actually see that on the
ground. This bit here is straight.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When it gets beyond that bucket,
it does actually begin to curve.
The chap who dug this before had
a piece of wall in the corner
of the garden over here, didn't he?
Exactly. He was saying the whole
thing was circular
and there was just a little
bit of a circle in that corner.
If we've now got this
wall across here,
that can't connect with that,
obviously, can it?
No, it clearly can't do that.
Funny old thing, isn't it? >
Yeah, it's very peculiar.
It doesn't look very much
like a Roman bathhouse to me.
There's no demolition rubble.
You'd expect roofing tiles...
That's right. >
That's right. >
...plaster, you'd expect
loads of stuff.
That wall there, the way it's
built at the moment,
looks as if it might be the base of
a wall between a couple of fields.
And it could be mediaeval
or later.
That's great.
We came here because we thought
we had a site of possible national
significance and a Roman bathhouse.
And now you're saying it
could be a wall round a field.
It's what that looks like to me.
It's what that looks like to me.
What have we
got in the next fence over here?!
'Matt's just next door to
Phil, but we've no idea
'if anything in his trench is
related to anything in Phil's.'
< That's looking like
proper archaeology now.
< We've got undisturbed Roman wall
there
and undisturbed Roman floors
at the bottom there.
Yeah, but it's undisturbed Roman
only since the mid-1960s,
when they dug it up last time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Have you nothing new at all?
Over on that side of our
little fence line there,
< we're not getting all this modern
stuff, so the '60s trench
< probably ended about where that
fence is.
On that side, we've got proper,
kosher untouched Roman buildings.
Not only Roman, but Jewish!
So is this finished?
We've got a lot more to do. We're
gonna take out the fence,
join the two up
and then keep cleaning it.
Right. Come on.
It is weird, isn't it.
Why did we make the mistake
of assuming
that this was a Roman bathhouse?
Mick and I were just about to film
getting into the car, as we do,
and he walked round the back of it,
and he looked down, and he went,
"Blimey," and burst out laughing
and he's rushed off to get Phil.
Come on, show him.
What's this?
Don't you think this
line of stones here
is very similar to what
you've got in there,
and it's probably the same line?
Ooh!
In other words, whatever that
wall is, it's not going >
anywhere else
but it's coming down here. >
anywhere else
but it's coming down here. >
It does line up, does it?
We need to get Henry in,
don't we, to ask him to?
Look, if you stand here,
you can see the shed.
Eh?
Eh?
If you stand over here, you can see
the corner of the shed, look.
So it must be going under
this garage, mustn't it,
to come out under the fence?
If he's right,
it's not a bathhouse,
it's a wall at
least 15 metres long.
And it looks more like, again,
as if it's a field wall, doesn't it?
It do, don't it?
It do, don't it?
...That was here before
the houses were put here.
Don't curve either, does it?!
Don't curve either, does it?!
No, it doesn't!
We'll get Henry to plot
and see what it looks like.
We'll get Henry to plot
and see what it looks like.
And we'll get back to what we
were supposed to be doing.
I'll see you later.
The wall that Mick
tripped over is here.
It looks like it lines
up with Phil's here.
Now the whole thing looks even
less like a bathhouse wall.
So Mick,
no bathhouse.
No, it doesn't look like it, does it?
There's none of the characteristic
features of plasterwork,
hypocaust tiles, anything like that
that you'd expect to get.
What do we do with this
extension to the wall, if it is one?
I think we'll pop a little trench in
and see if it's related to any
Roman structures.
We don't need to dig a lot
to demonstrate that.
But wouldn't it be on an
old map if it's mediaeval?
Yes, I wondered about that, but
there isn't a tithe map for the area.
Tithe maps are usually drawn
about 1840.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And normally they show the situation
before all the villages come in,
before roads are laid out,
but there isn't one for this area.
So we don't have an early map that
might show it. It's just unfortunate.
Stewartl Major Time Team crisis.
The bathhouse isn't a bathhouse.
Why shouldn't that surprise
me after all these years?!
Is there anything about this
place that we actually do know?
I've been looking at some
excavations which were done
just where you've driven in
on Offa's Dyke.
There were some done in the '20s,
and some done fairly recently
which were properly recorded.
And what they showed,
you can see in the photograph here,
is where the trench was cut,
that Offa's Dyke, which was
built in the late 8th century?
