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Here on Time Team, we like to go\n to places where things once stood,

to dig holes in the ground,\n to piece together the evidence

and use our imaginations to work\n out how they would once have looked,

but not today.

Welcome to Mont Orgueil in Jersey.

A stunning fortress which,\n for hundreds of years,

played a little-known but\n crucial role in the defence

of not just the Channel Islands,\n but the whole of Great Britain.

Although it's been studied\n for centuries, this place has still

got its secrets here under this\n bumpy lawn, but also right up there.

We've got just three days\n to unlock those secrets.

Let's hope we can make it.\n It is a ridiculously steep slope.

Mont Orgueil, Jersey's oldest\n castle,

sits high over Gorey Harbour,\n protected on three sides by the sea.

Built on a steep granite bluff,\n it dominates

not only the beaches of western\n Jersey, but also the approach

to the Channel Islands from France.

Entering the castle,

you pass through a formidable\ncorridor of gates and courtyards,

overlooked all the way by arrow\nslits, gun platforms and battlements.

It was never supposed\nto be easy to get in.

But it's the natural defence\nof the terrain

that's really going to\ncause the team a few headaches.

I mean, that's a serious slope.

Yeah. That's... slightly more\n vertical than I was expecting!

Is this the first time you guys have\nrun this machine over this kind of\nundulating ground?

Undulating?!

Take the slack.

It's only £25,000-worth of kit!

Has anybody done this before?

Not on a slope this steep, I don't\n think anybody's been so stupid!

It's not till you get right up\n here at the top of the castle that

you begin to appreciate why it was\n quite so important strategically.

Look, you can see not only\n the beaches and the coastline,

but way over there\n on the horizon, that is France.

Helen - location,\n location, location!

That's what it's all about, because\nthis is the closest English castle\nto France.

We may be 100 miles from\nthe coastline of the UK,

but we're only 14 miles from France,

so that puts this place at\nthe heart of politics for some of

the most important times\nin our history.

But why are we here, Warwick?

Well, there are a number of\n mysteries about this castle

that we want to solve.

Although we've got this great\n stone structure around us

and we know quite a lot about it,\n there are bits that are missing.

Just a minute, you've been\n working on this site for 30 years,

surely you must have cracked\n all the mysteries by now?

That's short in archaeological\n time and there's a lot to do,

so there are still areas

where we just need to know about the\n bits of the castle that have been

demolished and lost\n over the course of time.

What would you like us\n to be able to identify?

I'd like you to...come over here...

Yeah.

..look over the wall, and look\n down to the green there below us.

That area, Castle Green, has got\n earthworks and lumps and bumps in it

and clearly,\n there are structures down there.

Now, that area is unexplored,\n we know nothing about it

archaeologically, and almost\n nothing about it historically.

If we look at this plan, which\n shows the outline of the castle

as we understand it in the\n 13th century, we are very unclear

about the north side.

This uncertainty at the\nnorth end of the castle

is due to the later addition of the\nGrand Battery and of Somerset Tower.

Monstrous fortifications\nbuilt in the 16th century

that would have obliterated\nany earlier structures.

We'll have to closely\nexamine these gargantuan walls,

looking for clues in their make-up

in order to find evidence of the\n13th century walls and towers

that complete Warwick's\nearly castle plan.

Why should we be so interested in\n this period of the castle's history?

It's because when this castle\nwas built in the 13th century,

that's just at the point where

England has lost its lands to France,\nso this place is now on the frontline

of one of the major power\nstruggles of medieval Europe.

So this is what, King John?

It is, that's right.\nKing John, who was famous

for getting everything wrong\nand losing all his land in France.

But in order to find out more\n about that, our guys are

going to have to do some\n pretty tricky work, aren't they?

Our efforts will be concentrated\n on the bumpy lawn of Castle Green,

and on the steep slopes under the\n formidable north and west walls.

It's a relatively simple task,\n but with one enormous problem -

the extreme terrain.

Leading the hunt for the\n 13th-century walls is the\n intrepid Geophys team,

but it's slow going.

It's a bit of a climb, innit?

Oh, it is!

With Geophys struggling\n to get results,

Phil's been looking for another way\n to start the investigation,

and he's found a\n small visible section of wall.

What I want to do, Raksha is,\n if we put the trench in here,

we've got what looks like a wall...

Yeah.

..and it's the wall that runs\n right the way along.

Now, at the back of it,\n we've actually got the main wall

of the Tudor castle.

The question is, does the Tudor wall\n sit on this wall?

If that Tudor wall is sitting\n on the top of that wall there,

the Tudor one is later,\n this one has to be earlier.

What we're hoping is it might\n be the 13th-century wall.

It doesn't have to be,\n all we can say is,

it will be earlier than the Tudors.

The crucial thing about the dating\n is if we can identify

any of the original mortar, and\n so that's why we've put it in here,

it's the place\n where these two walls come together.

John, you know how much we love\n to wind you up.

But I think we've surpassed\n ourselves

getting you to\n Geophys that slope.

Yeah, I think the scariest thing for\n me is seeing Jimmy in that harness!

There's lots of health-and-safety\n issues, we need to do it properly.

Yeah.

So it's taking time.

It's going to be a while before\n we get any results from that area.

