AT WORK: Phil Harding at the Time Team site near High Coniscliffe, County Durham
THE site of a North-East medieval village is to be the subject of a television
programme.
The Channel 4 archaeology documentary
Time Team spent three
days excavating in Ulnaby, on the
outskirts of Darlington.
The series, which is presented by
Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick
in the comedy series Blackadder, was
trying to establish when the village
was founded.
The village is a Scheduled Ancient
Monument because it is so well preserved.
It consists of a number of tofts -
peasant house plots and their accompanying
gardens - in two rows
with a village green, and is situated
next to Ulnaby Hall farmhouse.
Yesterday, as the dig came to an
end, the experts praised the quality
of the preservation.
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Phil Harding, one of the programme's
field archaeologists, said:
"There are not many sites that are
as well preserved as this.
"It's an absolute classic, when you
look at it on aerial photographs.
"It is a site to die for, to all intents
and purposes it's all here."
The programme was trying to find
evidence that the village dated back
to Saxon times and also unearth possible
reasons for its abandonment.
It was also investigating why the
villagers in Ulnaby would have used
ridge and furrow ploughing techniques.
Mr Harding said: "We've got material
dating back to the 14th Century,
which is not as early as I would have
thought, but maybe we're digging in
the wrong place.
"We've found a silver coin and also
a bone spoon handle - it's the kind of
thing that ordinary people would use
and not high-status guys.
"That's what this village is all
about. It's about ordinary people,
farmers and labourers. We're trying
to get away from people such as the
lords and we're looking at the ordinary
Joe Bloggs.
"Hopefully, we can come up with a
very entertaining TV programme."
Mr Robinson said he also felt the
dig had been a big success.
He said: "We've had everything the
North-East can throw at us in terms
of weather, with the possible exception
of a plague of frogs.
"But this village is amazingly well
preserved and it's all here."
The programme is due to be broadcast
on Channel 4 early next year.
Posted by: simon, Darlington on 10:22pm Sun 27 Apr 08
Deserted medieval village of Ulnaby was investigated by the TV programme Time Team in 2008 trying to locate the possible Saxon settlement, and why the village was using ridge and furrow
Nothing new in ridge and furrow was commonly used in medieval fields by ploughing don’t see why they wanted to investigate this part of the village as it will tell us nothing we don’t already know. What a waste of time as DMV never show up anything in artefacts mainly since the population of the village were poor in status and had little. The investigation of why the village was no more if they look at the book I told the English Heritage personal then it states the reason why may be English Heritage forgot about it or thought it was not wanted.
Funny thing is digging in the wrong place happens but with all the wiz gear Time Team has and the English Heritage people who know the site would you thought it was better to look at the landscape and the results before doing a crash coarse on a SAM site what else did they expect to find in a peasant village?
From a true archaeologist
Deserted medieval village of Ulnaby was investigated by the TV programme Time Team in 2008 trying to locate the possible Saxon settlement, and why the village was using ridge and furrow
Nothing new in ridge and furrow was commonly used in medieval fields by ploughing don’t see why they wanted to investigate this part of the village as it will tell us nothing we don’t already know. What a waste of time as DMV never show up anything in artefacts mainly since the population of the village were poor in status and had little. The investigation of why the village was no more if they look at the book I told the English Heritage personal then it states the reason why may be English Heritage forgot about it or thought it was not wanted.
Funny thing is digging in the wrong place happens but with all the wiz gear Time Team has and the English Heritage people who know the site would you thought it was better to look at the landscape and the results before doing a crash coarse on a SAM site what else did they expect to find in a peasant village?
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