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Julia Plaistowe, the owner of Chesham Bois House, is a keen gardener. Over the years, she's turned up 17th-century and medieval tiles beneath the greenhouse, uncovered medieval pottery in the flowerbeds, and noticed strange lumps and bumps at the bottom of the garden.
From an early 18th-century map she knew that her current house, which dates from around 1820, was built on the site of a much larger property. But this 1735 map is the only known illustration of that building. Nor are there any descriptions of what it looked like – in fact, there's nothing that could tell Julia when it was built, what it looked like or what lies beneath the surface in her garden.
Historical records, however, trace the ownership of the manor here back to the reign of Edward the Confessor; and we know of a manor house in the vicinity from at least the 1420s. This was when it came into the ownership of the Cheyne family, whose colourful reputation for violence and possibly heresy didn't prevent them from becoming pillars of the local establishment until their line died out in the first half of the 18th century.
Time Team was called in by Julia Plaistowe, as the modern-day heir to the former Cheyne manor, to see what could be discovered about its past.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
In 2004, Julia Plaistowe, the owner of Chesham Bois House, invited the local archaeology group, the Chess Valley Archaeology and Historical Society (CVAHS), to investigate the gardens surrounding her home. CVAHS carried out a resistivity survey and a small-scale excavation.
They found a large hearth and identified a possible building approximately five times the size of Julia's current house. The 'lumps and bumps' in the surrounding landscape were revealed to include several rectangular features that it was thought might indicate the presence of a deserted medieval village. In addition, the geophysics survey showed a hexagonal or octagonal feature on a part of the garden known as the bowling green.
Limited resources meant that CVAHS were unable to investigate further. So Time Team's first step on arrival at Chesham Bois was to take up the investigation where the local archaeology group had left off.
69 loaves
The team re-dug CVAHS's test trench and put in a long trench in St Leonard's Church Field, where there were various promising 'lumps and bumps', as well as 'geofizzing' a large part of the site. They identified the hearth originally excavated by CVAHS as part of an early 17th-century bakehouse – which contemporary accounts suggest was operating on an almost industrial scale, producing 69 loaves for a single meal. The discovery of Tudor bricks and distinctive white Tudor mortar indicated an earlier building phase from around 1520-40 on this site. But that was as early as the Team got in Julia Plaistowe's garden.
Different building phases
What seems to have happened is that the medieval manor house first occupied by the Cheyne family in the 1420s actually stood on the site of a different building nearby, rather than where Chesham Bois House is today. Then, in the early 16th century, Robert Cheyne, who made a fortune from sheep farming (he is reported to have owned 8-10,000 sheep), built a new, grander house on this new site. A second phase of building was carried out about a hundred years later by Francis Cheyne, following his marriage to Anne, the daughter and wealthy heiress of Sir William Fleetwood.
As for St Leonard's Church Field, there was no sign of a deserted medieval village – or any other habitation – when the lumps and bumps were excavated. This was despite the discovery of some 12th-14th-century pottery that initially raised hopes that there might have been medieval dwellings here. A feature that had been thought to be a path to the church was identified as more likely to have been a boundary.
Key to the door
The top find of the dig, meanwhile, was a large iron key. Helen Geake identified it as late 14th-century and speculated that at one time it may even have opened the front door of the manor house itself.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Religious intolerance
A stone monument not far from where Time Team was digging in Chesham Bois records one of the bloody incidents of religious intolerance that have occurred throughout British history. In 1521, a group of men who became known as the Amersham Martyrs were burned at the stake for their religious beliefs.
They were Lollards – religious reformers who believed in the right of ordinary people to worship God directly, and according to their own reading of the Gospels, rather than only via the intervention of priests and the unquestioning doctrines of the established Catholic Church. They were a part of the Protestant Reformation that was sweeping across Europe, promoted by the new printing presses that facilitated the publication of the first translations of the Bible into English and other languages.