< Something like that, yeah.
< Something like that, yeah.
It was built almost entirely
of re-deposited Roman material,
pottery, brooches,
all this sort of thing.
This is the original ground surface.
Offa's Dyke, this has got all this
re-deposited Roman material in it.
Yeah. >
Yeah. >
Where did it come from?
We know elsewhere
that Offa's Dyke's got
a ditch on that side.
Is this where the road is now? >
Is this where the road is now? >
Yeah, the road would be... take
off about that much there.
So I think what's happening is
they're digging all this material
out of here, popping it up there,
so do we have Roman activity
over here?
So they've dug through
a Roman settlement
when they're digging
a ditch for the dyke?
Whether it's a settlement is another
issue. It could be rubbish pits,
but it's definitely Roman.
Whatever it is, how does it help us?
What we need to be doing is looking
on this side of the road over here,
and we've got a
piece of ground in there
which is big enough to get into.
It's got chickens in it,
that's big enough to have a look at.
Let's have a pop in there.
So far, we've been digging
up here, to the north.
This is the chicken run
Stewart's talking about,
at the southern end of the village.
It's just opposite the spot
where Roman material was found
in the 1920s.
So, we pop a trench
into the middle of that area.
We open up the wall that Mick
tripped over.
It does seem to line up with Phil's,
and is on the same height.
In the extension to Phil's trench,
he's found the wall,
and he's also found this ditch.
Inside the ditch, we're coming
across a range of good finds,
and they're all Roman.
Piece of glass. Could be Roman.
I'm sure it is, actually.
You see the
little projection on the side?
And then the thinness of the glass.
And also, I think you can make
out some little air bubbles in it.
Very characteristic of Roman glass.
And the star exhibit,
a Roman brooch.
Oh, yes.
That's P-shaped, a P-shaped brooch.
There should be another one
of these on this side.
So there's a gap down the middle,
they join at the bottom for the tail
but it is an unusual type
of brooch, and I think
it probably belongs to the late
second century and into the third.
These finds give us some relief,
but they date the ditch
in Phil's trench.
The wall is still a mystery.
This gives Phil a bit of a problem.
I'm absolutely happy
in my own mind that that's Roman.
The ditch is Roman, but how
can he get a date for the wall?
...Clean up the section...
I've just had a thought.
< I thought you'd gone pensive.
< It's usually a bad
sign with you, isn't it?
Mmm. It's just struck me.
Mmm. It's just struck me.
< Go on.
I wonder if we went through there...
Yeah?
...whether we'd find the wall
running over that ditch. >
Cos the angle's different, isn't it?
So somewhere over there, the
alignment of that ditch like that
is gonna meet the alignment of
that wall like that,
about where the spade is, in fact.
< That would be better,
wouldn't it, than trying to
< perhaps clean it all up
and not quite get the relationship?
That would be better still.
That would be better still.
It means shifting a lot more muck.
Yeah, but isn't it better to invest
the time in that and get the answer
rather than invest the same time
cleaning this up and
possibly not getting the answer?
It's the right way to do it.
It's the right way to do it.
It is.
So digging here
might give us a point where
this wall and this ditch cross.
That way, we'll be able to
tell if the wall's Roman
or if it comes after
the Roman period.
It's funny. 35 years ago a group
of archaeologists came here.
They dug a load of trenches, got
some finds, and then joined the dots
and conjectured that
there was a Roman bathhouse here.
And all these years later, we're
doing the same thing,
digging trenches, finding stuff,
creating pictures.
The only difference is that the
picture that we're creating
is likely to be different
from the one
that the earlier archaeologists did.
'We can confirm some of their
findings, like this wall.
'But this one tears their
theory of a bathhouse apart,
'and our investigation of the wider
village is getting us nowhere.
'In the playing field,
the sondage produced nothing.
'We're down to the natural.
'Down in the chicken run, Helen's
got a few finds, but nothing much.'
What do you think?
What do you think?
Yeah, that's a piece of Roman
mortarium, the round mixing bowl
with grits in the bottom.
So that's the rim? >
So that's the rim? >
Yeah, that's the rim.
You can see the grit's beginning
to show through the dirt.
You can see the grit's beginning
to show through the dirt.
Oh, yes, those little white flecks.
Yeah.
But there's no evidence of
any structures down here.
This is all very worrying.
