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Time Team Series 12
Chenies, Buckinghamshire.

The manor that's back to front.

For the first programme of the 2005 series, Tony Robinson and the team visited Chenies Manor, following in the footsteps of Henry VIII.

In around 1530, Henry's visit to the medieval manor prompted a major upgrade of the buildings. A 1585 inventory lists a whole range of rooms and buildings fit for a king. But many of these rooms seem to have disappeared and the surviving building simply isn't large enough to accommodate the king and his entourage, which would have numbered up to 1,000 people.

Royal visits during the Tudor era could last for months and were often hugely expensive for the hosts. There is documentary evidence that Henry VIII, with two of his wives, and then Elizabeth I stayed at Chenies on several occasions. Two fine wings do survive, which are late medieval and early Tudor. The house contains a long gallery, typical of those built by important courtiers in the 1520-30s to provide suitably majestic surroundings. But most of the original Tudor building fell into disrepair after its glory days in the 16th century, and was gradually demolished.

There's an assumption that this would have been a classic four-sided house around a courtyard. But is that right? From the outset of the investigation, Time Team's experts are finding it hard to agree, and some big surprises lie in store for the team and the owners of this beautiful house.

As usual, Time Team had just three days to solve the mystery, and work out what the house would have looked like when Henry VIII stayed there.

Time Trail

Chenies is only one of several great Tudor houses visited by Henry VIII at which Time Team has carried out excavations. In the 2001 series, for example, the team was invited by the owners of the modern Rycote Park, in Oxfordshire, to try to find the remains of the grand country house where Henry spent his honeymoon with his fifth wife, Katherine Howard. And in the 2003 series, the team went in search of Henry's armoury and tiltyard at Greenwich Palace in London.

Although Greenwich wasn't one of Time Team's more productive digs in terms of finds, with the help of a detailed search of historical documents it did prove possible to locate both the armoury and the tiltyard and its associated banqueting hall and other buildings. The programme also featured a reconstruction cameo involving the skilled armourer Emrys (he only uses a first name), also known as Master M. He made a breastplate for Tony Robinson, offering a glimpse of what Henry VIII's armourers would have been producing on the site. (See also Armour through the ages.)

Henry's reign marked a period of immense building activity in England, during which many great country houses were built or extended often to accommodate the monarch and his huge entourage as he travelled around his kingdom. The fashion for what the architectural historian Sir John Summerson called 'prodigious' houses was started by Henry VII, whose vast new palace at Richmond was completed in 1501, accelerated under Henry VIII and reached its height in the Elizabethan era with the development of such magnificent country palaces as Burghley, Longleat and Hardwick Hall ('more glass than wall'). These prodigy houses are to the Tudor period what castles and churches were to the medieval.

The construction of such large and extravagant houses reveals the great wealth in private hands during the Tudor period. This was massively increased as a result of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-1530s. Properties formerly held by the church were seized by Henry and sold off to his nobles and the gentry. Although no signs of former monastic buildings were found by Time Team at Chenies, Mick Aston believes it is possible that there may have been a monastery on the site prior to Henry's reign.

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Time Trial.

Test your knowledge of Tudor archaeology with our quick quiz. You'll find all the answers by digging around in this week's pages and following our Time Trail for the Chenies programme.

What building material did the Tudors reintroduce to England for the first time since the Romans?
Concrete
Bricks
Iron

In 1538, Henry VIII levelled the village of Ewell in Surrey. Why?
To build a huge palace
Because it belonged to Ann Boleyn
Because he could

What took place in a 'tiltyard'?
Heavy drinking
Armour making
Jousting

How long did it take to put on a full suit of armour?
Five minutes
Forty minutes
Three hours

What did the Act of Suppression do in 1536?
Start the dissolution of the monasteries
Ban the Catholic faith
Order the execution of Ann Boleyn

The saying to 'cadge a lift' comes from the word 'cadge'. What is a cadge?
An ale cart
A hoist for lifting armour
A frame for carrying falcons

Answers here.

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Limited space for digging.

The medieval manor of Chenies has undergone many changes over the years. Both late medieval and early Tudor wings survive, but no trace is left above ground of a known extension to the manor, which was recorded in 1585. This was originally built to accommodate Henry VIII during his progress around the country, when he was accompanied by (and accommodation would have to be provided for) up to 1,000 people in his entourage.

Unfortunately for the Team, the house, which opens to the public, has such exquisite lawns and gardens that it is only possible to excavate limited areas in an attempt to find the missing accommodation. Excavations on the site are further limited by other standing buildings, including a farm.

