What they found

Southampton University has been monitoring the Grace Dieu shipwreck for more than 30 years. Finished in 1420, it was the largest medieval ship ever built, but very little of it has been investigated. Time Team helped the university to bring an experimental new method of underwater excavation to a site protected by English Heritage.

To avoid the bad visibility normally associated with river estuary sediments, an inflatable 'sea curtain' was constructed. The theory was that this would provide a bubble around the trench and that clean water could be pumped in. This method had been successful in still harbour waters but proved inefficient in the Hamble's strong river and tidal currents.

New sonar CHIRP technology was successfully trialled on site and excavation proceeded on the stern end of the ship. Timbers from the hull of the ship were uncovered, highlighting the construction techniques used – specifically the use of much longer planks than thought.

Landscape investigation at Bursledon highlighted a possible site for contemporary shipbuilding. Trenches placed on the edges of an old creek produced evidence for later structures but nothing that could be directly related to 15th-century industry.

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