Behind the scenes: Digging gardens with Raksha Dave

Time Team digger Raksha Dave gives the inside story on what it was like to dig gardens in Islip.

From a digger's point of view what was the site like to dig?
It was a typical Time Team garden archaeology programme. The one where you go in and create a huge hole in people's gardens.

I always feel guilty about it because I always think they don't really envisage how their garden will look like at the end of three days. I am constantly amazed at how enthusiastic people are. I suppose we are very lucky in that respect.

Logistically, it can be a bit complicated digging in people's gardens – especially when you're trying to squeeze a mini digger in there. Another aspect of this sort of digging is that you can become very isolated and very rarely have time to go around other people's trenches to get an overview. I had a great time digging in the garden I was allocated except that it had huge hairy spiders in it…

What was the most interesting part of making the programme for you?
I think the most interesting part of this programme was the reason why we were there. It was an investigation to try to prove archaeologically whether a chapel existed and whether there are any links between Islip and Edward the Confessor. It's more exciting in a way when there hasn't been any real archaeological work done in an area because you have no expectations of what will be there.

Tell us about the cesspit that got mistaken for the chapel
After ruminating on day two with Stewart Ainsworth and Jonathan Foyle that I may have found the chapel and then finding out on day three that it was an outhouse was slightly amusing to say the least. It just shows that you can interpret as much as you like but you will never know if something exists or prove your theory unless you have the evidence for it. That's why excavation is important.

Who had the best archaeology to dig?
It was all interesting in different ways. Matt, Phil and Brig had some really interesting garden archaeology – and yes, I had a toilet!  Yeah, so that would be me…

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