The three days we spent at the Abbey were among the most memorable in seventeen years of Time Team. The archaeology, the traffic, the noise - everything came together to make for an unforgettable dig!
Westminster Abbey is a building that's central to our understanding of Britain, and that's not just because it's jammed packed full of the tombs of kings, queens, scientists and poets, or because so many of our nation's great acts of ceremony have been carried out there. Its walls positively drip with a thousand years of British history; every square inch has a story to tell.
When asked to make a programme about the site we realised the enormity of the task - so we made two programmes instead. As well as our three day dig, we've also been filming a documentary there for the last six months trying to get to the heart of this building and its stories. It will be broadcast in 2010 and I guarantee it will offer a fascinating view of one of Britain's greatest pieces of architecture.
A big bonus about filming here has been that it's given us the opportunity to get behind the scenes. It's a vast place and people usually only see a fraction of it. I was lucky enough to visit parts of it that most visitors never see. Climbing on the roof, through unfinished chapels and into 11th century rooms - it was fascinating to get off the beaten track.
Time Team is all about bringing archaeology to the people, but at Westminster the people could come to the archaeology. Thousands of Abbey visitors lined up to see what we'd uncovered. And the most exciting moment of the dig had to be the identification of a tiny shard of Anglo Saxon pottery from Phil's chalk lined burial. For the first time we have solid evidence of a mysterious Anglo Saxon monastery that stood here a thousand years ago.