Cheynes under suspicion
At the beginning of his reign, Henry VIII was strongly opposed to Protestantism and the publication of an English Bible. The Church courts pursued the Lollards and others as heretics, imposing brutal punishments on many of them. In 1521, Robert Cheyne, who was responsible for one of the main building phases at Chesham Bois House, was among those who came under suspicion for his religious beliefs. According to the Victoria County History, he 'turned out one of his tenants in 1538 for reading the New Testament and other books, and had to enter into a recognisance for the appearance of his younger son Thomas Cheyne in 1541'.
The inscriptions
The Cheynes managed to escape punishment for their beliefs. But other local people were not so lucky, as the inscriptions on the monument to the Amersham Martyrs make clear.
In the shallow depression at a spot 100 yards left of this monument seven Protestants, six men and one woman, were burned to death at the stake. They died for the principles of religious liberty, for the right to read and interpret the Holy Scriptures and to worship God according to their consciences as revealed through God's Holy word.
Their names shall live for ever.
William Tylsworth, Burned 1506
Joan Clark, his married daughter, was compelled to light the faggots to burn her father
Thomas Barnard, Burned 1521
James Morden, Burned 1521
John Scrivener, Burned 1521
His children were compelled to light their father's pyre
Robert Rave, Burned 1521
Thomas Holmes, Burned 1521
Joan Norman, Burned 1521
The other side of the monument records:
'The following men, worshippers at Amersham, were martyred in other places
Robert Cosin
of Gt Missenden, burned at Buckingham 1506
Thomas Chase
strangled at Woburn Bucks
His body was buried at Norland Woods 1514
Thomas Man
burned at Smithfield 1518
Thomas Harding
burned at Chesham 1532
Watched the programme, browsed the web pages? Now see how you get on with our quick quiz about John Wycliffe, whose radical teachings are regarded as a precursor of the Protestant Reformation and inspired the Amersham Martyrs more than a century after his death.
The term 'Lollard' was originally a derogatory one applied to the followers of John Wycliffe. It is thought to come from a Dutch word meaning what?
To be lazy
To grumble
To mumble
What was John Wycliffe's attitude towards the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, which took place when his views were spreading rapidly among the common people?
He was a strong supporter of it
He opposed it
He said it did not matter
Of what was it said that 'The jewel of the clergy has become the toy of the laity'?
The dissolution of the monasteries
The translation of the Bible into English
John Wycliffe's preaching
Who was John Wycliffe's most important protector?
John of Gaunt
Richard II
The Archbishop of Canterbury
How did John Wycliffe die?
Peacefully in his bed
Burned at the stake
Following a stroke
What happened to John Wycliffe's bones almost a century after his death at the command of the Pope?
They were dug up and burnt
They were sent to Rome
They were used as holy relics
Answers here.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Chesham Bois
Chess Valley Journal (Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society), £1 plus 50p p&p, available from CVAHS, LittleBlackfield, Ballinger, Great Missenden, Bucks HP16 9LL
The 2006 edition of the Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society journal contains reports on the CVAHS test trench and other archaeological investigations by the society at Chesham Bois. The contents include the articles: 'St Leonard's Church Field, Chesham Bois. Is this a deserted medieval village?' and 'From Saxon manor to pleasure gardens: an archaeological investigation at Chesham Bois House'.
A History of Chesham Bois by L Elgar Pike (1976)
This short, illustrated pamphlet was written and self-published by L Elgar Pike, who also wrote The Book of Amersham: The story of a Chiltern town (Barracuda Books, 1976) and official guidebooks for Amersham Rural District Council and Chiltern District Council.
Get this book
Chesham Bois: A celebration of the village and its history (Chesham Bois Parish Council, 1999, email parishclerk@btconnect.com)
The most recent publication about Chesham Bois, its people and history.
English manor and country houses
English Manor Houses by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes (Laurence King Publishing, 2001) hardback £40
This coffee-table book focuses on the manor houses of England. These smaller scale houses, often of more ancient origin than the ‘great houses’, are scattered all over the country, ranging from simple Norman halls to picturesque Tudor manor houses and handsome buildings from the reign of the Stuarts. Whereas most of the great houses have now been sold by their original owners and are maintained as museums, many of the manor houses are still privately owned and lived in as homes.
