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Look at that, one of the finest\n manor houses in Britain.

It was built for a powerful family,\n played host to Charles I.

You can imagine how excited\n the archaeologists were

when they discovered the moat\n of this Grade I listed building.

Except there was one tiny problem.

Look at this map the archaeologists\n drew. There's the house,

here's the moat and does it go\n up to here and turn round the house?

No, it goes hurtling off\n in that direction.

This is the direction\n the moat's going in

but what on earth's going on,\n what's it protecting?

There have been several theories -

from a Roman fort to a royal court,

from a chapel to a heavily\n fortified cattle enclosure.

And we've got just three days\n to rip up this field

and find out what this\n has got to do with that.

Please don't let it be\n a cattle enclosure, please!

Not a cattle enclosure.

Llancaiach is just north of Cardiff,\n sitting on a plateau of land

in the middle of the rolling\n South Wales Valleys.

The earth works we're here\n to investigate were first recorded

in the 1970s but, so far,\n all attempts to establish\n what they are have failed.

Where he's coming in is where that\n ditch was shown from through there.

Yeah, yeah.

But it makes sense to assume\n they've got something to do

with next door\n Llancaiach Fawr Manor,

where the powerful Pritchard family\n once entertained Charles I.

And the manor itself,\n now a museum and education centre,

is also a bit of a mystery\n because no-one knows

if it was the first house\n to be built on this site.

You've got this whole place to run

and you've got coach loads of kids\n coming in and all the tourists

and you've invited us\n here for three days.

We have indeed,\n I just really want to know

whether we've got anything else\n that's earlier than about 1530,

which is the date we think the house\n is, because I don't think

it is the only thing\n that's important on this site.

It's always struck me\n as rather strange

that we have\n this potential moated enclosure

and it actually goes out in the\n opposite direction from the house.

And, in this document\n from the Royal Commission,

it says, "This might\n be a Medieval moated site

"or on balance,\n more likely of Roman origin."

And then the golden words,

"excavation will be required\n to decide the matter."

So you're quite happy\n to fend the kids off\n and let us get on with it.

Absolutely.

So, do we have an earlier\n moated house or even a Roman fort

in this enormous field?

It's a big question

and for once we're not waiting\n for geophys to answer it.

There are definite earthworks there,\ndefinite earthworks.

Because some of the team have\n decided to break with tradition

and open a trench immediately.

Look at that,\n not only a trench but a big one!

Here are the three wise monkeys\n of archaeology.

Ben, how come we've\n got a trench in already?

Stewart had a wander this morning

and he picked up\n these three low earthworks

but they seem to line up\n with the possible moat

so we thought we'd go for it,\n we couldn't wait any longer.

A couple of years ago\nthey put a trench

across where they think\nthe earthworks were

and they found two rows of stones,

two sort of banks of stones\nwith a post hole in the middle.

Until we open up a bigger area,

we won't know whether\nwe can identify these stone rows,

whether we can find any more\npost holes, we've got to think big.

Surely this is going to be\n the easiest dig we've ever done -

the house, the moat, something\n in the middle, bosh, go home!

Yeah, except the term "moat"\n on an Ordinance Survey map

covers a multitude of sins.

What does he mean?

All it means is that\nsomebody's seen a depression.\nFirst of all, what is a moat?

It could mean a water filled ditch,\nit could just mean a dry ditch,

it could be functional, defensive,

it could be for fish, it could just\nbe something that looks nice

in your grounds. We've got no idea\nwhat this thing is until we dig it.

So, our first trench has gone in\n over the tantalisingly visible bit

of the L-shaped earthworks\n that everyone is calling a moat.

In this first trench\nit's always so important.

I reckon you learn more\nfrom that first trench than you do

all the other ones you put through,

it gives you that first impression\nof the site.

We suspect this earthwork\n may only be one corner

of a much larger feature

with some potentially stunning\n archaeology in the middle.

And until John and his team\n finish their survey of this field

we can only guess what that might be

Stewart, do me a favour, tell me\n our moat isn't a cattle enclosure!

(LAUGHS) The problem with any ditch\n that turns a corner with a bank,

historically, people think of moats

and moats they associate\n with medieval manors and so on,

but that could be the corner\n of any type of enclosure.

Like it could be\n a corner of a Roman fort or fortlet,

a medieval moat,\n it could be a cattle enclosure.

But we've got to remember just\n beyond that set of trees up there,

there's a fine manor house, so\n we've got to take those trees away

and perhaps see in this field\n that we're part of the landscape

that goes\n with that manor house over there.

To work out what's going on\n in the field,

we need to find out\n as much as we can about the house.

And the most obvious thing\n about our Llancaiach Fawr Manor

is that it's a house\n of wealth and power.

