The Time Team believe that, ironically, a Roundhead garrison good be found within the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
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Time Team to seek buried treasure at Buckingham Palace
By Caroline Davies
(Filed: 19/08/2006)
The Queen's 80th birthday celebrations certainly seem to be taking a toll on her cherished garden at Buckingham Palace. Thousands of guests have tramped over it this year. And now a team of archaeologists is to dig it up.
Actor and history expert Tony Robinson (who played Baldrick in BBC comedy series Blackadder) is doing an archaeological dig at Buckingham Palace for Channel 4's Time Team.
Channel 4's Time Team programme is to take up residence at three of the Queen's homes over next week's Bank Holiday weekend and gouge huge chunks out of her manicured lawns during a four-day live dig at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyroodhouse.
Apparently, Her Majesty is as intrigued as the archaeologists as to what they will discover.
The locations are certainly the most unusual in the programme's history.
"The funny thing about it is that the archetypal Time Team would be going into the back garden of someone's terrace house in Northampton," said the presenter, Tony Robinson, yesterday.
"And the people always get really excited about what's under their garden. Well, this is exactly the same. They all seem very excited."
Robinson said he and the Time Team expert Phil Harding had talked to the Queen, Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall at a recent garden party about the forthcoming programme.
"Charles, who knows a thing or two about archaeology, was very interested in the methodology. He got into a very technical discussion with Phil while I chatted to Camilla about how difficult it is to get anywhere quickly on the M4.
"Dad, Philip, was postulating theories all the time. We told him there was this particular ornamental canal we were looking for and he was going 'Oh, I'm not sure that you'll find any evidence of that'.
"He was very funny because he was putting us on the spot, saying 'What proof have you got for this? What proof have you got for that?'
"You can't really say to him, 'I don't bleeding know because we haven't started digging yet'.
"And the Queen, well she is just intrigued. They are really curious to know what's under all the little bumps and lumps. They were all extraordinarily relaxed about the prospect of their gardens being dug up. They were so busy chatting about it that the equerries had to come and lead them away in the direction of other guests."
The Queen has asked Time Team to try to discover the origin of a mysterious mound in the grounds of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
They will also be trying to find out whether Buckingham Palace's garden contains the remains of defences built around London and Westminster by the Roundheads to keep out the King's forces.
"It really amuses me that there is the possibility there might be a Roundhead garrison actually within the confines of Buckingham Palace," said Robinson. The team plans to trace the history of previous houses built on the Palace site and hopes the preserved contents of the silted canal, thought to have been built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1703, will offer tantalising glimpses of London life at the time.
"The gardener thinks he knows where the canal is from the land pattern," said Simon Raikes, the series producer.
Buckingham House was purchased by King George III in 1762 as a private family residence for his wife Queen Charlotte and was enlarged over the years with its conversion into a palace completed in the 1830s.
At Windsor Castle one of the aims is to locate the remains of a building, said to be 200ft wide, which it is believed was built by Edward III in 1348 for a Round Table for his knights. Records show building materials were purchased but it seems it was not completed.
"This was a mysterious building and it would be tremendous to locate it," said Mr Raikes. "From marks on the grass we believe it may be in the Quadrangle in the Upper Ward."
Time Team: Big Royal Dig will be broadcast each evening on Channel 4 from Friday Aug 25 to Monday Aug 28 with live day-time coverage on More4 during the Bank Holiday weekend. Robinson promises that despite the huge trenches they plan to dig, the Queen won't even know they've been there by the time she returns from her summer break at Balmoral.
"There are some very scary people at the palace," he said. "So it's highly unlikely that we would do a cowboy job on their lawn."
telegraph.co.uk
---------------------------------------------------
Time Team to seek buried treasure at Buckingham Palace
By Caroline Davies
(Filed: 19/08/2006)
The Queen's 80th birthday celebrations certainly seem to be taking a toll on her cherished garden at Buckingham Palace. Thousands of guests have tramped over it this year. And now a team of archaeologists is to dig it up.
Actor and history expert Tony Robinson (who played Baldrick in BBC comedy series Blackadder) is doing an archaeological dig at Buckingham Palace for Channel 4's Time Team.
Channel 4's Time Team programme is to take up residence at three of the Queen's homes over next week's Bank Holiday weekend and gouge huge chunks out of her manicured lawns during a four-day live dig at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyroodhouse.
Apparently, Her Majesty is as intrigued as the archaeologists as to what they will discover.
The locations are certainly the most unusual in the programme's history.
"The funny thing about it is that the archetypal Time Team would be going into the back garden of someone's terrace house in Northampton," said the presenter, Tony Robinson, yesterday.
"And the people always get really excited about what's under their garden. Well, this is exactly the same. They all seem very excited."
Robinson said he and the Time Team expert Phil Harding had talked to the Queen, Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall at a recent garden party about the forthcoming programme.
"Charles, who knows a thing or two about archaeology, was very interested in the methodology. He got into a very technical discussion with Phil while I chatted to Camilla about how difficult it is to get anywhere quickly on the M4.
"Dad, Philip, was postulating theories all the time. We told him there was this particular ornamental canal we were looking for and he was going 'Oh, I'm not sure that you'll find any evidence of that'.
"He was very funny because he was putting us on the spot, saying 'What proof have you got for this? What proof have you got for that?'
"You can't really say to him, 'I don't bleeding know because we haven't started digging yet'.
"And the Queen, well she is just intrigued. They are really curious to know what's under all the little bumps and lumps. They were all extraordinarily relaxed about the prospect of their gardens being dug up. They were so busy chatting about it that the equerries had to come and lead them away in the direction of other guests."
The Queen has asked Time Team to try to discover the origin of a mysterious mound in the grounds of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
They will also be trying to find out whether Buckingham Palace's garden contains the remains of defences built around London and Westminster by the Roundheads to keep out the King's forces.
"It really amuses me that there is the possibility there might be a Roundhead garrison actually within the confines of Buckingham Palace," said Robinson. The team plans to trace the history of previous houses built on the Palace site and hopes the preserved contents of the silted canal, thought to have been built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1703, will offer tantalising glimpses of London life at the time.
"The gardener thinks he knows where the canal is from the land pattern," said Simon Raikes, the series producer.
Buckingham House was purchased by King George III in 1762 as a private family residence for his wife Queen Charlotte and was enlarged over the years with its conversion into a palace completed in the 1830s.
At Windsor Castle one of the aims is to locate the remains of a building, said to be 200ft wide, which it is believed was built by Edward III in 1348 for a Round Table for his knights. Records show building materials were purchased but it seems it was not completed.
"This was a mysterious building and it would be tremendous to locate it," said Mr Raikes. "From marks on the grass we believe it may be in the Quadrangle in the Upper Ward."
Time Team: Big Royal Dig will be broadcast each evening on Channel 4 from Friday Aug 25 to Monday Aug 28 with live day-time coverage on More4 during the Bank Holiday weekend. Robinson promises that despite the huge trenches they plan to dig, the Queen won't even know they've been there by the time she returns from her summer break at Balmoral.
"There are some very scary people at the palace," he said. "So it's highly unlikely that we would do a cowboy job on their lawn."
telegraph.co.uk
