Time Team

A disused RAF bomber base, with one of the longest runways in the country, currently covers a large area near the village of Throckmorton.

Though still in commission, large parts of the base are now occupied only by grassland. The recent national foot-and-mouth outbreak brought new action to the base, however: as a disposal site for the carcasses of slaughter cattle and sheep.

Before the government started burying cremated animals here, though, they had a geophysics survey done of the site. Enough prospective archaeological features were discovered to make the authorities relocate their disposal area.

So what is the archaeology all about? It looks like a dense Iron-Age or Bronze-Age settlement, judging by the geophysics results. What was happening here in prehistoric times and how big was the settlement? Time Team is here to try to find out.