In the north of the village,
we're also having problems.
The wall Mick tripped
over isn't Roman.
It's sitting on
top of Victorian bricks.
In Matt's trench, he's very
unsure about what he's got.
It looks like mortar or something.
Have a look.
That looks more like a very degraded
wall plaster or a packing...
Right. >
Right. >
...into a timber
building or something.
All the timber's gone, or they've
destroyed it in the 1967 excavation.
It doesn't have anything to do
with that stone wall.
I don't believe that's
Roman for one minute.
I can't see a relationship
between the two.
< Apart from the flooring, have you
got any signs of anything structural?
< Apart from the flooring, have you
got any signs of anything structural?
I've got this dark patch
here, coming like that.
That's clearly been cut into this.
< Bit small though, isn't it?
< Bit small though, isn't it?
It is quite small, yeah.
It could be the end of a beam or
something like that. Small beam.
Post hole, something like that.
And now Phil's having
some second thoughts.
Well, what do you think of that?
It's turning again, isn't it?
We thought
it was gonna come through... there,
somewhere like that.
And what's it doing?
Coming back like that.
So, you wouldn't build a wall
that close to the edge of the ditch,
would you?
It would collapse into the ditch.
It would collapse into the ditch.
That's right. But if the
ditch was already filled up,
then you could build the wall.
You wouldn't know
the ditch was there.
That's right.
That's right.
In other words, the wall
would have to be later.
Might not be...
Might not be...
His wall isn't Roman either.
Because the ditch in Phil's
trench is full of Roman material
and the wall is right beside it,
the wall must have been built
some time after the ditch filled up.
So it's much later than Roman.
So we found this wall of Phil's,
this of Matt's,
and this, where Mick tripped over.
None of them are Roman.
And we're running out of
places we can actually dig.
There's only one wall left
from the '60s dig, and it's here,
just outside Harry's garden.
After this, we're on our own.
Hello, Chris. I think you've got
some plans for me, have you?
Hello, Chris. I think you've got
some plans for me, have you?
Yeah, we've been trying
to marry up these plans
from the '60s excavation with the
modern Ordnance Survey map.
There's a quiet sense of
desperation settling in.
Our only hope of finding
a Roman building may now lie
beneath these Victorian bricks.
Well, with one possible exception.
There's only one part of the
village we haven't touched yet.
In front of the pub.
Desperate times
call for desperate measures.
What we've got is this sort of
rectilinear arrangement here.
There's reported Roman finds
just over the road there.
That's such a positive result,
I think we ought to...
That's such a positive result,
I think we ought to...
Pop a hole in and have a look.
Which is what we do.
And pretty soon, there's
quite a crowd around, having a look.
Over in his new trench,
Phil seems to be getting somewhere.
Well, that's solid enough,
isn't it? >
< That is, isn't it?
I'd say you'd got a good 'un there.
I'd say you'd got a good 'un there.
Looks like a mortar floor.
It does.
It's nice and thick, isn't it? >
And I was gonna say,
where I dug down in that hole,
it's still carrying on down.
And this is a wall. >
And that's a mortared wall. >
There's lovely bits
of mortar in there, mortar there.
All the way along.
And it's still running.
Going on under my feet here.
Does that relate to this plan
that we were looking at before,
where we've got this
little stub of wall coming in here?
Do you think that's what it is?
Well, I think it'll have
to be, won't it? Gotta be.
'At last. Something decent
for us to pursue tomorrow.
'Time to try out the second pub
in the village.'
Thank you!
Thank you!
Cheers. Thanks a lot.
If anybody deserves a drink,
it's you two
after what we've done
to your gardenl
Have you seen this?
This is our star find so far.
It's a dice, like a
snakes and ladders dice,
that has not been thrown
for 1,800 years.
If we'd been chucking it,
given our luck over the last
couple of days, what would we have
got? Ones and twos?
Oh, come on, Tony! At least twos and
threes, I would have thought!
And what about day three?
What do we get?
And what about day three?
What do we get?
Six!
It's gotta be a six!
I'll let you know tomorrow!
Oh! Come on!
Day three, and Mick and Phil are
attempting to reach new heights.
I don't usually see the road
from up here, Mick.
It's a special treat for you
cos it's your birthday.
It's not my birthday.
Well, it's still a
special treat for you.
Well, it's still a
special treat for you.
It is!
