0:00:02 > 0:00:05Nothing in our landscape is here by accident.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07It's all part of the incredible story
0:00:07 > 0:00:11of how people have shaped our country over thousands of years.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Every ridge, every bump, has a meaning.
0:00:16 > 0:00:17I'm Ben Robinson.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20And as an archaeologist, it's my job
0:00:20 > 0:00:23to unpick the great story we've inherited.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27From my perspective, the best way to do that is up here in the air.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Aerial photography is revealing a different view of the past.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41I'm flying over the Norfolk Broads
0:00:41 > 0:00:43to take a completely new look
0:00:43 > 0:00:46at the history of one of our most iconic landscapes.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Could the aerial view force us to rethink
0:00:49 > 0:00:53how long ago early humans first started farming here?
0:00:53 > 0:00:55And challenge our understanding
0:00:55 > 0:00:58of how people have shaped this place ever since?
0:01:19 > 0:01:23The Norfolk Broads are a real challenge for archaeologists.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Much of the landscape is either flooded or intensively farmed.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30So traces of settlement are lost underwater
0:01:30 > 0:01:32or flattened by the plough.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34But they don't disappear completely
0:01:34 > 0:01:37because history leaves a footprint.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40Crops will respond to any changes in the soil.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43An ancient ditch or a pit that's been filled in long ago
0:01:43 > 0:01:46will show up as different colours across the fields.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48Crop marks.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51If you keep banking like this, this'll be absolutely perfect.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54- OK.- I can see something now.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Just level up ever so slightly. Thanks, Sean.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02This area is covered in crop marks.
0:02:02 > 0:02:03They don't all show at the same time,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06but they pop up at various points and places
0:02:06 > 0:02:08where the conditions are just right.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11There's prehistory, there's settlements, ritual sites
0:02:11 > 0:02:14and Roman remains covering this river valley landscape.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18It's almost like time travel.
0:02:21 > 0:02:22Over the last few years,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25aerial observation of crop marks in the Broads
0:02:25 > 0:02:30has revealed a staggering 945 new archaeological sites.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34And it's made us look again at some we thought we knew.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40And it's crop marks that's led us here to Ormesby St Michael.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Not far from the seaside town of Great Yarmouth
0:02:45 > 0:02:49is a sugar beet field which has completely changed our understanding
0:02:49 > 0:02:53of how the Broads would have looked 3,000-4,000 years ago.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Until now, we knew Bronze Age people must've been in the area,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01but no settlements have ever been found.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04When archaeologists first started
0:03:04 > 0:03:06looking at aerial photographs of this area,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08they discovered a series of crop marks.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10And right here, where I'm standing,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12was something that looked like field enclosures.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15There's nothing particularly unusual about that
0:03:15 > 0:03:18because this area is covered in those sort of crop marks.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20But actually, when the archaeologists got to work,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22they got something a bit unexpected.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Nick Gilmour is one of the team
0:03:27 > 0:03:29that carried out the excavation at Ormesby.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34Nick, this is the plot from the aerial photographs
0:03:34 > 0:03:36that you're working from
0:03:36 > 0:03:40and I can see why you thought this could be medieval or post-medieval.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42Something relatively recent.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44Because it just looks too well-defined.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Too large-scale to be anything prehistoric.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50When did you first realise that you were getting something earlier?
0:03:50 > 0:03:53I think it was almost as soon as the bucket went in the ground.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Because within the topsoil off the trenches, we were finding chips
0:03:56 > 0:03:59and waste flakes from the manufacture of flint tools.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01And also, a good collection of the tools themselves.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04And you've got end scrapers, side scrapers
0:04:04 > 0:04:07and these sort of small thumbnail scrapers.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10If the site really was 400 or 500 years old,
0:04:10 > 0:04:13why have we got flints that are 4,000 or 5,000 years old?