You've moved down here now?

Yeah, I mean, this is more my\n sort of territory, nice flat lawn.

And it is likely to be associated\nwith the castle anyway,

either in its earlier phases,

or perhaps ancillary\nbuildings associated with it.

But, Mick, you're not a castle-y\n sort of bloke.

I can't imagine the reason that you\n want to come down here

is because this is part\n of the castle.

No, I think there's a lot of\npossibilities that there's something\nearlier down here as well.

Ah.

If you mentally strip all that\nstone castle off the top there,

you've got a promontory\nsticking out into the sea

likely to be the sort of thing\nthat would be

an Iron-Age promontory, a prehistoric\npromontory, in which case, here,

you might have ditches and banks\ncutting off that promontory.

So we might get something that's\n even earlier than the castle itself?

I think it's highly likely, yeah.

Geophys is now well underway on\n the very promising Castle Green,

but meanwhile, up on the slope, Phil\n is just putting in our first trench.

I wonder what he'll find.\n I can't wait to get up there myself.

Maybe after lunch.

Our archaeologists are already\n under way up on that slope

excavating behind those trees,\n but down here on the Castle Green,

John, you've got some\n geophys for us.

Yeah, we were saying earlier\n it's a fantastic area to survey.

Yeah.

The problem is the\n results aren't that clear.

Why's that?

We've got problems with the\n bedrock, it's really close to

the surface, the electric currents\n aren't going into the ground.

Having said that,\n we've got some results.

You've got some big black blobs\n there.

That's on this higher\n bit of ground here.

And you can see this greener grass,\n I'm just wondering whether there's

a ditch coming through here before\n we get onto this higher ground here.

So, I think, an initial evaluation\n trench from where I'm stood,

over this potential ditch and onto\n this sort of possible building here.

A possible building, you\n don't sound that convinced?

I'm just worried it's all geology,\n to be honest.

But then you always are, aren't you?

So trench two goes in on Castle Green\nto look for a ditch that could add to

the known defences of the site,\nand, being cut into granite,

it should be easy to find.

It could be a ditch, filled up\n with this crushed granite stuff.

It's quite a clear edge actually.

If we're really lucky, it may even\ndate back to the original castle

built in the reign of King John.

When do we first hear about\n there being a castle here?

Well, we first hear\nsomething in 1209, hints.

We don't have mention of castle but\nwe've got this description

from the pipe rolls and it mentions\n"the Isle of Jersey and deliveries

"to Knights and 12 Horse Sergeants\nand ten Foot Sergeants."

And also the\n"horses of these Knights",

so clearly there's fighting men here,\na garrison,

so we might assume there's a castle.

We don't know definitely until 1212.

Now this is a letter from\nKing John where he mentions,

"the Isle of Jersey, Insula de\nJersey" there, with its castles,

that's when we definitely\nknow there's something here.

Why put a castle here\n in the first place?

At the beginning of his reign,\n King John of England owned

most of the west side of France,\n and Jersey was happily ensconced

in the middle of the Angevin Empire.

In 1202 he was summoned to Paris by\n the King of France to answer

for his feudal holdings\n and he refused to go, so they were

confiscated by the French King, and\n the whole of Normandy, and Brittany

was taken back and Jersey\n became a remaining outpost.

And the island was fought over a\n couple of times, certainly in 1205,

1206 and again a few years later,\n but the ruling elite who were

in charge of the island decided\n they were staying with King John.

You can really see it on this map,\n can't you, that when all this part

of France was English property, then\n Jersey was slap bang in the middle

of it, and really well protected,\n but as soon as this part of France

goes back to the French King then\n suddenly Jersey is on the frontline.

Yes, and our promontory here on the\neast side becomes a perfect place

to put a castle, because it's\nin the right place to put two fingers

up to the French King,\nto say "Look, we're English".

So what was the position of Jersey\n by the end of King John's reign?

It was still held\n by the English King,

it was never part of the\n Kingdom of England,

it was just a hangout\n from the old Duchy of Normandy.

And there began over\n 800 years of union.

Siding with England, though,\n was to cause trouble with France,

making a stronghold\n on the island vital.

But finding evidence of that\n original stone castle

under the massive 16th century\n walls is proving difficult.

Undeterred, Stewart's hunting high\n and low and may have found something

on the north east corner.

This join here looks odd,\n doesn't it,

this junction here, these are part\n of the Tudor battery on the corner.

Yes...

We know the date for that,\n but that built over that wall there.

We've got a wonderful junction here,\nwhere the Tudor bastion

comes up against a curving wall\nthat must be of earlier date,

that itself\nis built against the rock face.

Curving wall suggests tower\n to me, is that what you think?

Tower, 13th or 14th century, part of\nthe arrangement of the curtain wall

with round towers on it\nas we had before the Tudors.

Is it the first time\n you've seen it this morning?

The first time this morning,\nwhen the ivy was stripped away

we found something that has never

been drawn on any plan\nor described before.

Wow.

So we've now located an\n original 13th century corner tower

underneath the 16th century\n defences.

But round the corner, Phil's\nstruggling to take trench one

anywhere near as far back in time.

Phew, quite a challenge\n getting up here.

Phil, what's the purpose\n of this trench?

