What they found

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The discovery of prehistoric and medieval finds in a field that had recently been ploughed more deeply than in the past led to the landowner hiring GSP Prospection, who carry out all Time Team's geophysics work, to conduct a private survey. This showed a range of rectilinear and curvilinear features – enough to interest Time Team, working with the county archaeologist, David Evans, in what might lie beneath the surface of this stretch of relatively high land near Skipsea, Humberside.

Further magnetometry surveys carried out when Time Team was on site revealed a great array of largely rectilinear features.

Trenches placed over some of these features uncovered a series of ditches and pits. One trench investigating a D-shaped enclosure revealed a ditch with a good sequence of deposits, suggesting that it was an important re-used enclosure. All the features were dated, by large amounts of pottery, to the 11th-13th centuries AD.

Excavation within the centre of a rectilinear enclosure uncovered a rectangular spread of occupation debris and stone rubble footings. Also dating to the 11th-13th centuries, this area was suggestive of a timber-framed building.

Environmental core samples taken to the south of these features, in low land, revealed pollen sequences in peat that are longer than those associated with the nearby Skipsea Mere, dating back to the Palaeolithic.

A trench placed over one geophysical anomaly revealed a large rectangular lead vessel. Smoke-blackened on the underside and discovered along with an iron fire-stand, it was interpreted as a medieval saltpan. A polished whetstone was also found.

Overall, it was clear that the site represented a previously undiscovered Norman settlement. The dating of this settlement was broadly contemporary with the construction of Skipsea Castle, about one kilometre to the north, and the development of the settlement that grew up around it. The pottery sequence found on the site suggested that the settlement had declined as the town of Skipsea grew.

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