Which is probably\n not that surprising,

considering it belonged\n to a powerful Welsh dynasty\n called the Pritchards.

As far as we know,\n the history of South Wales goes,

Pritchard was quite important\n during the Civil War.

He was Governor of Cardiff Castle\n and then of Cardiff itself.

And he comes from quite\n an important family.

They're thought to be part\n of the royal line from Glamorgan

and that's the genealogy\n they want to hold to.

Going back to Ifor Bach,\n who was sort of a King of Glamorgan,\n some centuries beforehand.

I know it's early days yet,\n but what do you think

might be the relationship\n between this house and that field?

If we've got what looks\n to be a moated enclosure

that's heading out across the field,\n it's always made me wonder

whether there's the possibility\n that there's an earlier building.

We just need to try and see\n if we can find it.

So could our potential moat\n enclose the ancestral home

of the Pritchard family?

Well, archaeological digs\n have shown time and time again

that posh houses are built\n on top of or next to\n slightly less posh houses,

belonging to an earlier generation\n of the family.

And it seems unlikely\n that a house as grand

as the current Llancaiach Fawr was\n the first to be built on this site.

It's as though, you might\nhave had a big post in there.

And Ben and Phil have now hit\n the first evidence

of the mysterious earthworks\n that promised so much.

That bank out there\nis one row of stones.

This could be\nthe post hole in the middle.

And then we go that way

and we have another row of stones\nwhich is the other bank.

Who knows, geophysics might be able\nto track it all the way across?

Picking up the rest\n of this earthwork feature,

and what's inside it,\n in this lovely flat field,

should be a walk\n in the park for geophys.\n What could possibly go wrong?

It's lunchtime day one,\n we've put in our first trench.

It was over where this moat-like\n feature is supposed to be,

and sure enough it's there.

But the problem\n with this moat on the maps

is that it looks vaguely L-shaped,\n nothing more.

But now John has done the geophys,\n is everything clear?

As clear as mud.

What do you mean?

Well, I've got\nan old stream bed for you,

ridge and furrow ploughing,\na few lines,

nothing that looks like a moat ditch

and I can't see any evidence\nfor an enclosure.

In other words, the field\n could be completely empty,

which is not good news with\n two and a half days still to go.

where we're looking for a moat\n which rather than going round

the medieval house over there seems\n to be going off in this direction,

which is a bit of a puzzle.

But in order to solve it, John's\n been out with his geophys team,

and frankly, Ben, I think we now\n know even less about this site

than when we did when got here,\n look at that.

Like someone sneezed on it!

Yeah, that's not quite\nthe idea of geophysics, is it?

'Basically this geophysical phlegm\n has found no hint of the moat

'or any suggestion for\n the earlier medieval house

'we'd hoped to find in this field.

'And as for the moat, well,

'Ben and Phil have worked out\n what the surveyors actually saw.'

If we look here,

this mound of stones,\nboulders and pebbles here,

that's more or less conforming\nwith where the moat should be.

But I have to say there's nothing\nin this trench that looks

terribly moat-like and it ought\nto be here. There's no moat.

'Oh, dear, so the moat, the reason\n we came here, doesn't exist.

'But all due credit to John.

'The geophys has thrown up\n something unexpected

'that's got Ben\n and the team intrigued.'

There's some sort of linear feature,\na ditch, something like that,

running up here, turning a corner\nand coming down here.

This is enclosing a very large area.

That ties in with something that\nPhil's got at the end of the trench.

We think we've got a feature\nrunning in that direction.

But until we get\na section across that ditch

we can't tell what date it is.

It could be much earlier than\nthe medieval period.

We've got to dig it basically\nand have a look.

And what's intriguing about\n this newly discovered enclosure,

is that it, and what's inside it,\n appear to be under,

in other words earlier, than the\n medieval ridge and furrow ploughing.

Well, let's have a go,\ncarry on, and we'll see what we get.

So, as well as investigating\n it in trench one,

we're opening a second trench\n further along its northern boundary.

I think we've got an edge there.

This is quite compacted,\n I think that's our edge.

We've been working on the theory\n that our main field may have

been the site of a posh house

that's earlier than\n the next door grand Manor House.

Austere looking, isn't it?

It is rather grim and grand.

But to work out if that's the case,\n we need to get as many dates

from this site as possible.

including the correct date for\n when the Manor House was built.

So it's cutting through this\n original beam here with a partition

and it looks like this\n whole corridor had been added

early 17th century.

If we look at this collar, it's\nnot in a great condition, is it?

What about the purlins,\n they look original, with peg holes

for the rafters.

So we've brought\n in a dendrochronologist

because, oddly enough, the best\n dating evidence for a house is often

found in the roof timbers.

