The dig

The mystery mansion
Exactly how High Ercall Hall finally succumbed to the Roundhead guns, after surviving two sieges, is a bit of a mystery – but it is not the only mystery here. There is a plaque on the wall of the hall today saying the 'mansion' was built in 1608, but local building expert Richard Morriss says the existing hall isn't grand enough to be described in this way. There is what appears to be a set of medieval monastery arches on the modern lawn in front of the hall. And there are massive earthworks dominating the fields around the house – the Royalist defenders depended on these fortifications, but could they be much older than that?

There are large numbers of documents, drawings and other archive records relating to the site, but many of these contradict each other and only seem to add to the mystery. It soon becomes clear that only excavation will help to unravel the true story. The first geophysics surveys pick up several interesting areas, which look as though they could indicate foundations for buildings mentioned in the documentary evidence. Mick Aston decides to place the first trenches where the underlying archaeology will either back up or disprove the written records.

'Let's find out what is actually here,' says Mick, 'Then we can try to determine the story of the site.' Trench One is sited next to the monastic-looking stone arches in the garden of the hall. Richard Morriss has already cast doubt on their medieval appearance; he says they are typical of local architecture from around 1600 to 1610. The trench will make it possible to tell if these are part of a bigger structure, and whether they are medieval or later, by studying their foundations and any adjacent archaeology under the ground nearby.

Phil Harding opens Trench Two on the large defensive earthworks to the side of the hall. 'This looks like it was quite a substantial structure,' he says, as he tumbles into a bed of brambles on the top of the high bank. Meanwhile, the geophysics survey has picked up an anomaly in another part of the garden. It could represent a building, but it lies on a different alignment to the rest of the buildings on the site. Jenni Butterworth opens Trench Three over this area.

Flights of fancy
Trench One soon exposes the foundations for the monastic-looking stonework: they are no more than 300 years old. It looks as if the arches were taken from another place and erected in the garden as a folly. This confirms that some of the old drawings and written records of the hall are no more than 'flights of fancy', and so the team must rely on the archaeology to find out what really happened here.

This doesn't stop historian Robin Bush from scouring the archives for more reliable material, of course. He has been tapping a rich vein of Civil War sources that relate to the site. 'We know that 500 Parliamentarians were killed in the first siege, when only 200 Royalists held the hall. That's a phenomenal feat,' says Robin. He's also uncovered some letters exchanged by Lady Diana Newport and her mother Lady Bedford showing how the war affected members of the Newport family, who owned High Ercall Hall. One, sent to Lady Newport when she was besieged in the hall, reads: 'I know not how to give you comfort ... They did not give you good advice who told you to stay. Have a care of your little boy and come away.'

The defensive earthworks produce lots of brick material that is borderline-dated to the Civil War period. But there is some suspicion that they could be ornamental – like the pseudo-monastic remains – or that their origins are much earlier. The only answer is to dig deeper into the bank.

Trench Three (over the misaligned anomaly), meanwhile, reveals some large stonework, which could be part of a substantial building. Jenni decides to widen the trench to find out more. A further challenge faces the team when they discover a second date plaque (for 1617 this time) built into the garden wall. Things have begun to get complicated.

The story of the earthworks
Day Two sees Trench Two beginning to reveal the story of the earthworks. A massive excavation trench cut through the corner of the earthworks shows that they were originally part of a wall rising from a moat around the site. During the Civil War the wall was buried under a huge turfed bank, which was raised up to give the Royalist forces a platform from which to attack the besieging Parliamentary forces – and to protect High Ercall Hall from attack from Parliamentary cannon and musket fire.

Back in the hall gardens, the search continues for the 'missing' mansion buildings. Jenni's trench uncovers more heavy stonework, which appears to be plastered on both sides (indicating that it's an internal wall). Further trenches are opened in the garden to try to locate what could be the rest of the lost mansion. By the end of Day Three, the garden of High Ercall Hall resembles a battlefield as it is covered with trenches in an attempt to pick up the floorplan.

The documentary and archaeological evidence now all points to a 'mansion' having indeed once stood here, perhaps linked to the existing hall by a 'long gallery' lined with those pseudo-monastic arches. Richard Morriss even produces two possible models from the period for how it might have looked: Apsley Castle, which he feels still isn't quite grand enough, and the aptly named Aston Hall.

The final assault
But what happened to this building? It seems that this side of High Ercall Hall bore the brunt of the final assault by the Parliamentary forces. Badly damaged or destroyed in the attack, what was left of the building was demolished at some stage afterwards. As rain tumbles down in the final hours of Day Three, the hard-pressed diggers at last locate the line of the building's external wall – together with some fragments of window glass. 'Perhaps a Royalist looked through this glass to see the Parliamentarians advancing on the house during the third and final siege,' says Tony.

Finally, back in the existing building, the mystery of the misdated plaque is solved. Erstwhile Time Team digger Mick 'the Dig' Worthington – now reincarnated as dendrochronology expert Mick 'the Twig' – has been sampling the roof timbers. This establishes that the hall was actually built over two phases, with one set of timbers having been felled in the spring of 1595 and another in 1608.