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Season 17
Episode 5

The Massacre in the Cellar - Hopton Castle, Shropshire

May 16, 2010

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Time Team - S17 - E5

Tony Robinson and the Team visit the remains of Hopton Castle in Shropshire. Although it's picturesque, it was the site of a series of gruesome battles that took place at height of the English Civil War, when a Royalist force laid siege to a small garrison of Parliamentarians inside the castle. The Team use contemporary accounts and the evidence from their own trenches to separate fact from propaganda and piece together a blow-by-blow account of these violent days in 1644. The dig immediately produces evidence of battle. Over three days the archaeology begins to build up a compelling story of how the defenders fought off two attacks, killing hundreds of Royalists, before finally succumbing to the greater numbers of their enemy.

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Time Team: Season 17 - 13 Episode s

17x1 - Corridors of Power - Westminster Abbey, London
April 18, 2010
In the first episode of the new series, Tony Robinson, Professor Mick Aston and the Team investigate one of Britain's greatest historic landmarks: Westminster Abbey. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of Parliament Square, the archaeologists have three days to pin down the location of a lost sacristy, a stronghold that was built by Henry III almost 800 years ago and is said to have housed the biggest collection of treasure this side of the Alps. Under the watchful eye of the Abbey's clergy and numerous tourists, the diggers' attempts to find this important building are continually thwarted by the driving London rain and centuries of later building work.
17x2 - A Saintly Site - Isle of Mull, Inner Hebrides
April 25, 2010
Time Team descend on the Isle of Mull at the invitation of two local amateur archaeologists to investigate a mysterious set of earthworks in a forest near Tobermory. Could they be the remains of a chapel from the time of St Columba?
17x3 - Bridge over the River Tees - Piercebridge, County Durham
May 2, 2010
Tony Robinson and the Team get their feet wet as they examine a stretch of the River Tees where local divers have discovered more than 2,000 high-quality Roman finds. The river flows past one of the most impressive Roman forts in northern Britain, and over three days the archaeologists cast their net far and wide investigating the buildings, roads and structures around this strategic crossing. However, the big challenge is working out what was going on in the middle of the river, where most of the finds came from, and that means a variety of Time Team's finest squeezing into wetsuits and braving the fast flowing river Tees.
17x4 - In the Halls of a Saxon King - Drayton, Oxfordshire
May 9, 2010
In Sutton Courtenay Tony Robinson and the Team investigate a set of buildings once occupied by Anglo Saxon royalty. It's the rarest of archaeological sites and uncovers the biggest Saxon building ever discovered in Britain. Aerial photography of an apparently featureless Oxfordshire field revealed crop marks that suggested to archaeologists it was once the site of an impressive collection of 1,400-year-old buildings; but Time Team's digging expertise was needed to verify this. The trenches are big and the archaeology complicated but slowly the Team begin to build up a picture of life here over 1,000 years ago, with the help of heroic Saxon poetry. As well as stunning finds and the perplexing possibility that they have uncovered an Anglo Saxon totem pole, the archaeologists also discover a culture where heroism, story telling and drinking go hand in hand, and learn the finer points of how to insult your colleagues in Old English.
17x5 - The Massacre in the Cellar - Hopton Castle, Shropshire
May 16, 2010
Tony Robinson and the Team visit the remains of Hopton Castle in Shropshire. Although it's picturesque, it was the site of a series of gruesome battles that took place at height of the English Civil War, when a Royalist force laid siege to a small garrison of Parliamentarians inside the castle. The Team use contemporary accounts and the evidence from their own trenches to separate fact from propaganda and piece together a blow-by-blow account of these violent days in 1644. The dig immediately produces evidence of battle. Over three days the archaeology begins to build up a compelling story of how the defenders fought off two attacks, killing hundreds of Royalists, before finally succumbing to the greater numbers of their enemy.