It's either significantly later than\nanticipated or significantly earlier.

We'll pick that up with the dendro.

And that would potentially allow us\nto fit it into the family history.

Hopefully we'll get\nresults to you by day three.

Brilliant.

The dendro dates and digging\n will have to be our main sources

for the early story of\n Llancaiach, because there's almost

no written history for the Pritchard\n family prior to the 16th century.

That was all passed down\n through word of mouth.

But we do at least have\n an impressive family tree.

They claim that they went back\na very long way indeed.

From up here you will see\nthey trace their descent back

to a distinguished hero\nin the 12th century,

a man called Ifor ap Meurig, better\nknown as Ifor Bach, Ifor, the small.

We know the Pritchard family\n lived somewhere in this area

from at least the 1200s.

But the first recorded mentions\n of a house at Llancaiach

don't appear until the mid 1500s.

(READS ORIGINAL TEXT)

"We saw mist with no healthy heart

"and rain as a shroud\nover Llancaiach."

Do we know where they're living\n before our house is built?

Unfortunately we don't\nand it'll be very exciting indeed

if the archaeology can show that\nthere was a major manorial centre

of the Middle Ages here,\nprior to the house that we know of.

We don't seem to have\n any evidence for a medieval manor

in the big field.\n But we're not giving up.

Oh, yes.

Structure there.

Because Stewart has a theory.

If you come a bit further,

there's the other side of it\n against that tree there, look.

You'd easy get a cart over this.

This is a seriously big bridge.

'He thinks the landscape\n may hold a clue

'to the location of an earlier house\n on the other side of the vast site.'

Guys, you could have chosen\n a slightly nicer place!

What we're starting to do\n now is kind of understand

the site as a whole.

We started out in the field\n on the other side over there.

We're now thinking 180 degrees\n different, the house is over there,

we're completely on the other side\n and looking through the maps,

through time, what we see\n is that the main road that probably

this house is associated with,\n actually we're standing on it now.

The house is facing south.

So there must be some entrance in\n this corner rather than that one.

Do you think this is\n the first house on this site?

I don't think anything in the house

shows anything on that site before.

So is there unlikely\n to be another structure here?

No, no, there could be\n one in the vicinity of it.

Ha, ha, ha, maps.

Why did you go "Ha, ha, ha, maps"?

Well, here we have the tithe\n map for the area.

You can see there's\n the house complex there,

there is a field here\n with a number 1483 in it.

On the apportionment that goes with\n that, 1483 has the name Hendra.

Our Welsh speaking historian says

it's a very important name often\n applied to "the Old Settlement"

or "the Old Place" and anything with\n that name is likely to have been

fossilised in the geography\n of the place by the Middle Ages.

There might be something very old\n just in that field over there,

that was here before that house.

'So, thanks to his beloved\n maps, Stewart believes that

'this area to the south of the house\n may contain an earlier settlement.'

So geophys once again\n find themselves surveying

another nice, big, open,\n flat piece of grass.

Once again, it's the perfect\n site for a geophys survey.

Any vibes?

Um...

So once again, what could\n possibly go wrong?!

Is this a Stewart idea\n or is this actually bona fide?

I wouldn't say\nanything against Stewart.

Not when he's in the back of shot.

Moment of truth... Hm.

Oh, dear!

Once again, John can see\n no evidence of any structures.

That was well worth\nwaiting for, wasn't it?

Yeah.

Well, back to the drawing board.

This was a Stewart plan, wasn't it?

Yeah, pretty sure it was.

So, if there is an earlier house\n here, then where on Earth is it?

This morning, I thought this big\n field presented us with one of

the easiest, most straightforward\n Time Teams we'd done in a long time.

Nine hours later, I'm not so sure.

Ben, can I remind you what\n this Royal Commission report

written 35 years ago actually says?

"This could be a medieval moated\n site. On balance, however,

"a Roman origin is far more likely,

"but excavation will be required\n to decide the matter."

Well, we've done the excavation,\n it don't seem to be medieval,

it don't seem to be moated and it\n doesn't seem to be Roman either.

Correct.

But does this mean that there isn't\n an earlier building on this site?

No, I don't think it means\nthat at all, I think logically

it's likely that an early building\nwould be somewhere round here.

So what's the strategy for tomorrow?

Well, as you can see,\nthere's beautiful lawns,

we can't come busting in here\nwith a big machine,

but we can get some\ntest pits in here.

And hopefully we'll come across\nsome deposits, some layers,

something that gives us a clue\nwhere this early house might be.

Well, we may have lost our moat,

but do we have\n an earlier building on this site?

Well, the only way to find out

is to put our shovels\n into this beautiful garden.