0:04:13 > 0:04:16And when you actually start digging in the ditches,
0:04:16 > 0:04:18this sort of pottery starts turning up.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20All the things we can usually use
0:04:20 > 0:04:23to help date a piece of pottery aren't there.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26And in the end, that's really what dates it.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31It's just so slab-like and flat, and essentially boring,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34that that's what middle Bronze Age pottery looks like.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37It doesn't look much, but it's so rare, it's so fragile,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39it's so precious, isn't it?
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Just to have pottery of this date still surviving.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44You're looking at this and you're looking at the flints,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48and suddenly now, you're getting into a prehistoric mindset.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51- Yep.- It's not medieval, it's not post-mediaeval.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54This is something much, much earlier.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Exactly that. So you suddenly start thinking to yourself,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00you know, what's going on here? Have I got an unique site?
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Is this the only middle Bronze Age enclosure in the Broads,
0:05:03 > 0:05:07or is it that we just haven't found them yet?
0:05:07 > 0:05:10And that's when you go back to the air photos
0:05:10 > 0:05:12and, strangely, the more you look at it,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15the more you then start seeing Bronze Age everywhere.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18And you end up in this funny situation
0:05:18 > 0:05:22of going from no Bronze Age to just it's coming out of your ears.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24And, actually, it's over the whole of the Broads.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28The Bronze Age buildings at Ormesby
0:05:28 > 0:05:31would've looked something like this modern interpretation
0:05:31 > 0:05:33at Flag Fen near Peterborough.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Now, obviously, Bronze Age houses
0:05:37 > 0:05:40don't survive like this reconstructed one in this form,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45but they do leave very distinctive traces of the post holes.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Of the pattern of posts, of the layout inside.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Did you get anything like that on your site?
0:05:51 > 0:05:53Well, we did have two groups of post holes.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56One of them was actually in a nice ring, similar to this.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59This is really significant.
0:05:59 > 0:06:00Wooden posts rot away.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04But the holes they leave behind fill with rubbish from the floor,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06such as charred grains and pottery fragments.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09And all that material can be dated.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12So we know the age of the structure.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Were your posts of about this size?
0:06:15 > 0:06:16Pretty similar, in fact, yeah.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19It doesn't look like the most substantial post,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21but it can actually support quite a good structure.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Well, I'm told that this roof, when it's wet, weighs about eight tonnes.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Eight tonnes. Well, there you go. About a tonne on every post.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31So it sounds to me like you've found
0:06:31 > 0:06:35a very well-developed Bronze Age settlement at Ormesby.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Yes. Not only have we got evidence that people were living here,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42but we've got evidence of what they were doing to support themselves.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44So, as well as farming, they're also weaving.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48And we've actually found fragments of loom weights, such as this one.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50And if we look on this reconstruction,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52you can see how it would fit in quite well
0:06:52 > 0:06:54as being a fragment of one of these complete loom weights.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57And one of the other big things that we found is
0:06:57 > 0:06:59we managed to find a whetstone in another post hole.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02If you've got a whetstone, you need something to sharpen on that.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04Which means, in this case, bronze.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07And in order to get bronze, you need copper and tin.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09That must have come from somewhere.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12You start putting in links to other settlements much further afield,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15across, potentially, the whole of Britain.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18So they're connected with the wider Bronze Age world
0:07:18 > 0:07:21and they're starting to alter the world around them.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Well, they're having to manage the world around them.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26It's really the beginnings of mass altering of the landscape.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Because you cut down a lot of trees to build one house.
0:07:30 > 0:07:31And then that needs to be renewed.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33These things don't last for ever.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35And each time, you cut down more trees.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38And then, you need space for your sheep to graze,
0:07:38 > 0:07:40for your cattle to graze.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43It's a real impact, a real change in the landscape
0:07:43 > 0:07:46for, potentially, the first time in our history.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48So we started off with a few crop marks,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50but now we know that Bronze Age families
0:07:50 > 0:07:53were living in what we now call the Broads.
