Ancient tiles found as Time Team dig reopens
History experts have begun work to explore the remains of an ancient Northamptonshire castle, picking up where Time Team's archaeologists left off eight years ago.
Experts from the Channel 4 programme carried out excavation work at The Mount in Alderton, close to Towcester in 2001.
But because Time Team's digs are limited to just three days, they only scratched the surface of the historic site, where work to build the long-since-vanished castle began soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
To take Time Team's work further, a team of archaeologists from Northamptonshire have re-opened the 2001 trenches and carried on the investigation.
And already, they have discovered one of the castle buildings featured distinctive green roof tiles.
Tim Upson-Smith, from Northamptonshire County Council's archaeological unit, is supervising the dig. He said: "We've re-excavated parts of the Time Team trenches and extended them and found quite a bit of medieval pottery and clay pipes, so obviously people have been using the mound for quite some time.
"We've also found some green medieval ridge tiles from a timber frame building which are quite distinctive.
"It's quite likely they would have been from a house within the castle site."
The archaeologists will remain on the site for the next two weeks.
They plan to carry on work on their current trenches and hope to lift a floor found in one to see what is underneath it.
Mr Upson-Smith said: "We'll be looking under the stone floor to see what's there. If we could find a central hearth, that would be very nice.
"That's ideally what we'd like to find."
The site is owned by former Northamptonshire County Council member and history lover, Derek Batten.
He bought the scheduled ancient monument in 1998 after driving past the site and seeing a 'castle for sale' sign.
During the 2001 dig, the television experts found a 14th century buckle belonging to a knight. They also found the castle's original entrance.
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Thursday 09 September 2010
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