Time is even more restricted on this excavation than the usual three-day limit for Time Team digs. As the timbers are right at the water's edge at low tide (and up to eight metres underwater at high tide) there are only a couple of hours during which any excavation can take place. The site is also being eroded because the changing topography of the foreshore is affecting the tides. Time Team is going to try to rescue one of the posts so that it can be studied, preserved and displayed at the Museum of London.

The whole excavation centres upon a single trench, which is so small it could be referred to as a test pit. It has had to be kept as small as possible because the environment at the water's edge is extremely sensitive and any larger excavation could seriously damage the immediate ecosystem. With the tides determining what can be done and when, excavation is limited to barely two hours per day. On the first day, the post has hardly been exposed by the time the tide starts to come in again. To protect the site the trench has to be backfilled with bags of gravel, which can easily be removed when the tides grant the Team access again for the second day of digging.

Day two sees digging under way again as soon as the water is at a safe level. With the trench getting close to a metre deep there's still no sign of the post moving until Phil notices it budge, just slightly. The trench is now deep enough to free the post by the smallest amount but the suction of the Thames mud means that it is still not enough to lift it. Again, despite pushing the digging efforts to the limit, the order has to be given to leave the post for another night and secure the trench. 'Well, we didn't get the post out in the limited time we had. I guess that's just Time Team,' says Tony.

By day three time is running out. Heavy rain during the night has knocked out the power to the incident room and tension is running high. The Team is forging ahead in the confined conditions around the trench, fighting against the elements. The post is now well exposed and rocking gently. Then, it breaks. What is evidently an ancient fissure has finally given way. The post is lifted and taken from the shore for conservation.

The consensus of the specialists is that what remains here is some sort of structure, either a jetty or bridge, which was constructed by Bronze-Age peoples to reach a natural island in the Thames. During the Bronze Age the site may have been especially significant because it was at the limit of the tidal river, where salt and fresh water merged, and there would have been a huge tidal surge here. The fresh water meeting the seawater would have caused the river to flow and eddy in different directions during the day. This would undoubtedly have been a strange and intriguing phenomenon for Bronze-Age people. The intentionally deposited artefacts discovered previously on the site could indicate that this place was one of importance, and possibly religious significance, for those who used the Thames 3,000 years ago.