'It was pretty difficult really,' says Time Team supervisor Kerry Ely. 'There were plenty of bits of wall foundation all over the gardens, but matching them up together wasn't easy because we were working with such small areas.'

According to Time Team regular digger Ian Powlesland: 'It's not as if we could establish where walls had been by looking at any surface marks. The whole site had been very comprehensively levelled during landscaping so we only had the geophysics and our small trenches to go on.'

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The return of Mick 'the Dig'.

This programme saw the return of an old favourite for Time Team viewers: the one-time regular excavation supervisor, Mick 'the Dig' Worthington. He was there in his new incarnation as Mick 'the Twig', the dendrochronologist, taking timber samples for tree-ring dating.

After leaving Time Team (he had been advised to give up digging to avoid permanent damage to his knees), Mick concentrated on his dendrochronology business. This is now a fully fledged trans-Atlantic affair, he says, 'with more work than ever'. He was very happy to be back at Time Team, however, even if only for a one-off show.

'It was great to be back', Mick says. 'There's a few new faces but it's not that different. It's great to see the crew again. I've had a hectic time in the States, where there are plenty of people interested in dating their timber houses, and back in the UK where the call for dendrochronology is greater than ever. The worst thing about being back in the UK at the moment is that I'm missing the Whoppers (a US version of Maltesers) – they're really malty and chocolatey. I'll have to see if a runner can get some for me!'

Dendrochronology works on the basis that trees develop new growth rings each year. Climate and other regional conditions affect how thick the rings grow. So two trees of the same species growing at the same time in the same area will have practically the same ring thickness sequence. The chronology is constructed by overlapping successively older samples until the species tree ring pattern goes back for centuries.

'We take a core of wood from, say, a timber beam,' says Mick, 'and then measure the rings down to an accuracy of 0.01 millimetres. Then a computer compares our sample with my database, which holds the full chronology for the species of tree in this region. When I get a sequence match I can establish an accurate date for the sample – and the timber beam it came from. In the case of this manor I've established that our samples match dates between 1538 and 1550.'

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Flying the falcons.

Ros Ereira, cameo producer
'Falconry seemed like a good choice of cameo for this site when we realised that Henry VIII would have hunted with his falcons every day while staying here. Then, when we found a portrait of the Duke of Bedford as a boy at the house, holding his hobby (small falcon), it seemed perfect. The Raphael Falconry was an obvious choice for me, as I had seen their historical falconry displays many times at English Heritage sites and knew them to be very knowledgeable about the history of the sport.

'I never thought we would be able to teach someone falconry in just two days, but the Raphaels seemed confident that it was worth a try, and they were right! The combination of Carenza's determination and Emma's expertise meant that Carenza was able to fly the birds amazingly well by the end of the two days.

'It was a real pleasure for us to have the birds on site, and over at the cameo, we got a constant stream of visitors from the incident room, geophysics and anyone else who could find an excuse to wander over and have a look at what was going on!'

Emma Raphael, Raphael Falconry
'It is not often that we recreate period falconry at a site with a proven history of falconry activity, but Chenies Manor was one such rare gem. A chance finding of a 16th-century family portrait depicting the 4th Earl of Bedford holding a falcon on his fist was a glimpse into the privileged life of the Russell family. With rich hunting grounds surrounding the manor there is every chance that Chenies was a residence frequented during royal progresses, when hunting was a particular attraction.

'Our task was to train Carenza to fly a falcon to demonstrate the skill demanded by this regal sport. Normally taking months or years, we had just two days! Carenza first had to learn some basic handling and safety skills, followed by more advanced hooding and knot tying. After experiencing a hawk flying to the glove, she was shown her final challenge with a spectacular flight by two falcons.

'Carenza spent much time perfecting her lure swinging, so once confident, we finally released a falcon from Tony's cadge (the wooden frame used for carrying falcons � from which we get the saying to 'cadge a lift'). With help to start, Carenza stunned everyone by performing several passes without prompt and a fantastic throw up to bring the falcon home!'

Raphael Falconry
www.raphaelfalconry.fsnet.co.uk

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Channel4.com Text Only

Time Team Series 12 Chenies, Buckinghamshire.

The manor that's back to front.

Time Trial.

Limited space for digging.

The return of Mick 'the Dig'.

Flying the falcons.

Recommended reading.

Time Team Series 12
Chenies, Buckinghamshire.