The first Tudor palace?

Penny Rainbow's house on the river Mole, in Esher, is unlike any other in Surrey's swish stockbroker belt. Now known as Wayneflete Tower, after the man who had it built, William Wayneflete, it is also sometimes referred to as Wolsey's Tower on account of the fact that Wolsey stayed there for a time after he was compelled to give Hampton Court to Henry VIII. Either way, the tower is all that remains of the 15th-century Esher Palace – a building that was so grand that it inspired the design of Hampton Court, just a few miles downstream, where the river Mole joins the Thames.

Penny wanted to know what her palace would have looked like five centuries or so ago. Over three days Time Team pieced together the story of a site that evolved into one of the most stunning buildings of early Tudor times. Tony and the Team set about digging up her garden as they tried to identify what might remain of the palace, built towards the end of the Wars of the Roses for the fantastically wealthy bishops of Winchester.

Penny had a special interest in William Wayneflete (1398-1486), who became bishop of Winchester in 1447 and was lord chancellor from 1456-59. Wayneflete survived both the Hundred Years War (which ended in 1453) and the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), outliving seven kings and making it into the start of the reign of an eighth, Henry VII, who founded the Tudor dynasty. As well as the palace at Esher Place, he was responsible for other important buildings that helped to establish the Tudor architectural style, most notably those of Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, for both of which he was the principal benefactor. Penny, a great fan of Wayneflete, hoped that Time Team's investigation would help to consolidate his reputation – and that of the tower he built, as part of possibly the first Tudor palace.

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