To see whether we can\n establish the date of this wall.

And have you done it?

Not yet,

what we have found is we've got the\n outside edge of it plummeting away

and then across here,\n we've got the main core of the wall.

What we'd like is to put this wall

to go underneath and be earlier\n than the main Tudor bastion wall.

So at the moment\n you've got no dating evidence?

Not really, not for the\n wall, but what we do have is

rather unexpected dating, it's this.

Water pipe, or this pipe\n that's running through here

which we think is probably\n a relic of the German occupation.

Why do you think it's German?

Well, apparently everybody\n that digs around the castle says

the one thing you always find\n is relics left over

from the German occupation, it\n seems that's the best bet for that.

So you've got some pretty robust\n dating from the 1940s,

now you've just gotta back to 1300s?

Yeah, and there are two ways that\n we're gonna try and approach that,

firstly it's see if we can\n establish whether this wall

goes underneath the buttress,\n and the second way is actually

to look at the mortars.

What would be significant\n about the mortar?

Well, according to Warwick,

the 13th century mortars tend to\n have quite a lot of shell in 'em,

whereas the Tudor mortars,\n they're a lot more gritty.

But he also tells me that\n there are miscellaneous mortars,

we've just gotta hope that we\n haven't got one of them.

No sign of the 13th century\n down in trench two either.

The rock cut ditch is deeper\n and wider than anyone expected

but it's producing little\n to help us date it.

Although this might not be\n the only ditch down here.

Stewart thinks he's stumbled upon\n another one near the castle gate.

And after clearing the brambles,\n he calls in Jimmy with his radar

for confirmation.\n If he's right,

this is yet another unknown\n defensive circuit around the castle.

If you follow the contour around it,\n you can see a ditch comes round here

and it heads down towards

where the drawbridge for the\n original medieval castle gate was.

So really, this ditch ought\n to be part of that original

13th century castle defences.

So it should be just outside the\n13th century stone walls there.

It is, yeah, it's clearly,\n it's on this side of the castle.

This is the weakest side down here,\n you could easily come up here.

And get to the base of the\n towers to undermine them and so,

I think it needs some form of\n defence round here, and to be

able to prove this is part of those\n original defences would be great.

The radar that we've done across it\nshows it's about a metre deep.

So we should get some dateable\nmaterial from that, shouldn't we?

I hope so - given where it is\n at the base of the slope,

should be all sorts of material in\n that ditch, shouldn't there?

OK, let's get on with it, then.\nWe'll get on with the tea!

There was rumours of cake, you\nknow, before we started filming this.

You'll be lucky!

So trench three goes in\n to see if there is a second ditch

cut below the western wall.

If Stewart's right,\n it should run tightly

butted up against the lower slopes\n of the castle,

parallel to John's ditch.

But the question remains, where's\n the wall that should go with it?

Stewart has a hunch,\n and is about to boldly go

where no landscape investigator\n has gone before.

With a beady eye,\n he's clocked something 30 feet up.

Can you see all the masonry is\n different to the battery above it?

Encouraged by the daredevil\n antics of the rest of the team...

Good luck, Stewey.

Thank you.

He heads off up the rock face.

Confused by such an up-and-down\n archaeological site,

I catch up with Mick to get\n my head around what's going on.

So Phil's looking for a\n 13th century wall up there.

Yeah.

Down there we've been digging\n for some ditch.

But suddenly I find that you've\n opened another trench here?

Well, it's another ditch,\nyou see, coming through here

by the earth works, so we wanna\nknow the date of that one as well.

But, given the magnificence\n of these castle walls,

there's a bit of me that\n feels disappointed you're just\n digging for ditches.

But the castle walls are just\nhalf of the defensive system.

As well as each line of stone wall,\nthere would have been ditches

at the front as part of the other\npart of the defensive circuit,

so we need to look at those as well.

And do you think all those\n ditches will be the same date?

I'd be very surprised if they were,

because the walls\nare all of different dates,

and so you'd expect correspondingly\ndifferent ditches to be dug.

After all, this is the weak side of\nthe castle, the rest of it's defended

by the sea and rocks, this is the\nside you can come over land to it

so you're gonna have to revise your\ndefence strategy from time to time,

dig another load of ditches.

It's hard for me to concentrate\n solely on Mick

because while he's digging down\n into the ditches,

Stewart perversely,\n is swinging in the air

about 30 feet above our head.\n Stewart!

Hello!

What you doing up there?

Having a look at this masonry here.\n You see this, this block here,

can you see there's a band\n of masonry going that way?

Yeah.

This is very different to\n the stuff that's on top of it

and it goes in a curve.

This is earlier than that,\n that's Tudor,

so this has got to be earlier,

and it looks like it's the\n corner of a round tower.

Could that be the 13th century\n wall that we're looking for?

It looks very probable.

Well, the castle is beginning\n to give up its secrets.

Although very slowly,\n and it's hard work, isn't it?

It is, yeah.

Who knows what we're gonna find\n tomorrow. Normally, on Time Team,

I try and finish a part with a cliff\n hanger but, just can't think of one!

Oh, god!

Beginning of day two,\nhere on the island of Jersey,

where we're looking\nat the awesome Mont Orguiel Castle

and trying to unpick\nsome of its secrets.