17x6 - Potted History - Mildenhall, Wiltshire
May 23, 2010
Time Team visits the heart of Wiltshire for one of their most ambitious projects ever: to investigate an entire lost Roman town. Hidden under acres of wheat, Cunetio would once have been a bustling market centre. It's also the place where Britain's largest ever coin hoard was found. In the 1970s a pot containing 55,000 Roman coins was discovered, and one of the archaeologists called in to deal with it was Time Team's own Phil Harding. Now, 30 years later, he's back to dig this massive site and to find out how much effort is required to bury 55,000 coins. Over the three days, the scale of the site pushes the Team to the limit. Hampered by driving rain, the archaeologists battle to make sense of trenches that contain hundreds of years' worth of archaeology, while the geophysics team make almost half a million readings to complete the biggest survey ever recorded on Time Team.
17x7 - Death and Dominoes: The First POW Camp - Norman Cross, Cambridgeshire
October 3, 2010
The Team visit Norman Cross in Cambridgeshire, a site that is over 200 years old and housed the world's first ever purpose-built prisoner of war camp. It has never before been excavated and the team are keen to unearth the final resting place of almost 2,000 prisoners who died at the camp, but what they discover takes them all by surprise.
17x8 - Something for the Weekend - Tregruk Castle, Llangybi, Monmouthshire
October 10, 2010
Tony Robinson and the Team find themselves lost in the mists of a Welsh forest as they investigate one of the biggest castles in Britain. Their task is to investigate the castle's mysterious interior and find out how this impressive structure fitted into a network of fortresses built by powerful English barons 700 years ago.
17x9 - Governor's Green - Governor's Green, Portsmouth
October 17, 2010
The Team visit Portsmouth to try and uncover one of the city's oldest buildings - a medieval hospital. But after three days of bone-chilling weather and confusing archaeology can the Team work out what stood on Governors Green over 500 years ago?
17x10 - Priory Engagement - Burford, Oxfordshire
October 24, 2010
The Team descend upon the Oxfordshire town of Burford to respond to very special challenge - from Time Team's own Professor Mick Aston. They have just three days to uncover a medieval hospital under the front lawn whilst searching for Anglo Saxons in the vegetable garden.
17x11 - There's a Villa Here Somewhere - Litlington, Cambridgeshire
October 31, 2010
But has 18th-century quarrying destroyed all meaningful evidence? Ben Robinson supervises this dig in the absence of Mick Aston. The end results are shown to the appreciative villagers.
17x12 - Commanding Heights - Dinmore Hill, Herefordshire
November 7, 2010
Tony and the Time Team climb a remote Herefordshire hill to investigate one of the biggest prehistoric sites ever featured. Was Dinmore Hill the site of a vast Iron Age hill fort? Needless to say Stewart doesn't think so. He is going with a much earlier cross-ridge dyke. To prove it one way or the other they need dateable finds. But the dig is hampered by torrential rain. Despite this they uncover a huge, magnificent ditch, which must have been dug by thousands of people during the Iron Age. The team are joined by historian Bettany Hughes, Hereford county archaeologist Keith Ray and environmental archaeologist Mike Allen.
17x13 - Rooting for the Romans - Bedford Purlieus Wood, Cambridgeshire
April 17, 2011
An eagle-eyed forest ranger spotted bits of Roman building poking out from the forest floor in Cambridgeshire's Bedford Purlieus Wood.

The Massacre in the Cellar - Hopton Castle, Shropshire

Time Team - S17 - E5

Time Team: Season 17 - 13 Episode s

17x1 - Corridors of Power - Westminster Abbey, London

17x2 - A Saintly Site - Isle of Mull, Inner Hebrides

17x3 - Bridge over the River Tees - Piercebridge, County Durham

17x4 - In the Halls of a Saxon King - Drayton, Oxfordshire

17x5 - The Massacre in the Cellar - Hopton Castle, Shropshire

17x6 - Potted History - Mildenhall, Wiltshire

17x7 - Death and Dominoes: The First POW Camp - Norman Cross, Cambridgeshire

17x8 - Something for the Weekend - Tregruk Castle, Llangybi, Monmouthshire

17x9 - Governor's Green - Governor's Green, Portsmouth

17x10 - Priory Engagement - Burford, Oxfordshire

17x11 - There's a Villa Here Somewhere - Litlington, Cambridgeshire

17x12 - Commanding Heights - Dinmore Hill, Herefordshire

17x13 - Rooting for the Romans - Bedford Purlieus Wood, Cambridgeshire

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