Not a blot on the landscape

In the Domesday Book, commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085, a settlement called 'Hildreschelf' is recorded in Yorkshire in the same location where the massive stately home of Castle Howard stands today. Castle Howard was built in the early 1700s by the third Earl of Carlisle, Charles Howard. Its construction involved huge expense – including the demolition of the entire village of Henderskelf, which got in the way of the views from the planned new mansion. Time Team was called in to see if it could find any trace of the early settlement remaining today.

Not so straightforward
The starting point for the Team's researches was a 1694 vellum map of Henderskelf held in the Castle Howard archives, which lists the owners of each property in the village at the time. Henderskelf boasted both a castle and a church, so in theory at any rate, finding archaeological evidence for their existence seemed straightforward. It turned out not to be so.

What is probably Time Team's fastest-ever find was turned up within a couple of minutes of diggers starting to de-turf some of the immaculate Castle Howard lawns. A large, impressive carved stone turns out not to have been part of the demolished village, however, but part of the 18th-century development of the site. Elsewhere, apparent compacted floor surfaces turn out not to be floors within buildings; and an apparent surface from the old village road turns out to be something different too.

New map, new clues
A number of trenches are dug, both on the lawned areas of Castle Howard and within a former walled garden area – where at least the Team can bring in mechanical diggers to help with excavations. The discovery of a new, more detailed map of Henderskelf, sketched on the back of a building plan, provides new clues for the diggers, but it seems that Charles Howard's demolition job left few traces.

Of the church and the castle, no hard evidence can be found. A great deal of medieval pottery is uncovered, but very few traces of walls or buildings. A search of records suggests that the former homes of a George Campleman and one Ralf Kendel are among the sites uncovered by the Team's trenches, but there is very little left visible today.

Not a blot on the landscape
It becomes clear that Henderskelf had not just been flattened when it was demolished but systematically obliterated and all traces removed. Mick Aston compared it with the sort of wholesale destruction that followed the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII or the closure of many of Britain's railways under the Beeching axe in the 1960s – an indication of the power and influence of the builders of Castle Howard, who were able to remove an entire village simply in order to improve their view.

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