Yesterday afternoon, John suggested\nwe put in a long, thin trench here

because we'd started looking at\nthe defences in front of the castle

and he thought there might be a\ndefensive ditch running along there,

and maybe some sort of building over\nhere, so Matt, what have we found?

We do have this ditch here,\n it's a huge one cut into the rock,

nearly five metres across,

it's been backfilled and then re-cut\n again at that end so they keep

using it, but down at this\n end of the trench, there's nothing.

Any dating evidence at all?

We've got a few bits of pottery\n coming up

from the fills of the ditch,\n but nothing firm yet.

John - bit frustrating,\nslightly inconclusive.

Well, no, the ditch is good.

I mean, I wasn't sure\n about the building

but we've done some more resistance\n and radar,

you can actually see, we've got\n another massive ditch showing

in both data sets, and they're\n both showing another huge ditch.

Where's the ditch?

Well, you can actually see it in the\n grass, the dark green lush grass.

This is just over here, yeah?

Yeah, that depression there.\n The ditch is running through there,

now is that related to the castle\n or is it part of this

promontory fort that we talked\n about that might be here?

So do you wanna dig it?

We've got to.

It looks promising,\nbut I must admit there's part of me

that thinks we've gone\na bit ditch crazy on this dig.

So trench four goes in on Castle\nGreen to investigate John's geophys.

A third ditch would mean\nthe approach to the castle

was very heavily fortified.

But will it relate\nto the 13th century,

or could it be much, much older?

I shall laugh if this turns out\n to be a prehistoric site.

And we've got a socking great\n medieval castle behind us!

We're now unearthing diagnostic\nand datable artefacts across the site

but they're just not doing much\nto take our story back in time.

Second World War?

German barbed wire,\n I would think, yes.

Frankly, so far the finds have\nbeen a bit disappointing.

You can see this is obviously\n late 19th century ink bottle.

"Desultory" is the word\nthat springs to mind.

Definitely.

Except that, Phil, you've just turned\nup with stuff from your trench.

Absolutely, Tony, most\n of what we've been getting

is the debris that's been thrown\n over the walls, but we do happen

to have some bits of pottery, which\n we're pretty sure are a lot earlier.

What do we think\n about that one, Olga?

Right, well, this definitely\n is our first piece of

prehistoric pottery, and I imagine\n it dates to the Iron Age.

But you see, if you want early,\n Tony, really early...

..look at a piece of flint.

This stuff is actually\n gonna throw our story back

probably to 4,000 BC,\n something like that.

But we don't really want\nto throw our story back...

We want to throw our story\n right back to the beginning!

I know you want the early stuff,\nFred Flintstone, but we're trying

to date the earliest castle up here.

Have either of you seen in the\npottery anything that could be,

say, 13th century?

No, not yet.

No, not as yet.

But we haven't got down\n to the critical layers yet.

Sure.

Stewart's now confident he's located\na bit of 13th century castle

high up, wedged under\nthe corner of the 16th century walls.

So he's back up his rope,\nrecording the archaeology

with a little eagle-eyed help.

'Hello, this is Stewart.'

I can hear you, Stewart.

I've found some new wall up here,\n which is really, really nice,

it's a curving\n bit of wall going round this crag

and it's got mortar in it,\n with the crushed burnt limpets in it

that Warwick was saying are likely\n to mean it's 13th century.

If I give you a couple of positions,\n can you plot 'em for me? First one\n now, where I am.

'Observation stored.'

Right, I got that, Stewart.

Where my left glove is now, Henry.

'Observation stored.'

Encouraged by this medieval\ndiscovery, Stewart follows

the base of the vast 16th century\nwall in the quest for more.

We're walking on a wall of ivy\n at the moment.

Yeah, follow behind me and if we\n have to go on our bums to scale\n across, no problem.

OK.

Now there's a few\n stingers just down here.

OK.

Bingo!

Concealed under the ivy\nis a second tower.

This is really good.

So in addition to the north-west\ncorner tower,

we can add a second 13th century\ntower just along the western wall.

Everything we're finding on this site\nis geared to war and defence,

suggesting this castle\nhas seen some serious action.

Looking up at it, you really do get\n the most amazing sense of

how difficult it would've been\n to storm a castle like this.

How many layers of defence\n there are,

it's all absolutely bristling\n with defences, isn't it?

But the stone castle, once it's\n built in the early 13th century,

it doesn't stay static,\n it's constantly being added to

and remodelled over the years.

Constantly, cos the castle

and the island are constantly\n under attack.

I've been trying to make a list

of what's been going on,\n and I've got attack after attack

after attack, and there's this\n big one in 1294, isn't there?

Yes, about 1,500 people believed\n to have been killed at the time,

probably about\n 10% of the island population.

That's terrible, isn't it?

It would have made a difference.

So who's attacking at that point?

Er, the French.

Ah, no wonder they're not\n terribly popular!

This is where\n I say I'm quarter French.

Sorry, sorry!

And then moving on into the 14th\n and 15th centuries,

there's several sieges\n at that point, so I suppose,

what are they doing, building up\n with the great big towers

and hurling missiles,\n trying to break through the walls.

Presumably, that's standard\n siege warfare in those days.