Get this book
Life in the English Country House: A social and architectural history by Mark Girouard (Yale University Press, 1993, 2nd edition) paperback £16.95
Classic introductory book on the architecture, use, and evolution of English country houses from the medieval period to the Second World War. Although not an archaeological text it provides a good background on the way house plans, facades etc reflect the original purpose of the building and social standing and expectations of the builder.
Get this book
The English House by James Chambers (Thames Methuen, 1985) hardback £14.95
Tells the story of the English house in all its richness and diversity, from the earliest medieval dwellings to the 20th century. Includes a good introductory chapter on Tudor country houses.
Get this book
The Archaeology of Buildings by Richard K Morriss (Tempus, 2000) £11.19
A highly useful introduction to building materials and construction techniques. Find out about the techniques used in standing buildings' recording and discover how to recognise different phases of construction in ancient buildings.
Get this book
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Chesham Bois
Chess Valley Journal (Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society), £1 plus 50p p&p, available from CVAHS, LittleBlackfield, Ballinger, Great Missenden, Bucks HP16 9LL
The 2006 edition of the Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society journal contains reports on the CVAHS test trench and other archaeological investigations by the society at Chesham Bois. The contents include the articles: 'St Leonard's Church Field, Chesham Bois. Is this a deserted medieval village?' and 'From Saxon manor to pleasure gardens: an archaeological investigation at Chesham Bois House'.
A History of Chesham Bois by L Elgar Pike (1976)
This short, illustrated pamphlet was written and self-published by L Elgar Pike, who also wrote The Book of Amersham: The story of a Chiltern town (Barracuda Books, 1976) and official guidebooks for Amersham Rural District Council and Chiltern District Council.
Get this book
Chesham Bois: A celebration of the village and its history (Chesham Bois Parish Council, 1999, email parishclerk@btconnect.com)
The most recent publication about Chesham Bois, its people and history.
English manor and country houses
English Manor Houses by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes (Laurence King Publishing, 2001) hardback £40
This coffee-table book focuses on the manor houses of England. These smaller scale houses, often of more ancient origin than the ‘great houses’, are scattered all over the country, ranging from simple Norman halls to picturesque Tudor manor houses and handsome buildings from the reign of the Stuarts. Whereas most of the great houses have now been sold by their original owners and are maintained as museums, many of the manor houses are still privately owned and lived in as homes.
Get this book
Life in the English Country House: A social and architectural history by Mark Girouard (Yale University Press, 1993, 2nd edition) paperback £16.95
Classic introductory book on the architecture, use, and evolution of English country houses from the medieval period to the Second World War. Although not an archaeological text it provides a good background on the way house plans, facades etc reflect the original purpose of the building and social standing and expectations of the builder.
Get this book
The English House by James Chambers (Thames Methuen, 1985) hardback £14.95
Tells the story of the English house in all its richness and diversity, from the earliest medieval dwellings to the 20th century. Includes a good introductory chapter on Tudor country houses.
Get this book
The Archaeology of Buildings by Richard K Morriss (Tempus, 2000) £11.19
A highly useful introduction to building materials and construction techniques. Find out about the techniques used in standing buildings' recording and discover how to recognise different phases of construction in ancient buildings.
Get this book
The term 'Lollard' was originally a derogatory one applied to the followers of John Wycliffe. It is thought to come from a Dutch word meaning what?
To mumble
What was John Wycliffe's attitude towards the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, which took place when his views were spreading rapidly among the common people?
He opposed it
Of what was it said that 'The jewel of the clergy has become the toy of the laity'?
The translation of the Bible into English
Who was John Wycliffe's most important protector?
John of Gaunt
How did John Wycliffe die?
Following a stroke
What happened to John Wycliffe's bones almost a century after his death at the command of the Pope?
They were dug up and burnt