I can't wait.

here at Llancaiach Fawr Manor\nin South Wales,

and we may not have found\na medieval house here

in the so-called moat field,\nbut we definitely have archaeology.

Oh, joy, two bits of charcoal.\n Oh, yeah, lovely.

Because both trenches are picking up\n traces of a massive enclosure ditch

discovered by geophys.

I do wonder whether it could be\n seriously old, yes,

prehistoric if you like.\n I wouldn't mind betting.

And that will now be our major\n investigation here

because we've established\n there isn't a medieval moat here,

in spite of what it says\n on the maps.

What the Royal Commission saw\n were two banks

and a slightly hollowed area\n in the middle and I think

what has created one of the banks\n is this big stony feature

running through here.

And what do you reckon that is?

At the moment it is a bank\n and that's all we can say about it.

Do you think we'll be able\n to date these two features?

Well, we got no sort of firm\n dating evidence but what these,

these features do seem to respect\n is the medieval ridge and furrow,

so I suspect that some of this\n is probably medieval.

What I don't understand is that,\n just behind you,

there's a bunch of stones going\n in a completely different direction.

That is what is so important, Tony,\n because it is not going

in the same direction at all,\n it's a totally different direction

and we think this could be a much,\n much earlier, prehistoric enclosure\n on the site.

So, Ben, everyone around here...

Yeah.

..believes that there was\n at one time a moat in this field.

Yeah.

We've had people leaning over\n that gate for the last 24 hours

saying, "Oh, digging there -\n digging the moat, are you?"

Yes. Why?

The thing is,\nthe Royal Commission came

and they saw some earthworks\nand I guess they did well to spot

these features cos they describe them\nas slight, but given that they're

close to this big fortified house,\nit was natural to think this could be

a possibility, a moat and once you've\nput it on a map, it must be true.

Do you now think that this field\n isn't going to be able to tell us

why this house was here\n in the first place?

We've clearly got interesting\nthings going on in this field -

these rubble banks,\nwe've got this early feature

that Phil's been dealing with.\nThere's definitely a story

to be told here but I'm not sure\nit's going to get us to where

the early house is.

There is actually a chance\n that this big feature

was a cattle enclosure,

a horse paddock or something else,

but because these banks\n and potential post holes are

so criss-crossed by later\n ploughing, it'll have to remain\n an enigma.

Diane, I've got some bad news\n for you.

OK, break it to me gently, then.

It also means I need\n to have a chat with Diane.

There is nothing that ties in with\n this house at all in this field.

Right. OK, so where do we go\nfrom here, then?

I don't know.\n How do you feel about that?

It's difficult

because it creates more questions\nthan it answers.

You know, I can't imagine that this\nfield, you know,

they just suddenly put\na house here in the 1530s.

There's got to be something\nthat went before it.

It's such a perfect location,\nnear the Roman road,

near the river, near the ford,\nyou can't imagine that people

haven't used it for living on\nsince time began almost.

If we want to find evidence\n of an earlier house

or the first version\n of that house,

we've got to move\n in that direction.

That's fine.

Moving in that direction means\n moving into your lovely garden,

moving into your lovely garden means\n ripping it up, at least bits of it.

That's fine. We'll just dig holes\nin the lawn and see what happens.

So a lot of our effort is now\n shifting to the area

immediately around the standing\n Tudor manor house,

as we try to find any previous\n buildings that may have stood

on this site.

The test pits are so close to\n the house, because geophys have

already eliminated an area further\n to the south, that Stewart

thought may contain a hendra,\n an early Welsh settlement.

But undeterred, Stewart has another\n target, as he believes

there should be some sort of\n structure on the original road

into the site.

We need to get across to as close\nas that wall as possible,

so looking at some sort of L-shape.

What we're looking for here,\n if we can find our level

and we can chase it back,\n it'll be a funny-shaped trench.

It's a funny-shaped area, we've\ngot to have a funny-shaped trench\nas well!

We're putting in a couple\n of trenches here,

because we'd expect an earlier\n manor to have a defensive wall

and a gatehouse, because during\n medieval times, this was\n the wild Welsh west.

Constant feuds and lawlessness

meant that even the most\n powerful families

needed to defend themselves.

It's funny that on that door,\nthere are no defences at all...

No.

..even though that's\nthe first door you come to.

But the second door,\n pull that across.

Certainly, the current manor house\n is a monument to the art\n of survival.

All right.

And... same thing.

Another draw bar,\nbut we're on the first floor.

Now that doorway there goes through\n to the Lord's private quarters

and that's defended in the same way.

The Pritchards could barricade\nthemselves in there\nif all else failed.

If all else really fails they can\n go down this escape stair,\n to another part of the house.

You'll see that this is a house\n of power and paranoia.