So were the walls ever\n actually breached?

In 1373 the French broke\n through the outer wall,

but they couldn't take the keep.\n They said their ladders weren't long\n enough

and the foundations were too strong.

You'd think they would send home for\n a few more ladders, wouldn't you?

Gotta go back to France for that!

Henry.

I wonder if you'd do\n a bit of modelling for me.

Right.

Not, not in that way!

Stewart thinks he's located\na defensive earthwork

down below the corner\nof the 16th century Grand Battery.

A large pointed platform seems\nto sit on top of the rock cut ditch,

jutting out into Castle Green.

And you've got this big,\n flat sort of earthwork

that comes and lies on the slope.

Hm.

Well, to me, that looks like\n it's an outwork or a bastion.

Some form of defence covering\n this sort of weak area out here.

There's that sense of a\n triangle isn't there, which is by...

Yeah.

Well, what would be\n really good if you could model that.

Yeah.

See how it fits in\n with the line defences

and the topography, see whether\n it is a defence work.

Under orders, Henry gets cracking.

But he's not the only one\nsurveying the castle.

We've got a very flashy\npiece of kit on site this week.

Ben, all our techy people are really\nexcited about what you're doing,

what exactly is it?

This is a 3D laser scanner\n and we're actually using it to

digitally document\n the castle at the moment.

How does it work?

It fires out a laser beam,\n and any surface that it hits,

it calculates\n a three-dimensional point in space

and it does this thousands of times\n a second, creating a

rich point cloud of data which is an\n exact replica of the castle.

Why do we need\na 3D model of the castle?

I've got eyes here, I can see\nthe castle, I've got a camera here,

that can see the castle\nas well, why do we need you?

We can use it to create accurate\n measurements at any point within the\n castle.

So if we scan the exterior walls\n and then go inside

and scan the internal rooms,

we can then create measurements\n throughout the building.

So you can actually take slices,\nas it were, out of the castle?

We can,\n once we've scanned the whole thing

we can slice through at any point,

horizontally or vertical,\n and create sections throughout.

Trench three has now bottomed out and\nhas thrown up some useful pottery.

What date do you reckon that is?

15th century.

Oh, right at the bottom!

Yeah, right at the base.

Right, I just expected it\n to be 13th century

or something like that.

Well, we thought medieval,\n so it's later medieval, but...

Right.

Unless it's been washed down,\n or cleared out but,

from the evidence,\n it looks like it's 15th century.

But we have got rubble\n and other bits coming out.

Yeah, that's a cracking section\n you've got there with all those tip\n lines, isn't it?

We've got mortar and stone\n there and it looks like

some form of building was here\n or up there somewhere initially.

So if that's the bedrock there,\n presumably something

sat on the top of that\n platform there, didn't it?

It must have done.

So to confirm whether there was\na structure sitting on this platform,

Phil's dragged over to take a look.

And trench five slowly\nexposes a small

but solid wall on the granite spur.

Henry's contour map is also revealing\nevidence of a defensive structure,

confirming Stewart's suspicions.

That's where we put the trench over\n the big ditches is there, isn't it?

That's right.

And the platform's over in this\n area here?

That's right. You can actually see,\n there's an earthwork,

part of that ditch coming through.\n That's just showing it in colours\n representing difference in height.

Whereas you see more if you model\n it by slopes, so the blue areas are

the steep bits of slope\n and the red areas are flat bits,

and that way you can just see\n how dramatic that platform is\n as a flat area.

Look how dramatic that slope is\n coming down here.

That is classically what you'd\n expect from an outwork round a\n castle.

So, at some stage,\nan arrowhead bastion was built

over the earlier rock cut ditch.

These gun platforms gave great\nangles for defensive fire

and were popular through\nthe 16th and 17th centuries.

This is all positive stuff,

but none of it has anything to do\nwith the 13th century.

Time to join the boffins for a cup\nof tea to find out what's going on.

Gentlemen, I'm really struggling\nwith the archaeology of this castle,

mainly, I think, because it's got\nthe big Tudor castle all over it,

and it's hard to see anything else,\nbut our first goal was

to find the early castle, the 13th\ncentury one, how have we done there?

We have found a tower on the rock\n behind us, we have got

a very nice 13th century tower,\n base sitting on the rock there.

We found a fragment of another one,

part way down the west side,\n and we've got the known one

at the south-west corner, so we've\n got the whole of the west side

and all the 13th century\n plan there is complete.

But where we're sitting now,\nthe ditch in that trench.

And this wall behind us,\nthat isn't 13th century, is it?

It doesn't seem to be, it's just\n possible that ditch here

is part of that, it's undateable.

The only thing we can say is,\n it's overlain by this earthwork

which we're sat on, which appears\n to be a gun platform of what...

16th century in date,\n something like that?

Most likely, yes.

So that ditch there is earlier\n than that, but it could be

as early as the 13th century, but\n chances are it's somewhere between.

What I'd like to do is put another\n section across it over there,

to test cos that had very\n little information in it,

just see if we get any dating\n from that one.

So Mick orders a second\nsection across Stewart's ditch.

His hope being trench six\nwill provide an early date

for this ring defence.

Back over in trench five,

Warwick's dating techniques\nrender Phil shell-shocked.