0:07:53 > 0:07:54And not just living,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57but creating the infrastructure necessary for life.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00The droves, the field systems.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03They were connected with the wider Bronze Age world.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06This really makes us think.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09We've got other crop-marked sites that look similar.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11Maybe there's an extensive pattern.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13A Bronze Age world out there
0:08:13 > 0:08:15that we're only just beginning to understand.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20Archaeologists are now questioning the dating of hundreds of sites
0:08:20 > 0:08:23that were thought to be much more recent.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25With the evidence from Ormesby,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27they're now re-examining aerial photos
0:08:27 > 0:08:31to find out if they, too, are in fact Bronze Age.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33And therefore, thousands of years older.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39More than 1,500 years later,
0:08:39 > 0:08:41long after the Bronze Age farmers had gone,
0:08:41 > 0:08:46it was the Romans who took control and dominated the area.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Much of what they built has vanished.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52But the view from above has allowed us to rediscover entire towns.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57In 1928, an RAF crew
0:08:57 > 0:09:02were flying over the former Roman town of Venta Icenorum,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05modern-day Caistor St Edmund, just south of Norwich.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10The early aerial photographs of this place
0:09:10 > 0:09:13were a real breakthrough in aerial archaeology.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15They showed the street plan beautifully
0:09:15 > 0:09:17and remains all around the Roman town
0:09:17 > 0:09:20that you can't see from the ground.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22Look at that! Isn't that beautiful!
0:09:22 > 0:09:27How well you can see the crop marks depends on the weather.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30The dry summer of 1928 was perfect
0:09:30 > 0:09:34for showing the streets of the town in the parched barley fields.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36Recently, we've had much wetter summers,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39so it's a little more tricky to make out.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41Well, you can see the street pattern.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46It's no wonder this photograph caused such a stir.
0:09:46 > 0:09:47This is the Roman streets.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50The hardcore of the Roman streets stopping the crop growing so well.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52The detail is astonishing.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Individual buildings are showing up here.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58Now, this obviously fired up the archaeologists.
0:09:58 > 0:09:59They had everything laid out for them.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01And it's no surprise that the following year,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04there was a major campaign of excavation.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08It was one of the biggest digs of the last century.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10But by the time it was finished,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14it hadn't answered a key question which is still puzzling us today.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Something went wrong at Caistor St Edmund.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19It's one of the few major Roman towns
0:10:19 > 0:10:22that didn't go on to be successful
0:10:22 > 0:10:24in medieval times and the modern period.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27What happened here and why?
0:10:27 > 0:10:30To try to answer that question,
0:10:30 > 0:10:34archaeologists want to find out as much about the town as they can.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Once again, it's aerial photographs that are leading the way.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42In the 1960s, a series of aerial photographs
0:10:42 > 0:10:44of the surroundings of the site
0:10:44 > 0:10:47showed a set of triple ditches
0:10:47 > 0:10:49that we hadn't previously been aware of.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54You can see them here just running across the field as dark marks.
0:10:54 > 0:11:00And more recently, other analysis of aerial photography
0:11:00 > 0:11:02has shown that these ditches
0:11:02 > 0:11:05are part of this massive circuit of defences
0:11:05 > 0:11:08that seem to run around the site.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11And we're fairly confident that the walls
0:11:11 > 0:11:13are a later addition to the town.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17You can see the streets extend outside the town on all sides.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21And so, what we really want to know is what these ditches are about.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24What they're doing, what they're for, what date they are
0:11:24 > 0:11:27and how they relate to the town itself.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Heather, we're in one of these ditches of the triple-ditch system.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35We're in the ditch nearest to the town.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38We're just out of that plough zone, where it all gets mixed up.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42This is exactly as the Romans would have left it in these first layers.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47I can see quite a lot of animal bone. Yeah.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51- There's some...- Bits of sheep and cow...- I've got a piece here.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53..and goodness knows what.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55And quite a lot of pottery, as well.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Yeah. I've just flicked this little piece out here.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03- Oh, yeah.- We're in a bit of a town dump, a bit of a landfill site.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06I mean, that's its final use, isn't it? It's interesting.