Last night,
Phil hit one of these walls.
He now needs to extend his trench,
but doesn't know
which direction he should take.
Has he hit this wall?
Or this one?
Ooh.
Oh, no, just looking.
Just looking...
Yeah?
Yeah?
That isn't a return
on that wall, is it?
On the right?
On the right?
No. Going back on the left.
Um... Who've we got down there?
< Matt?
Hello.
Hello.
Can you just come with your
trowel and point a bit for us.
< Now then,
come forward towards the wall.
< Now then... No, no, no.
Outside edge of the wall. That's it.
Follow backwards.
Back, back, back, back, stop!
Does that return
away from you there?
Through here?
Through here?
Yes.
It's going on.
By your right hand, Matt.
Where your right hand is and
your trowel, does it actually go on
towards the garage then?
Er...
Yeah, there it is there.
Can you see the white there?
All right, well, that's
my theory scuppered then.
We've learned not to
trust this, haven't we?
Well...
Well...
It might go straight on, which
is what he seems to be implying.
Well, yeah, but you know...
I mean, it does look as though,
at the minute, the best money
is that that wall, that right-hand
wall, is the one that we've found.
Yeah.
So Phil thinks he's got this wall.
He now needs to dig on this side of
it to see if there's a floor here.
There might be, given the
shape of the adjoining walls.
If there is a floor, we might just
be able to get a date for the wall.
So this actually
runs up to those sandstone blocks.
We don't know whether
it goes beyond it, but...
Right.
Do that again.
That's the first time
I've actually...
I've never seen you
move dirt before, Henry.
Really? I don't
know about my trowel, is that right?
I suppose one must actually
demonstrate to you how it's done,
but you'll get there eventually.
The pub trench has delivered
nothing. The geophysics we saw
may well have been buildings
from the 19th century.
All we're left with is a pipe.
And Harry's garden is beginning to
look like it might not have much
in it either.
But Stewart, as always,
still holds out hope.
I suppose you're wondering
why I'm hijacking you.
Yes, very surprised.
Pleasant, but very surprised.
I must confess, since we've
been here, I can't really see
where we are geographically.
No.
We're not that far from Chester,
yet Chester's in the middle
of a flat plain.
Yeah, it actually seems miles
away cos you're in Wales as well.
Yeah, it actually seems miles
away cos you're in Wales as well.
Yeah.
I climbed up these hills
yesterday on foot and it
just about wiped me out.
Whatever type of settlement
or activity
we've got down in this village here,
part of the key to it
is where it sits in these
two valleys that come together.
Where do those valleys go to?
Well, this valley up here
heads north.
Eventually heads up towards Flint.
And we know
there's a big Roman industrial site
at Penta Farm in Flint.
This valley up here to the west...
Yeah? That's the one with the
railway viaduct at the bottom?
That's the one there, yeah.
The valley heads due west.
And we know that about a day's march
or so in military Roman terms, there
is a Roman fort in that direction.
Ah, right.
And 15 miles in that direction is
the big legionary base of Chester.
I think Chester is the key
to what's going on down here.
So it would useful to have some
sort of supply base, wouldn't it?
You could send stuff off
in different directions.
So you've got a crossing and you've
got access through these steep
valleys and across the terrain.
But what else have you got here?
I mean, why are they here?
And I think being up
in the helicopter helps us because
when you're down in the gardens,
it's quite hard for you to see.
But up on the far side,
can you see all those quarry faces?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's all limestone that's been
quarried away in the 19th century.
Oh, right.
Was this carboniferous limestone?
That's it. That's a huge great blob
of limestone there.
There's a source
for making lime here.
Which you'd need in building work
in places like Chester.
Exactly. You're building this
massive great fortress in Chester.
Huge great place.
All the stone buildings and
mortar and everything else.
People forget, nothing stands
up if you don't put mortar in it.
You need shed loads of limestone.
And this hill, it's the nearest
source of limestone to Chester.
It's a day's cart
from here to Chester.
That's why this Roman settlement
down here is here.
It's not a settlement,
it's a mining community.
If Stewart's right,
the settlement here might not
necessarily have been made of stone.
It may well have been
more transient,
more like a series
of temporary buildings.
By accident rather than design,
you seem to have turned the
archaeology of this place
on its head.
Parts of the site that were
previously interpreted
as a bathhouse
now no longer seem to be a bathhouse
and may not even be Roman.
