The BEST episodes of Time Team season 8
Every episode of Time Team season 8, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Time Team season 8!
In this popular and (literally) groundbreaking programme, Tony Robinson and a team of experts travel the country to investigate a wide range of archaeological sites of historical importance.
#1 - Winchester, Hampshire - The Leper Hospital
Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/25/2001
The team journeys to historic Winchester, the capital city of England in the Middle Ages.
#2 - Normanton, Lincolnshire - An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2001
On the surface it looks just like any other large Lincolnshire field. But when a pipe was laid across it a couple of years previously the trench dug then revealed a number of shallow graves. An exploratory dig in 1998 identified them as Anglo-Saxon – on a site which also threw up large quantities of Roman remains. An earlier water pipe, laid in 1954, had uncovered a lot of Roman pottery here too. So what did it all indicate? And what could Time Team learn about this possible Anglo-Saxon cemetery and former Roman settlement in the three days available?.
#3 - Llygadwy, Wales - The Celtic Spring
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/21/2001
In a secluded valley in Wales, what may be a medieval or even Roman trackway leads down to a natural spring. Right in the middle of it is a megalith, a large standing stone, perhaps 3,000 years older than the track. Nearby, there are the remains of what appears to be a Neolithic tomb, and overlooking it what is reputed locally to be a Norman – or maybe Roman – watchtower. Stones in a ruined building on the site have early Christian symbols inscribed on them, leading to speculation that it may have been an early chapel. And in and around the spring itself the landowner has found hundreds of Roman coins, medieval jewellery, blades, buckles, statuettes and a strange collection of weirdly carved stone heads. Time Team set out to uncover the story behind this strange collection of archaeological features and finds.
#4 - Blaenafon, South Wales - The 'Lost Viaduct'
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/4/2001
The Time Team excavate the world's first working railway at an eighteenth-century ironworks in Blaenavon in South Wales. The railway used to carry ore from the mountain to the factory and has been declared a World Heritage site.
#5 - Salisbury Plain - An Iron-Age Roundhouse
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/18/2001
The team venture on to Salisbury Plain, the army's largest training ground and one of Britain's finest areas of unexcavated archaeology. There is Roman pottery lying on the surface and an Iron Age fort nearby. Was there a thriving community on this barren landscape 2,000 years ago? And if so, how can the team protect the area from marauding tanks in the future?
#6 - Alderton, Northamptonshire - The Man Who Bought A Castle
Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/14/2001
A couple of years ago, local man Derek Batten was driving through the village of Alderton, near Northampton, when he was surprised to see a sign advertising a castle and moat for sale. He was intrigued because he didn't even know there was a castle in the area. He decided to find out more – and ended up buying what was believed to be the remains of a Norman castle, now almost completely covered by trees and vegetation. Unable to discover very much else about the site, he contacted Time Team. The Team's task was to find out who built it, when, and how much of it remains.
#7 - Bridgnorth, Shropshire - The Leaning Tower
Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/11/2001
The people of Bridgnorth ask Tony and the team to create a picture of a 900 year-old castle, the only remnant of which is a 70-foot Norman Tower.
#8 - Canterbury, Kent - Three Tales Of Canterbury
Season 8 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/18/2001
Over the August bank holiday weekend last year, Time Team took a crew of around 100 people to Canterbury for a three-day live dig. Or, rather, for three three-day digs because the live event focused upon three different sites. One, at Blue Boy Yard, in the centre of the city, saw the Team looking for signs of the Roman temple and precinct that once stood on this site. At a second, also in the centre of Canterbury, the Team was seeking out remains of Greyfriars, Britain's first Franciscan priory. And a third, on Tyler Hill on the outskirts of the city, saw them investigating a medieval tile-making industry. This programme tells the story of the three digs – the three tales of Canterbury.
#9 - The Bone Caves
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/1/2001
The bones in a cave are carbon dated and trenches reveal no archaeology, but do show a trackway to the cave. Cannibalism of the bones suggests humiliation rather than need.
#10 - Basildon, Berkshire - The Inter-City Villa
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/25/2001
In 1838, navvies laying Brunel's Great Western Railway found two Roman floor mosaics, probably from a villa, at Lower Basildon, in Berkshire. The mosaics were broken up and the site almost forgotten until recent aerial photographs revealed a series of crop marks in the fields by the railway. Did Brunel's Great Western cut through a Roman villa? And what else might Time Team find in these fields?
#11 - Rycote, Oxfordshire - A Palace Sold For Scrap
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/11/2001
The team have just three days to uncover the secrets of a great Oxfordshire house that supposedly played host to five reigning monarchs.
#12 - Waltham Villa, Gloucestershire - A Waltham Villa
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/28/2001
The team try to paint a picture of a 2,000 year-old family from the Cotswolds, an area overflowing with Roman remains.
#13 - Holy Island, Lindisfarne
Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/4/2001
The team investigate a field known as the 'palace' on the beautiful and mystical island of Lindisfarne.