The dig

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, two families of amateur archaeologists began excavating some Roman remains in what is now a public park in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. They were told to keep quiet about their finds because the British Museum believed they might indicate the existence of an important Roman site locally, particularly since a large find of Roman coins had been made here at the turn of the century.

The site is located on the route of one of Britain's main Roman roads, Ermine Street, which linked London with Lincoln, and from there with the principal Roman town in the north of England, York. Could Time Team find the line of Ermine Street, no sign of which exists above ground in Cheshunt Park today? And what else lies beneath the grass, which has remained undisturbed since the excavations of those amateur archaeologists 40 years or so ago?

From 80 trenches to eight
The Mullinger and Howlett families, who carried out those digs in the late 1950s and early 1960s, dug more than 80 trenches altogether. As well as uncovering a wide range of Roman tiles, pottery and other artefacts, they found the remains of various buildings, which neither they nor archaeological experts at the time could identify with any degree of certainty. Time Team, with just three days to see whether it can come up with a more definitive picture of the site, has to make do with just eight trenches. Even that is a big job, which sees diggers racing to complete their excavations by the end of Day Three.

Jean Mullinger still lives alongside the park. Why did she want to see the excavations she took part in as a young woman revisited by Time Team today? 'We thought that this had been hidden long enough,' she says, explaining why she contacted Time Team. 'We wanted something done about it. My husband's dead now, so there's just myself left to say something.'

Jean's husband had led the original digs because 'he had a thing about Romans'. So too does Time Team's regular Roman expert, Guy de la Bédoyère, who is on hand, together with another Roman specialist, Rosalind Niblett, to help out with the identification of any finds. But first, the Team must see how the past excavations relate to the parkland today.

Phil gets a 'big machine' in
Fortunately, the Mullingers and Howletts kept a detailed diary of their digs, with a box grid plan showing the position of their various trenches. Less fortunately, a lot of the archaeology now appears to be beneath an overgrown thicket. As well as the usual geophysics survey work, there is a lot of clearance work needed before the trenches can get under way. 'I'm advocating getting a big machine in there to strip that out – not one of these little strimmer jobs,' says Phil, and a 'big machine' is duly moved in to clear the way.

Trench One is opened to try to pick up a long drain-like feature discovered in the original excavations. The geophysics survey, meanwhile, is providing clear signs of occupation, including boundary ditches and what may be the remains of buildings. Trench Two is opened a few metres from the first trench to try to pick up one such building and ditch. On Day Two this trench produces an almost complete, 4th-century, black burnished-ware Roman storage jar; and on Day Three a serving bowl made of the same material.

Overall, it's thought that the best way to try to make sense of the site is to find out how it relates to the road running through it, Ermine Street. And that, inevitably, is where landscape archaeologist Stewart Ainsworth comes in. From the helicopter he spots a parch mark cutting across the parkland, which follows the known line of Ermine Street beyond the park. Geophysics results confirm the line on the ground, so Trench Three is opened here.

Not a drain but a flue
By mid-morning on Day Two, Phil has uncovered more of the drain-like feature in Trench One. Peter Reynolds, an expert in ancient industrial techniques, thinks that it is not a drain, however, but a flue. This would have carried super-heated air to a forge for making iron or bronze. Peter Reynolds thinks it could also have supplied hot air for a Roman brewery, for use in malting barley.

Carenza, meanwhile, is in charge of Trench Four, and is looking for evidence of buildings closer to the line of Ermine Street. Trench Five is opened, under Phil's jurisdiction, to try to pick up the road nearer to the other trenches; Phil identifies what appears to be one of the drainage ditches that would have run alongside the road. Trench Six, under Jenni Butterworth's watchful eye, is located to seek out more structures between Trench One and the line of the road. The finds suggest that other buildings surrounded the 'brewery'; burn marks on one side of roof tiles suggest that some of them, at least, may have burned down at some point in the past.

Day Three
By Day Three, the exact line of Ermine Street has been plotted. Trench Seven is opened adjacent to Trench One to try to pick up what could be another road running at a different alignment to Ermine Street (and possibly dating from the later Saxon period); and Trench Eight is opened alongside the line of Ermine Street itself.

As seems to happen so often with Time Team, one of the most exciting discoveries is made towards the end of the third day. Disappearing beneath a tangle of tree roots in Trench Eight is a tessellated (mosaic) surface. It's hard to know for sure what sort of building it was once a part of, but Peter Reynolds is now convinced that there was a complex of buildings here devoted to malting, brewing and – why not? – selling beer. The tessellated surface could even be the floor surface of a Roman 'pub'. Phil takes little persuading anyway, as he passes around the drinks at the end of the final day.

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