Not much room for manoeuvre The Greyfriars site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and so is subject to special requirements and restrictions. For one thing, Time Team is allowed a maximum of only five trenches, which cannot exceed 130 square metres in total. English Heritage regional inspector Peter Kendall is on hand to make sure the archaeologists don't get carried away. As a result, it has been decided to start with trenches that will be a mere 5m x 2m, simply to eke out this precious resource as carefully as possible. The initial plan is to place these trenches so that Time Team can locate any anomalies that John Gater and his geophysics team may uncover, or to find some of the large number of trenches that were opened by archaeologist Louise Millard in the early 1970s – or, if we're lucky, both. Louise Millard appears to have located an extensive range of friary buildings. Although the results of her work have never been published, the archive of her findings is held by Canterbury Museum, who kindly allowed Time Team researcher Jenni Butterworth to investigate it. If the Team do locate at least a few of Louise Millard's trenches, this means they won't have to start from scratch but will be able to build on and extend previous work (which will definitely be published). Doctor Butterworth, I presume? Chief researcher Jenni Butterworth has spent months working for Time Team Live, digging in archives to find relevant historical documents and maps, as well as talking at length to the Canterbury Archaeological Trust about past excavations and surveys on the three sites that were eventually chosen. She also co-wrote the 'project design', which was particularly important for the Greyfriars site, where permission to excavate was required from English Heritage. But something else is occupying Jenni's mind. Next week is her viva voce (the Latin name for the oral exam faced by PhD candidates). If she's successful, she will become a doctor of philosophy. Two people here will be particularly happy on that day – her two PhD supervisors: Mick Aston and Mark Horton. Mark, our medieval tiles expert this weekend, covers for Mick at Bristol University when Mick is involved with Time Team. We know it won't go to her head, though. Jenni is never afraid to get her hands dirty – despite her lofty title of 'chief researcher', she'll will also be a digger during Time Team Live! ^top