The dig

Ambitious objectives
The problem with carrying out archaeological work in a town is that you can only dig where space permits – and that is not always where you would like to be digging. But this doesn't stop Time Team setting itself some fairly ambitious objectives. The questions to which it is hoped to find answers over the three days include: What was the route of the main Roman road (the Roman equivalent of the M1) that ran through the town? What is the boundary (or boundaries) of the several Roman forts that once stood here? And what is the location of any 'vicus', or associated civilian settlement?

The area designated for Trench One, behind a British Legion Club, is fenced off. The theory (based on past excavation work) is that this site, now a barren patch of urban wasteland, should cover the remains of the Roman vicus. The geophysics team, using both magnetronomy and ground-penetrating radar, has highlighted some anomalies worth pursuing. Stewart Ainsworth, Time Team's landscape archaeologist, meanwhile, is enthusing over his maps: 'From what I can see it looks like nothing has been built on top of the Roman archaeology until the late 19th century. This looks quite promising.' Field archaeologist and Time Team regular Phil Harding is keen to get going: 'What's important here is to find out if the Victorian buildings that were here have destroyed the Roman archaeology underneath.'

Roman forts and Victorian cellars
While strategies are discussed at Trench One, a second site, in the middle of a supermarket car park, is surveyed before work gets under way on Trench Two. Here the Team hopes to discover the boundary of the Roman forts. (These are known to be complicated, overlapping structures that will require careful excavation and analysis.) The geophysics team is also searching for evidence of the main Roman road, assisted by Stewart Ainsworth with his maps. 'What I'm looking for are any clues in the modern shape of the town to how the Roman settlement may have looked,' says Stewart. 'I'm also looking closely at where Roman roads may have gone out of the town to the north and south.'

As Trench One progresses, the excavation reveals rubble and the outline of cellars from demolished Victorian buildings. In the midst of the rubble, however, the first pieces of Roman pottery are also found. As the afternoon moves on, Trench One gets bigger. It's now a large 'T'-shaped trench in which the red brick walls of a Victorian cellar are clearly defined.

Simon Tomson, the local Roman archaeology expert, explains what's going on: 'The modern road here could well be on top of an original Roman road. A row of Victorian houses was built where we're digging now and this is a cellar from one of those houses. On the old tithe maps we can see that these were just fields before the Victorians got going, so the only material these cellars went through would have been medieval plough soil and then the Roman archaeology.'

Has the Roman archaeology been preserved under the Victorian cellars? Some further excavation is needed to find out.

Backyards and backfill
Day Two sees the excavation break through the Victorian cellars in Trench One and uncover some well-preserved Roman pottery. The trench is extended to cover an area that would have been Victorian backyards. It's hoped that the Roman archaeology here will be even better preserved.

Over at Trench Two, meanwhile, Ian Powlesland, veteran Time Team digger, is hard at work. 'What we've done here is excavate a lot of backfill from a previous excavation,' he says. 'We've reached the full extent and found the level that the old archaeologists got to. We've found evidence for compacted turfs (used for a rampart wall) and now we can dig on down. Hopefully the conditions will be right to discover some well-preserved organic finds.'

Digging up the football pitch
The afternoon sees the geophysics team keen to open a new trench on the town football pitch to continue the search for the line of the Roman road. Trench Three is duly opened, following up their strong survey readings. In Trench One, beneath the cellar floor, Phil Harding has discovered a well-preserved compacted gravel surface: it could be the remnants of the Roman road at this end of town.

Tony Robinson is particularly excited about some of the pottery coming out of this trench. 'Some of the pieces have makers' marks,' he enthuses. 'They're a bit like the "Made in Stoke on Trent" you can see on the bottom of a modern saucer. The Roman ones are stamped into the pot and tell us who made the piece. That's one of my favourite types of find – where you can connect something to an individual. It makes the whole thing more personal.'

Work on Trench Two is slow going but it is starting to smell: a good sign that preserved organic materials are close by. Over at the football pitch, though, Trench Three is completely empty – another geophysics blip. It's decided to run a bore-hole survey across the pitch to try to determine where the road could be, but this also proves disappointing.

As the end of the investigation draws near, Trench Two is extended to uncover a larger area. This exposes the edge of a Roman midden, or rubbish pit, leading to the conclusion that the organic layers found in a previous excavation were not, as had been thought, a continuous layer running under the ramparts. Trench One is also leading to some rethinking: it looks as though the gravel surface uncovered there is a courtyard or a surface for workshops or something similar rather than the Roman road. The Roman finds are plentiful though. They include small pottery vessels used for making offerings and an abundance of domestic wares; there is even some evidence of cremations. It certainly looks as though this area, outside the forts, was a hive of activity.

Taking to the water
Finally, the geophysics team has taken to the water. Using ground-penetrating radar, pointed through the bottom of a boat, they are trying to find any traces of a ford or bridge that could indicate the location of the Roman road. (They just don't give up, do they?) The boat's motor packs up while they are busy midstream, but not to be outdone they resort to ropes to pull themselves back and forth. The outcome is a series of readings, which Stewart and the geophysics crew alike, insists indicates the line of the now submerged Roman road crossing. We believe them, don't we?

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