There's no such paranoia\n over in the moat field,

more a profound sense of relief\n and jubilation

because we've just made\n a remarkably rare discovery.

Isn't that wonderful?\nThat looks very prehistoric

and it looks like it's tending more\ntowards the Bronze Age than...

Well, that's...

..Iron Age, but let's have a local.

I was going to say!\n Let's have a local knowledge.

It's got to be Bronze Age, hasn't it,\nwe feel Bronze Age, yeah...

That is stone.

That is really something.\nI've never dug a piece

of Bronze Age pot up in my life\nand I've been digging over 50 years.

You've never, ever dug a piece of...

I've seen pieces in museums,\nbut no, no, no never seen anything.

This pot suggests that people may\n have been living here during

the Bronze Age, and when you\n consider the whole population\n of the UK 4,000 years ago

was only about 200,000, it's\n like finding a needle in a haystack.

But this should be an ideal\n place for a little Bronze Age\n settlement,

down by the stream,\n lovely place.

Yeah.

I think we're oh, just superb,\n let's find some more.

Yeah, yeah.

This is the field\n that refuses to die.

Yesterday evening we discovered\n that we hadn't actually got\n a medieval moat here.

Then this morning we thought\n we might have something prehistoric,

and this afternoon we've discovered\n that yes, we have got prehistoric

and it's actually Bronze Age,\n which is apparently quite rare.

But all that brings into question\n our understanding of John's geophys.

A bit Monty Python, two chairs\n in the middle of a field?

Yeah, we need the desk.

Presumably looking for a medieval\n moat is rather different

from trying to find something\n prehistoric in the geophys.

Yeah, the problem we've got is,

all this medieval ridge\n and furrow ploughing,

it's masking what's below,\n and the ploughing has not only

eaten into the archaeology,

it's certainly eaten into\n the magnetic responses.

So trying to understand\n the geophysical anomalies\n it is even more difficult.

OK, so if you forget about there\n being anything medieval here

and you forget all this ploughing,\n is there any evidence

in your geophys of something\n that might be prehistoric?

Well, the stream like that\n may be of interest now,

then some of the ditches.

Clearly these come into play.\n We've now extended the survey down

and look at some of these\n curving responses.

It could be we've got a prehistoric\n landscape here.

So day one here, day two over there

and now it looks like we're\n going to come back here again.

That's the way it goes.

That sounds very stony\n down there, Raksha.

Back over at the house, our quest\n for an earlier medieval manor\n is falling apart.

I've just found a piece\n of plastic...

Oh, no!

..in the middle of it.

No!

If there had once been a building\n in this area, we'd have expected\n to find some evidence of it

but there's not even a sniff\n of anything medieval.

I think we've actually got\nto call it a day on this one.

I don't think we're going to get\nto where we want to get.

And as for Stewart's latest\n target...

Well, er,\n over here we've got natural.

Yeah.

Over here we've got natural\n and over here we've got natural.

We have a sewage pipe there\n and a beautiful 19th century\n cobbled surface.

Have you got underneath?

Well, we have and we've got natural.

No gatehouse at all.

No gatehouse, no road,\n no boundary ditch,

none of what Stewart thought\n was here.

It was worth a try.

Not really!

'Oh, dear! So not only no moat\n but nothing medieval outside

'the Tudor house either\n and certainly no major defences.'

If there isn't anything here after\n all, we're really up the creek,\n aren't we?

I don't think we are.

We've come here to test a\npossibility - why is this house\nhere?

Is there anything earlier here?\nAnd there's a range of possibilities.

It could be that there was\nan earlier ancestral home

and they simply built this grand\nnew house in the same place.

It could be they arrived\non a green field site - "We're here,

"we're imposing ourselves on this\narea, we'll build a big house here."

The other thing is that\nalthough they're thinking a bit

about defence, it's also\nthe beginning of the period\nwhere they're thinking

about the picturesque qualities of\nthe landscape, so again is it simply

that it's just a wonderful area\nto be in and they're just\nhedging their bets

with a bit of defence because\nover there is the badlands, still?

They're brave words but I don't know\n how much faith I have in them.

After all, what do we have?

Well, as far as I'm concerned,\n not a lot,

apart from geophys being\n on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

But just as I'm beginning to think\n this is one of the most

frustrating sites we've\n encountered in a long time,

we make our first proper\n medieval find.

Gentleman, I think that might\n interest you somewhat.

That's a bit nice, innit?

Oh, oh!

This little coin\n is a major discovery

because we suspect it dates\n to before the time of the current\n manor house.

That's a little penny, isn't it?\nLong cross...

Long cross penny.

Got the cross on one side,\n hasn't it?

