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Civil war defences
During the English Civil War, London was a republican stronghold. The Parliamentarians defended it with a fortified ring – a ditch and bank, with regularly spaced redoubts. From historical documents, archaeologists have come up with a plan of where they think this defensive ring was situated.
Part of it, including a redoubt, appears to be under the lawn at Buckingham Palace, near the tennis court. A watching brief carried out by Oxford Archaeology several years ago during the installation of security devices identified some archaeological features in roughly the right place. But the service trench was too shallow to produce any definitive information.
Time Team plans to use contemporary documents to assess the likely position of the defences, and then send in geophysics to provide targets for trenches.
During the English Civil War, London was a republican stronghold. The Parliamentarians defended it with a fortified ring – a ditch and bank, with regularly spaced redoubts. From historical documents, archaeologists have come up with a plan of where they think this defensive ring was situated.
Part of it, including a redoubt, appears to be under the lawn at Buckingham Palace, near the tennis court. A watching brief carried out by Oxford Archaeology several years ago during the installation of security devices identified some archaeological features in roughly the right place. But the service trench was too shallow to produce any definitive information.
Time Team plans to use contemporary documents to assess the likely position of the defences, and then send in geophysics to provide targets for trenches.