Warwick.

Yeah.

You know you were\n saying about that shelly mortar

and if you had shells in it,\n it was 13th century?

Look and look and look again,

there are whole shells\n in the mortar.

Yes, they're shells,\n but that's not shelly mortar.

But that's mortar with shells in it!

Yes.

Therefore that must be shelly\n mortar, that must be 13th century.

This is mortar with occasional\n shells in, complete shells.

Now this is a piece of real shelly\n mortar, which Stewart found

up there on the battery\n a little while ago

where the mortar is\n full of broken and crushed shell

that's been in a limekiln and is\n burnt, and that's what you see,

all those dark bits are fragments\n of limpet shells

that have been crushed\n and burnt in a limekiln,\n that mortar doesn't have it.

So this mortar with\n shells in is 13th century...

Yes.

And this mortar with shells in\n is not 13th century,

but shelly mortar is\n definitely 13th century.

You've got it.

I'm losing the will to live.

All day long as far as the\narchaeology of Mont Orguiel's

concerned, confusion has reigned,

but thankfully, at last the mists\nseem to be clearing, and hopefully,

by the time we go tomorrow,\nwe'll be able to tell the full story

of this castle. Mind you,\nthis being Time Team,

there's bound to be a few\nsurprises along the way.

at Mont Orguiel Castle in Jersey, and\nactually we came here to do a pretty

straightforward job, which was to\nfind a couple of 13th-century walls

so we could identify the\noriginal castle on this site.

But as the days have gone on,

the archaeology's got\nmore and more complicated.

We've not only got\nour 13th-century stuff,

we've got 15th century, we've got\nTudor, we've even got prehistoric.

Quite frankly they'll probably\nhave to rewrite the guide book,

because what we're finding\nis really awesome.

Well, there's a lot of activity\ngoing on around here!

Yeah. We're trying to sort out\n these defences still.

Yeah.

Phil up there, look,

is on the top of this,

which appears to be\n a sort of early gun platform

and would have gone straight on up,

but he's also picking up material

that's coming from\n the 13th-century tower at the top

so he's got the...you know,\n the early mortar cascading down.

Um, this down here,\n this is where this ditch that

is interrupted by this gun platform,\n this lower one,

is carrying on round -

remember we were digging this\n to get more dating material...?

Hang on. This is highly confusing.

Up the top is 13th, 14th century.

Yeah.

Here that you're calling the gun\nplatform, presumably this is Tudor...

Yeah.

..and then underneath it\nwe've got this ditch which is,

best guess, 15th century?

Probably. We're getting

dating material out of it now,\n over there, so we shall learn that.

I don't want to make it\neven more complicated, but...I will!

What about down on the castle green,\nwhere we thought we had prehistoric?

Where Matt is, has got\n peaty material in the bottom

with bits of timber.\n I think it might be prehistoric.

It would be nice if it was Iron Age\n or something to do with defences,

but any dating early on\n would be useful.

Do you think we can sort\nall this out by the end of the day?

I think so, yeah. But I think we've\n got a particular job to do because

normally all our...\n all the things we find are

spread out over a fairly flat site.

Here we're spread out\n up the side of the hill,

and to know that this bit here\n is one date, but a bit

slightly higher than it might be\n earlier, is all a bit odd really,

so we're going to need Henry to go\n round and plot everything, I think,

to make sure that we understand\n the relationships between it all.

'And early finds\nfrom the ditch extension

'support our military story.'

So where have these come from?

They've come out of the stuff\n being scraped

off the top from this trench here,\n so they've come off the spoil heap.

Right, OK. Well this one...

is the bottom of a sword scabbard,

you can imagine that on a leather\n scabbard. And from its construction,

I'd put it in the 17th\n or maybe even the 18th century.

So you can imagine the leather of\n the scabbard coming up there.

Now this one, though, this is very\n interesting. It's a French jeton,

of I think the 15th century.

I'll have to clean it up to be sure.

It's hard to see, but you can\n just about see on this side

some fleur-de-lys,\n a cross of fleur-de-lys.

'These "jetons", or counting tokens,

'were minted in their\nthousands across Europe.

'Often featuring ornate design,\nthey were used for complicated

'arithmetic on a lined board,\nrather like a two-dimensional abacus.

'Back in three dimensions,\nour survey of the castle

'is nearing completion,

'and should help us\nmake sense of this topsy-turvy site.

'And trench two\nhas now hit rock bottom -

'although the pottery is definitely\nmedieval and not prehistoric.

'But what of the building\nPhil was sent to investigate?'

One of the big mysteries for us since\nwe got here has been this wall here.

Doesn't seem to be the same build\nas the big Tudor castle up there,

nor were we convinced that\nit was necessarily part of

the original 13th-century castle.

And in a way it sort of seemed to be\na bit isolated on its own here, but

whatever was it?

Phil, have you managed to solve\nthe problem for us?

We have, Tony, and we've always\n known that this wall went round

and actually butted onto\n the bedrock on that side -

well, we've dug into here,\n and we can show that this wall

butts directly up\n against the natural.

So this is a totally\n free-standing tower,

and we reckon that it's exactly\n like one of those over there.