I'm not entirely sure cos\n if you have a closer look,

there appears to be a cross\n on both sides.

Oh!

Let me put my glasses on.

And would you believe it,\n it's not from the garden,

it's from the moat field that\n we dismissed as having nothing\n medieval in it.

What we can say is this is earlier\nthan the manor house, isn't it?

Now it might just be that someone\n dropped out of a pocket or purse

walking across the field,\n something like that but\n that proves

that there were people in this field\n earlier than the manor house.

It's now the end of\n a perplexing day two...

well, it's perplexed most of us\n although there is one man

who seems to be content with\n the results of his labours.

I really am over the moon,\n I mean not only have

we got our piece of Bronze Age pot,\n but more importantly, we've now not

got one Bronze Age ditch but three\n ditches and the beauty of that

is in that it implies that people\n have been living here for such

a more extended length of time\n so we've got prehistoric

occupation here for probably\n hundreds, if not thousands\n of years.

Not only that, you've got\n some rather good finds.

Very, very surprising finds, we\n have not one but two medieval coins.

What sort of date?

14th century.

If they're 14th century,\n am I right in saying\n it is medieval

but it's earlier than our house?

Absolutely, yeah.

We've finally extended activity back\nearlier than the present house.

So there's all to play for.

Not only have got something\n prehistoric and fairly epic

but it looks as though something\n quite exciting was going on here

in the Middle Ages, before that\n house was built. What'll it be?

And it's not just the weather\n that's taken a turn for the worse.

Have you started?

Well, we'd like to start if you\n tell us where you'd like us to dig.

Well, you're there.

The mood's also darker\n amongst the diggers.

Yes, but is there a map?\n You know, we can't dig it all.

In spite of our best efforts,

we can't find any evidence of an\n earlier manor here at Llancaiach.

But we're not giving up yet,

even if it means we have to turn\n the whole garden upside down.

So why are we putting\n this trench in?

Well, this is the backside\nof the house really

and, er, well, you see that up there,\nthe privy, garderobe?

That tiny little window there?

Yeah. This is the area where\nall the sort of rubbish and muck

would be deposited in.

And presumably we could\n possibly find evidence here

of an earlier phase of the building,\n if an earlier phase exists.

Absolutely, yes.

The thing is, hopefully we'll have\nsome rubbish pits or a midden heap,

something with some early pottery in,

because it's been remarkable\nhow clean this site is.

We've got very little pottery -\nit must be going somewhere

and pushing it towards the back\nseems a good candidate.

A lot's riding on this trench\n to the north of the manor.

We found no trace of\n an earlier house in the test pits

and trenches to the south,\n and yet common archaeological sense

suggests there could be\n an earlier manor here.

We've got to go back\n the whole way now,

so hopefully something else\n comes up further along

otherwise we're going to be\n rather disappointing again.

And all I can say to people\n is "natural"! (CHUCKLES)

'The Pritchards, who owned\n Llancaiach Manor, lived in the area

'since the 1200s and yet\n this house was built much later,

'although no-one's ever\n come up with an exact date.'

I hope he's in after all.

'Until now.'

Nigel, um, you've got\n a date for us?

'I have, and that date is...

'AD 1548 to 1565.'

1548 to 1565, and you're\n pretty certain about that?

'Yeah, absolutely, black and white.'

OK, thanks ever so much, mate. Bye.

You murmured the word "later".

Well, yes, I mean, sort of, all\n the things in the Commission volume

suggesting around the 1530s,\n so 1548 -

a little bit later than we thought\n but, you know, got a date.

What does that date\n tell you about the house?

It tells us that the house is\nmore old-fashioned than we thought.

Looking at the mid-16th Century,

you don't expect something\nlike this at that date, normally.

So we're a bit in the backwoods\n at that point?

A little bit, yes!

And you've been\n looking after this house

and doing all this\n reconstruction for ages,

but never actually known\n how old the house was.

No, we just...\n All we knew was around the 1530s.

That's fantastic to know, that's\n the thing, cos we've never known.

'With this date of roughly 1550,\n we've at least answered

'one of Diane's questions\n about Llancaiach.

'It also makes the coins we're\n finding in the next-door field

'all the more intriguing, because\n they pre-date the standing house.'

It's either a thrupence\n or a sixpence, er,

most likely of Elizabeth I.

Could it be something a bit special?

It's already special, I think.

'As well as this fantastic find,\n we've also discovered coins

'that are over 100 years\n earlier than the current house.'

I can see a crown. I can see a crown\n because we've got the fleur, the...

I'm so excited\n I nearly knocked the light over!

You can see one of the fleur de lys\n is complete in the middle

and a half fleur de lys at the end -\n the angular end of a crown.

These marks -\n kind of around 1280, don't they?

