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Three Tales of Canterbury
18 March 2001
Over the August bank holiday weekend last year, Time Team took a crew of around 100 people to Canterbury for a three-day live dig. Or, rather, for three three-day digs because the live event focused upon three different sites. One, at Blue Boy Yard, in the centre of the city, saw the Team looking for signs of the Roman temple and precinct that once stood on this site. At a second, also in the centre of Canterbury, the Team was seeking out remains of Greyfriars, Britain's first Franciscan priory. And a third, on Tyler Hill on the outskirts of the city, saw them investigating a medieval tile-making industry. This programme tells the story of the three digs – our three tales of Canterbury.
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Canterbury has been a major Christian centre since Augustine founded an abbey there at the end of the 6th century. But the murder in 1170 of its archbishop was the making of medieval Canterbury. Pilgrims from across Europe flocked to the city to worship at the tomb of Thomas Becket. And within 50 years of his death, Canterbury had become home to the first Franciscan friary in England, among a plethora of other religious houses.
Time Team excavated Greyfriars, Britain's first Franciscan friary; a site at Blue Boy Yard, within the precincts of the former Roman temple; and the medieval tile-making complex just outside the city at Tyler Hill. They also looked at medieval Canterbury itself, and, with a bit of help from Chaucer and some local schoolchildren, at the life of a medieval pilgrim.
The ecclesiastical centre could not have developed without a myriad of support industries – including glass-stainers, ecclesiastical architects and tilers. Every religious house needed tiles for roofs and floors and, by the 12th century, quite an industry had become established on Tyler Hill overlooking the city. Time Team excavated this tile-manufacturing complex and explored the relationship between the ecclesiastical centre and its satellite support industries.
The Blue Boy Yard excavation, not far from the Greyfriars site, took the team through various layers of later occupation down to (and below) the original courtyard surface of the Roman temple.
The full story of Time Team Live 2000, including its problems of competing with live cricket on the Channel 4 programme schedules, is told in all its detail on the Time Team Live 2000 website.
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Back to the Time Team Past programmes page
Back to the 2001 series page
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