I've talked to Warwick -\n we know it's not 13th century,

we've seen the mortars.

It's not the shelly mortars,\n it's mortar with shells in it.

It's probably 15th century,\n and it's almost certainly

part of that defence over there.\n What was it for?

What this tower is doing is covering\n this lower ground in here.

You've got people up in here -\n defenders with guns

and bows and arrows -

but it's literally like\n a big pill box,

that is designed to keep people\n off those lower slopes.

And this is new stuff?\nNo-one knew about this before?

This is crucially new stuff to the\n whole development of the castle.

Helen...?\n Yeah?

Big structure up here - looks\nlike it's defensive, 15th century...

How does that tie in\nwith the history?

Pretty well really - particularly\n if it's connected with that tower

which was built\n by Richard Harliston,

who arrives at the castle\n at a really peculiar moment.

During the Wars of the Roses,\n somehow the French had got hold

of the castle. And Harliston is sent\n to relieve it for the English.

Hang on. So that's the Brits\nsieging their own castle?

Yeah, absolutely!\n I know - it's kind of backwards.

But anyway, the French get\n driven out, and Harliston sets about

updating the castle.

Now, this tower here - you can\n see it's got the arrow slits

but peeking through the trees\n is what looks like a window.

Now, that is a gun port\n for the modern artillery.

Now, this tower also looks like\n it was built for artillery,

so they're part of\n the same defensive system.

That does make sense, doesn't it?\nYou'd have a tower there

guarding the front entrance,\nand one here checking out the rear.

Absolutely. It all ties together.

'These new defences, along with those\nof the 16th-century refortification,

'show that the castle was\nunder constant threat.

'And Stewart believes\nMont Orguiel's defensive evolution

'mirrored developments\nin weapons technology.

'So he's mapping known medieval fire\npower against the castle's walls.'

Their effective range from the\n arrows is about a hundred yards.

I can just sort you out\n a hundred yards...

'Just marking out\nthis distance of death is chilling.'

I'd never think I could be killed by

an arrow or a crossbow\n from that distance.

By the time you get to\n the 15th century

and they're starting to use muskets,

you've got a different\n order of beast to deal with,

and you've got these musket balls\n coming at you.

And their penetrating power is such\n that at this distance

the ball wouldn't just kill you,\n it would go straight through you,

out the other side, and take two\n or three people out the other side!

There'd be chunks of meat\n flying everywhere,

a bone behind the person\n that's been hit first...

CANNON FIRE ECHOES

By the Tudor period, when\n you're getting the cannon coming in,

suddenly they're going to do you\n a lot of damage at 2,500 yards.

CANNON FIRE ECHOES

'And this firepower\ncould be aided by geography.'

Looking at the levels,

the top of that's lower\n than the top of the hill here.

So I think the natural hill\n is probably better

as a defensive position\n than the top of the castle.

How far away is that?

The crest of the hill here\n is about 300 yards.

If you're on top of that hill\n and you've got cannon,

you can pound the castle\n quite easily.

This would be a horrible place\n to be, wouldn't it? Shall we move?!

'We've now established\nthere's no ditch in trench four,

'but as it turns out, Castle Green

'still did its bit\nfor the war effort.'

Although we haven't found the big\n ditch that we were looking for,

what we have got is

an OGS, or old ground surface,\n with early medieval pottery in -

then at this end

we've got this great big feature,\n but only one side of it.

Now, we think it's a quarry pit,

and they're removing all the natural\n wind-blown sand and things in here,

and they're mixing it up with stone

to make a kind of mushy paste\n almost, with big bits of stone in,

and they're using that\n for the wall core -

and in the time of about\n the 1470 rebuild to the castle.

I haven't heard the word\n"prehistoric" mentioned once.

No - and neither is there\n in that trench over there,

where we've got 14th century\n at the bottom,

15th century halfway up.

There's nothing\n prehistoric down here at all.

But you got us all excited about\nthe possibility of prehistory!

That's right, yes,\n and there's no evidence.

There is\n prehistoric stuff on the top

of the base of the castle - that's\n where the prehistoric site must be.

'But how far back in time\n have we pushed this site?

'The answer lies in trench one.'

Where's Ian?

Ian, you've got a visitor.

I said, "Where are you?"

They said, "I think he's still in\nthat trench up by the castle wall,"

we haven't seen you for two days.

I've been up here digging down\n on my ownsome.

What you got?

Well, we've got to\n the bottom of this medieval wall,

and underneath the wall,

down into these rocks\n and this old ground surface,

I'm back into prehistory.

How do you know it's prehistory?

Cos all the soil's absolutely full

of Iron Age pot\n and prehistoric flint work.

You tried to insult me\n a couple of days ago

by calling me Fred Flintstone -\n but I still love flints.

Look at how sharp that edge

is across there, and it actually\n goes in an arrow shaft like that.

That arrowhead is\n probably about 3000 BC.

It's really satisfying\nthat we've managed to nail

the prehistoric part of the story\nto here, isn't it?

Absolutely - but I know you're\n not remotely interested in it,

all you're interested in\n is the medieval stuff.

And when I talked to you\n a couple of days ago

and we talked about\n why we've put this trench in here,

I said we wanted to find out\n which of these two walls

was the earlier\n and which was the later.