But instead of jumping for joy\n that we found evidence of an\n earlier house,

the archaeologists have taken\n a more pragmatic view

as to why the coins are here.

This coin could just have been\n dropped as an accidental loss.

It isn't necessarily evidence\n for earlier activity on this site.

Three or four coins,\ndifferent dates, all from this area.

You've detected all the other spoil\nand the other trenches\nbut they're concentrated here.

That's interesting.

Do you think that might be evidence\n of settlement, or trading, or what?

It's evidence of where people have\ncongregated with money in their\npockets.

That's routeways, meeting places,\nthat kind of thing.

'And it would seem that Llancaiach

'was at a major intersection\n of routeways.'

We've got the house here\n and it's quite clear looking at it

that it's in a landscape\n dominated by deep valleys.

And the great advantage\nof the stream coming down there

is that it defines for you.

You've got a shallow path\nrunning through here that actually

allows you to run from east to west,\num, across the valleys.

It's something quite unique\nand important for this area.

This is one of the few places\n that routes from deep in the valleys

would meet with east-west traffic.

So the coins aren't evidence\n of a grand early house,

but more likely of a dodgy\n crossroads where, for centuries,

travellers tripped up\n and lost their loose change.

Is that another patch of charcoal\n in the bottom there, Phil?

Yeah, it is, Tracey.

And yet this field has\n produced our best discovery so far -

a network of Bronze Age ditches,

some 3,500 years\n older than the house.

But even with this information,

we still can't make head or tail\n of the geophys.

We've done more survey and we're\n getting the same sort of results.

I mean, we've still got\n odd lengths of ditches,

we've got odd pits, and they're\n scattered right across the field

but there's no clear patterns\n in the results.

There's no sort of discrete,\nnice juicy target to go for.

If I could extend that trench\nall the way down the field...

Hang on, how wide is that trench?

Er, very wide.

And you'd like to extend it\n the length of this field.

Yeah, why not?

Slightly impractical!

Just maybe, just slightly. I don't\nthink we can just go poking around,

hoping that we're going to hit\nsomething in here.

Keep looking - you might find\n something small and sexy.

In the meantime,\n I'm going on to another scene!

Right so, Phil, we've got\n all sorts of features in here

so when I've got schoolchildren\n coming in to go round the site

and I want to tell them\n what we found in the field,

what will I be able to tell them

about what was going on here\n in the prehistoric period?

Well, what you can say\nwith absolute certainty is that

people have been here\nfor at least 4,000 years.

And we do have a lot of ditches.

Let's be clear about this - where\nMatt is, he's standing in one.

Next door is another one,\nand next door to that is another one.

Those ditches have been re-cut,\nthey've been re-dug,

they've been re-dug by hand.\nThat's a lot of effort.

What that does mean is that\ntheir boundaries have stayed static

for a very long time.

What is absolutely indisputable\nis that we've got one piece\nof early Bronze Age pot -

that's going to take us back\nto about 2000 BC.

So thanks to Phil and his diggers'\n dogged determination,

Diane has got a story\n to tell about this field.

Just not the one she was expecting.

But there is a chance that\n the kids who visit here

will be more interested in the story\n about the day Time Team took

a mechanical digger to Llancaiach's\n beautifully manicured lawn.

Because Ben, under the concerned\n watch of the manor's gardeners,

is opening another trench\n to the north of the house.

This trench is our absolutely last\n ditch attempt to find any evidence

of a house or actually anything\n medieval that pre-dates our house.

Oh.

It's a cable but I don't think\nit's still connected to anything.

Let's hope not!

'Because our previous\n last ditch attempt to find

'something of archaeological note\n hasn't been completely successful.'

Just when we thought that we weren't\n going to get any archaeology at all,

away from the field over there,\n away from the house,

on the far side of\n the current boundary of that house,

where Faye and Raksha have been\n working on their own for ages,

they've found evidence not only\n of life, but of death too.

Certainly evidence of death, yes.

We've got what looks like\n a dead horse.

A dead horse?

Can you date it?

We've got one bit of pottery from\n that trench, which is 17th Century.

So we can now say that some time,\n a horse died on this farm.

Thank you for your contribution\n to this story!

'I'll avoid any remarks\n about flogging a dead horse.

'But I can't help but wonder that,\n in spite of Ben's heroic attempts

'to re-landscape\n the whole garden...'

It's natural. This looks natural.

'..we are now flogging\n a dead what-d'you-call-it.'

I just cannot understand the lack\nof pottery, rubbish, detritus.

These must have been\nthe cleanest people in Wales.

'The evidence speaks for itself.'

So here we go, the time line.

This is the Bronze Age,\n the little piece of pot there.