I don't have a problem with
there being a bathhouse here.
That's exactly what you might
expect on an official building.
There's all the records from
the 1966 excavations of tiles
associated with a bathhouse.
We just happen not to be on there.
But aren't you just making the
same kind of assumption that the
archaeologists made in the 1960s?
Just because there's a hypocaust
here, that doesn't necessarily
mean we've got a bathhouse.
I didn't say
it has to be a bathhouse.
I didn't say
it has to be a bathhouse.
It sounded pretty much like it!
It's a possibility
there's a bathhouse here
and that's quite likely,
given the description
of the hypocaust tiles
which you might well expect.
What does the antiquarian
actually say?
"Near Hope, while I was
writing this, a gardener digging
"somewhat deeper than ordinary
discovered a very ancient work."
Guy, it doesn't say this place.
He says "near Hope".
Look, there was no Ffrith.
He didn't have the word to use.
We are very close to Hope.
There must be 100 places
that are very close to Hope.
There must be 100 places
that are very close to Hope.
Up on that hill?
There must be 100 places
that are very close to Hope.
Up on that hill?
Why not?
Down here is where you have
buildings, so this is one of
the most likely candidates.
Oh, hello! Suddenly it's one
of the most likely candidates.
What's the difference?
You're doing exactly
the same thing as them.
No I'm not, I'm not, because...
No I'm not, I'm not, because...
You are the person
who says you can't
make the kind of assumptions
that archaeologists always make.
Just because people have
said something in the past,
you don't just dig
and perpetuate this myth.
Yet you seem to be doing that.
We've got the evidence here that
they found a Roman site which
they thought was baths.
We've got hypocaust tiles
found on the site. What we have shown
is that the people in the 1960s,
who took this material then found
a couple of big hefty stone walls,
assumed that was a bathhouse.
We took one look at it and realised
that was a totally implausible
association of the artefactual
evidence, the documentary evidence
and the structure,
which are completely separate.
Outside, Phil is at last making
real progress with his stone wall.
Ah, Mick.
Come and have a look at this.
I've been taking out all this
brick rubble which must be what they
must have shifted during the '60s.
And in the side of their
trench, look what I've got.
Look, this beautiful mortar floor.
So it must be under this lump
in the corner.
Well, yeah. I mean, it probably goes
all the way that way.
A room with a proper
plaster floor in it, then.
Exactly. I mean, that,
unquestionably, is in the building.
The big question, of course,
is whether or not this wall
is the outside of the building or
whether it's an internal partition.
What do you make of it, Chris?
What do you make of it, Chris?
Yes, I think we're
certainly inside a fairly
substantial Roman building here.
I told Tony we were
gonna throw a six today.
I wonder if we shouldn't
have this block out, Phil,
with the machine to give you
a bit more room to work there.
I reckon if we're gonna
move that at all, one good bloke
could do the job as just as well.
Right.
He don't mean me.
He doesn't?
He doesn't?
No.
Or indeed me.
Or indeed me.
Or indeed you, yeah.
And I'd expect you to use
a shovel bigger than this.
Three days in, and this is all
we've got left - Matt and Phil.
We opened another trench
close to Phil's.
This is a view we don't often
show you on Time Team, but it's
probably the thing we see
more than anything else
during the three days.
But when we came here three days
ago, we thought that we were gonna
get a Roman bathhouse and all
we've got somewhere underneath Phil
is that rather manky old wall.
You must be very frustrated.
Yeah, I think I am because we've sort
of worked our way through
where to dig and what to look for and
what evidence we've got and so on and
we still don't have a lot
to show for it.
But we're now in the area where
most of the structures that have
been recorded in the past
have turned up.
I mean, under this building here,
for example, there was a hypocaust
system found,
or probably under this building,
somewhere in this area.
And then over the back where
that house is, number one,
is where they found a lot of
hypocaust tiles and a lot of finds,
including glass and stuff like that.
Plus, of course,
what we originally came to
look at which is back where Phil is.
So somewhere in the middle of
those three bits seem to be the
logic of this trench here.
OK, so after three days, we're
focusing down on an area about
seven metres from where we started.
What happens if we
don't find anything here?
What happens if we
don't find anything here?
We may not do. We may not do.
Don't build your hopes up
because you see where Phil is?
It's sort of dropping away from him.