And I said there was two ways\n that we could do that.

One was by the stratigraphy,\n and one might be by the mortar.

And the stratigraphy we can show\n with this one

is that this low wall here\n is the earlier one,

and it is earlier than the big\n Tudor wall back there.

And it's 13th century?

Ah! Now I can't tell you\n the date of it,

because the mortar was going to be\n the crucial dating thing.

We do not have the shelly mortar\n in here, so I cannot say

without doubt that this is\n 13th century, but it could be.

It is definitely earlier\n than that wall.

That's tantalising.

So are you satisfied now?

Yeah! I'm going back down again, I'll\nleave you to chat to Barney Rubble.

'Back to the future.

'Our photorealistic 3D model of\nMont Orguiel is nearly complete,

'and Stewart's keen\nto use it as a tool

'to accurately measure the dimensions

'of the massive Tudor gun battery\nadded late in the castle's life.'

I'm really interested in the\n thickness of the grand battery,

for a number of reasons to do\n with the defence of this castle.

What's the measurement from\n the face of that

north wall of the grand battery

to the inside wall of it there?

So we're looking at\n12.405 metres then.

Crikey, that's thick.

When you think that the\n average stone wall

is probably only about\n maximum two metres thick.

And how deep is that\n from the corner,

to the inside of that curve\n of the battery?

We're looking at 23.271 metres

from end to end.

Crikey. That's put there simply to\n absorb cannon fire

from cannon up on the hill here -

cos if it was simply a wall,\n say a two-metre thick wall,

it would just shatter with\n the impact of cannonballs,

so they'd need that depth of\n earth to absorb the impact.

'And while this huge Tudor gun\nplatform buried much of the original

'castle, the archaeology\nis not entirely lost to us.'

So when do you start\n getting the good reflections?

Just in front of\n where you're standing.

'At the eleventh hour, Jimmy\nhas made a remarkable discovery.

'His radar has picked up\na complete 13th-century tower

'inside the later bastion.

'That ends our investigation,\nand it's time to draw together

'what we've learned about\nthe earlier stone castle

'and its subsequent development.'

What can we add to this now, that\n we didn't know when we started?

We can confirm\n that there is a half round tower...

We've also found\n a completely unknown round tower...

A round tower there.

A 15th-century battery down here..\n A solid half round Bastille...

A half round, a D-shaped...\n 15th century... 14th...13th...

'I think I'd better\npull this together!

'Mont Orguiel has been in use\nsince prehistory.

'The steep-sided granite hill\nhas been recognised

'as a perfect defensive position\nfor at least 5,000 years.

'The site was set in stone\nin the 13th century,

'when a fortified keep\nwas built on the highest point.

'Protective curtain walls\nand towers surrounded it -

'high up on the crest of the hill,\nand partway down the slope.

'In the 15th century,\nthe castle had a military makeover.

'Two formidable ditches\nwere cut in the rock below the hill,

'and a pair of gun towers were added\nto protect the gateway,

'and cover the approach\nto Castle Green.

'The late 16th century heralded\nthe most substantial changes.

'Towers and walls from the\nearliest castle were knocked down,

'or buried under\na monstrous gun battery,

'and a lofty D-shaped tower designed\nto protect the heart of the castle.

'The arrowhead bastion at ground\nlevel was the cherry on the cake,

'leaving Mont Orguiel groaning\nunder the weight of guns.

'But all this refortification\nwas to prove futile,

'as the castle became a prisoner\nof its own geography.'

Henry, have you got\n those measurements yet?

Yes, I have, Stewart. Where I am now\n is just over 200 yards away from you

but I'm actually\n over four metres higher than you.

I'm not even at the top of the\n hill yet, so I've got the advantage.

So you're definitely higher than me?

Definitely.

What you up to, mate?

Well, we've been trying to work out\n why these defences are so complex,

particularly\n on this side of the castle -

why the castle seems to be getting\n higher and higher over periods.

And it's really quite interesting,

because if we were standing on\n the 13th-century battlements on the

castle, we've got the height,\n we've got the advantage...

Got bows and arrows.

Exactly. So if anybody\n was attacking down there

the effective range of a bow\n is about a hundred yards,

which is where about Faye is\n just down there on the lower lawn.

If you fired a bow and arrow...\n Right, shall I get her?

..she'd be dead(!)

That was pretty good, wasn't it? But\nthen later, when they got muskets...

Their effective range\n is not that dissimilar,

it's about the same distance.\n So where Matt is over there...

(MIMICS ARROW)

That was a terrible death!

But the big difference comes\n a little later in the Tudor period.

Cannon.\n Of course, yeah.

Cannon makes the biggest difference,\n and you've got a hill up there...

Henry is where...? Up there?\n Exactly.

If you had a cannon on that ridge\n at 200 yards - that's the distance -

the velocity of the ball would\n completely smash any walls here.

So the Tudor period, they had to\n build this great big thick work here

to stop the impact of the ball\n completely destroying the wall,

destroying this castle.

Suddenly - he's got the height,\n he's got the advantage.

So is he going to fire\nhis cannon at us?

He hasn't got a cannon. We have.

(SHOUTS) Fire!

Very funny, Stewart(!) Ha-ha...

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