Mick Aston explains why Time Team is so interested in Canterbury

Over the past 2,000 years Canterbury has always been an important place – one of the most important cities in the country. It was a prehistoric centre and then a very big Roman city. It continued to be important after the Roman period because Augustine came here and reintroduced Christianity to England. This importance continued through the Saxon and Norman periods and it remains a major centre all through the Middle Ages. For all that period, it was the main commercial market centre for the region.