It's quite likely,
when they built all these buildings,
that they planed it all off.
It may be that the material we've got
in the finds that people have hung
onto and the museum's got
is all that's left because
the rest of it's been removed.
That's why we've put this trench
in here through this gravel,
because there's not much
on the geophysics.
Part of the reason is that we
may have the bottoms of features
that show us
that it has been planed off.
So it's fingers crossed time?
So it's fingers crossed time?
Yeah. But, you know, it's
the process of sort of, you know,
trying to find out what's there.
Three days ago, this
was our starting point -
a map of stone walls joined together
by archaeologists and historians
in a way that suggested a very big
bath complex in this area.
We now know that they were wrong.
Most of these walls
weren't even Roman.
Except for this one.
But then,
just when we thought that was it...
Bridge, things starting to
come together in your trench?
Yeah, it's been absolutely brilliant.
We've got a Roman ditch
coming up here.
Just uncovered what looks like a
Roman post hole and the piece de
resistance is this piece of daub.
Daub as in wattle and daub?
Daub as in wattle and daub?
Yeah.
So where would the wattle have gone?
Two pieces would have
fitted just in there.
So where would the wattle have gone?
It is extraordinary how things
always start to come together
towards the end of day three.
And it being day three, we've
got, as usual, three quarters
of the local population.
But what's so strange is that,
in addition to all the things
that we've got in Brigid's trench,
in Matt's trench
we've got something similar.
We're on the bottom clay floor
and if you look really carefully,
you can see these circular,
evenly spaced stains.
That's where wooden stakes
would have been, holding up
a small wall, a partition wall.
So there is Roman here.
It's just much more ephemeral
than we thought it would be.
It's wattle and daub and mud and
post holes. It's not made of stone.
The post holes in this trench
are Roman and they explain
why we haven't found much.
It's all gone.
What we're left with
is one wall and some floor.
I've seen loads of walls on this dig,
but that is the only one
I'd label as Roman.
Oh, it's a cracker, innit?
Absolutely crackin'. And we've
got the inside and the outside.
But the really nice thing...
What do you think of that?
I reckon that's a tessera.
You know what, I think you're right.
You've got the flat surface
on the top here.
You've got the mortar
round these sides here.
But I do think it's been broken off
on that side
so it should really
be square like that.
But I don't think I can re-create
a brilliant mythological scene on
a mosaic pavement out of that.
If that is a tessera, it means,
absolutely cast iron, we've got
a mosaic floor in this building.
No, it doesn't.
It means we've got a tessellated
pavement, probably of one colour,
like down a corridor.
OK. That to me is a mosaic.
Well, but you don't get brightly
coloured mosaics usually in a
military context, but I would expect
this kind of thing in a slightly
higher status building and I think
that fits with a lot of the stuff
we've got here.
Those stories about the baths
or heated rooms here.
I think that does fit with it.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Helen, three days in sunny North
Wales. What have you come up with?
For me, I've been in
charge of finding nothing.
I've had the most important places
in the village, the scheduled ancient
monuments. I found nothing in one
and I found nothing in the other.
So I've been sent to the chicken run,
and there I finally managed to find
something,
so I became an expert on local Roman
mortaria as well as the natural.
Phil?
Phil?
Oh, well, I'm over the moon.
I mean, we came looking for a
bathhouse and it's always nice to
be able to put the record straight.
We now know that
there is no bathhouse.
And to cap it all,
we've been able to confirm
some of their results
which was this wonderful stone-built
wing of a Roman building,
tessellated floor, lovely floors.
It's been a stonker, it really has.
What a great optimist you are.
What a great optimist you are.
I am!
What is it that we've got?
What is it that we've got?
What we've got is a whole complex
of buildings here.
Quite what it is is more difficult
to interpret cos it's clearly
not a Roman villa,
neither is it
something like a Roman fort.
But Stewart came up with the idea
that this is actually the nearest
supply of limestone to Chester
and why that's important is you
need vast amounts of limestone to
make lime for the mortar and the
plaster and everything when you're
building a permanent fort there.
And you'd need a gang of
labourers to do that.
So we probably ought to think of this
as an industrial military compound
and of people who are producing
all that material to send back over
to Chester,
and I quite like that idea.
It's wonderful having a quiet little
conversation at the end of the day
with just the five of us and,
er, 350 local people.
Go away!