A view to a kiln

Prior to Time Team's visit, metal detectorist Alan Luton had found more than 100 Roman artefacts in fields around Sedgefield – a place where no Roman evidence had previously been recorded. Aerial photographs also indicated lots of interesting crop marks, which looked complicated and could represent any number of possible remains. Time Team was invited to try to find some answers.

Prospecting
In a bid to discover evidence, Time Team started by conducting a fieldwalking survey, carried out together with a co-ordinated metal-detecting scan. At the same time, the geophysics team and surveyor Henry Chapman got to work recording as much of the 20-acre site as possible.

Trenches
The first trenches were put in to investigate geophysics anomalies and resulted in areas of burning and metalworking slag being found, indicating industrial activity. Further geophysics survey work suggested a roadway through the centre of rows of enclosures – what Stewart Ainsworth describes as a 'ladder settlement'. Further trenches were put in to investigate more geophysics puzzles.

The discoveries
One of the most interesting discoveries was by Phil Harding: an intact Roman pottery kiln, which is unusual because it's thought that usually pottery was transported or imported this far north, rather than being produced here. Stewart Ainsworth found a likely explanation in the form of documentary evidence for many later kilns in the area because of the high-quality clay.

Meanwhile, very fine 'ghost' features in the soil indicated where timber beams and posts may have been, forming part of timber-framed buildings. The final conclusions were that this settlement of more than 20 enclosures was built up along a trackway leading to Hadrian's Wall. The industrial pottery and metalwork activity in the area probably relied heavily on military traffic for its customers.

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