Hidden away in Kent is an architectural gem, a building that is important not because it's bigger or better than any other but because it has survived, complete with all the many changes and bodges made to it over the course of seven centuries.
It's a Grade I listed building, a Scheduled Ancient Monument and, according to Pevsner, 'the most complete small medieval manor house in the country'. It's also been the subject of the National Trust's most ambitious and expensive renovation project in its history.
Ightham Mote is a magnificent moated manor house in the small village of Ightham, near Sevenoaks. Beginning in 1989, it has literally been taken apart brick by brick and beam by beam revealing the hidden history of the house for the first time.
Time Team tells the story of this different kind of archaeology as the renovation of the final section of the house, the south-west quarter, was carried out in 2003-2004.
Watch now on 4oD