Nothing in the Iron Age,\n nothing in the Roman,

nothing in the early Christian,\n or the Viking or the Norman.

Here we are in the 15th Century -\n we've got two coins.

16th Century, a thimble.

17th Century, a ropey piece of tile,

19th Century,\n a penny and a bit of pot.

Helen, what's happened?

Well, from the archaeological\n evidence it seems like we have

a bit of activity here in the Bronze\n Age and then a great lot of nothing

until, in the 16th Century,\n people start dropping things.

Maybe they built a house\n and then they went away again.

I have to say in defence\n of all the people who were living

in all these vast aeons of time,

they might have made stuff\n that hasn't survived in the ground.

They might have done\n but that's absence of evidence.

It's dangerous to use that to argue\n that that is evidence of absence.

Yeah, yeah.

But it's getting there.

We've nearly got enough to say\n nothing was happening.

Is that too depressing?

No!

'Thank you, Helen!

'So we nearly have enough\n to say nothing was happening

'between the digging\n of these Bronze Age ditches

'and the building\n of the current manor.

'And that's a resolution of sorts,\n I suppose.'

It really doesn't help having\nthat native feature.

This ridge of the furrow?

It must have chopped the top of it.

But surprisingly, there is\n a faction of the team that thinks

the two could still be linked.

And it's all down to\n the medieval Welsh love of heritage

and making a link\n with your ancestors.

We now know the ditches over there\n might be as old as Bronze Age.

They're certainly old.

Do you think the Pritchards would've\n been aware of that when they built\n their house?

Phil and Ben seem quite confident\nthat whatever there was out there

could have been\nvisible in the 16th Century,

when they got here, and this could,

I think, have been a real attraction\nfor a gentry family.

So if it's an ancient place,\n to build a house next door

would give them\n a kind of air of legitimacy -

that "we've always been here".\n Yes.

This is a period when the antiquarian\nmovement is becoming more popular,

much more widespread,\nas part of the cult

and the education of the gentry.

There was certainly a cache -\nthere was a value to having

what now,\nin modern archaeological terms,

we call an ancient monument.

Having that very direct and immediate\nconnection with the past

would have meant\na great deal to them

and I think it's very exciting,\nthe possibilities here.

We're now confident that echoes\n of that prehistoric landscape

would have been visible\n in the 16th Century.

But our hunt for\n an earlier medieval manor

has been a completely different\n kettle of fish.

Well...

Digging produced nothing\n to the east of the building,

while geophys and test pits\n showed nothing to the south.

The results weren't too hot\n either to the west.

And as for the north,\n well we did find an electrical cable

and a dead horse!

If I was feeling generous,\n I'd call it a mixed result.

OK, after three days' excavation,\n are we in a position to say

whether or not there was a\n medieval manor anywhere on this site

before this one?

Yes, we are in a position\nto say that.

And what's the answer?

No, there wasn't!

I'm certain.

Not one scrap of medieval pottery\nfrom all these holes we've dug.

And if there was\na medieval house here,

we'd find pottery everywhere -\nI'm sure of it. It's just not there.

We've not seen any background\n manuring on fields you get

when privvies are cleared out and\n they chuck the stuff on the land.

Which begs the question,

why did they build\n this place on a green field site?

If you think about what\n originally brought us here,

it was that people saw\n an earthwork over there.

And if it was visible\n in the 1970s,

it should have\n been visible in the 1570s as well.

I think that is what drew them here\n and we know that there was

an interest in the past on the part\n of the Pritchards

and we know that there's\n an interesting field name of Hendra.

I think those all point\n to this being a special place.

That's interesting - you're saying\n they may have built this place here

because in folklore\n it was an important site.

I think there's every chance\n of that.

'So we now know the Pritchards\n didn't come here until the 1550s

'when they built a beautiful,\n if somewhat old-fashioned, house

'on a major crossroads beside\n some ancient, mysterious earthworks.

'And it's tantalising to think\n they were trying to forge a link

'with the great Welsh hero\n Ifor Bach, the 12th Century icon

'from whom the Pritchards\n claimed to be directly descended.'

Diane, I was talking to a couple\n of local people who work here.

And they were over the moon\n that we'd managed to

take the story of this site\n right back to the prehistoric.

It's absolutely wonderful.

You always hope you'll find things\n that are fascinating.

But to find out we've got something

that's a Bronze Age\n enclosure is wonderful.

And we've dated your house.

Yeah. You know, every little bit\n extra just makes more of the story,

means you can tell a better story.

But what strikes me as really ironic

is that the people\n who put that house up

thought they were harking back to\n ancestors of 400 years previously.

But in fact, they were harking back\n to ancestors 3,000 years previously.

Yeah, amazing isn't it, really?

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