0:12:06 > 0:12:07The ditches have gone out of use.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10And presumably, they're just a hazard or in the way
0:12:10 > 0:12:11and being filled with rubbish.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Yeah, when you want to level the landscape,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18you'll get rid of your rubbish and fill up the hollow land.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Lucky for us. Oooh, look at this!
0:12:21 > 0:12:24That's a very delicate little vessel, that one, isn't it?
0:12:24 > 0:12:27There's not much of it, but that's a tiny fragment of a drinking cup.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Yeah, that's really fine, isn't it?
0:12:29 > 0:12:33Really fine ware for the table. Lovely.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36You can imagine someone having a sip of wine after a hard day's work.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40So all life is here, basically, in this tray.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43There's a chance that rubbish thrown into the ditches
0:12:43 > 0:12:47might provide evidence as to why Caistor was abandoned.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50But it's a second site further away from the Roman town
0:12:50 > 0:12:52on the other side of the river,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55where an answer is more likely to be found.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57What we're really looking for there
0:12:57 > 0:13:00is what happened after the Roman town ended.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03We want to know why there isn't a town here now.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Why is it just green fields with sheep in?
0:13:06 > 0:13:08This is all crop mark data.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12And you can see this really dense archaeology going on here.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15That's incredible. There's a whole sort of framework,
0:13:15 > 0:13:16field systems, it looks like.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19But you think there might be settlement in amongst that, as well?
0:13:19 > 0:13:23That's right. This is where we might find post-Roman activity.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30I can see that you've actually got features starting to emerge here.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Yeah, we've got a series of what could be post holes
0:13:32 > 0:13:35cut into the gravel terrace here.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36And in the centre of the trench,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38pretty much where we're hoping to find it,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41we have what looks like a very large pit right in the middle,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44where we were hoping to find evidence for our building.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47So, yeah, that's looking quite promising.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50So if we can prove this is what we hope it is,
0:13:50 > 0:13:51then we can extrapolate and say,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54"Maybe we've got a cluster of buildings here."
0:13:54 > 0:13:57And we can go on to talk about having an actual settlement.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59What they're hoping they've discovered
0:13:59 > 0:14:01is an Anglo-Saxon building
0:14:01 > 0:14:04which would've had a suspended wooden floor
0:14:04 > 0:14:06and possibly a cellar beneath.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08But these are notoriously difficult to find
0:14:08 > 0:14:11because they leave so few traces.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13Just a few post holes and a pit.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17If you're lucky, the crop marks will give you a clue where to look.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20So the aerial photography is absolutely crucial.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Come on, this looks really promising.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25- Yeah. You're pushing me, aren't you? - Yeah.- It does, it does.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27It's too much of a coincidence.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29There's too many factors coming together. It's got to be.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32Well, we're going to dig this down.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34We'll take out the rest of these two quadrats.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37Once we've found our level, we'll go down very carefully.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40We'll be sieving all the way down so we don't miss those small finds.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Hopefully, there'll be some glass beads or something exciting in there.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45This is looking quite promising.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47I'm trying not to get carried away,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51but it does look as though we could have an Anglo-Saxon building here.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54If we have got one, this will be a very important discovery.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01The Romans left their mark.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03But it was nothing compared to
0:15:03 > 0:15:06what happened 500 years or so later in medieval times
0:15:06 > 0:15:10when millions of tonnes of peat were dug out of the marsh
0:15:10 > 0:15:12to provide fuel for people's homes.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18We're on our way to St Benet's. It's a monastic foundation.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21The monks came here to build a better world for themselves.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26St Benet's is an important part of the story
0:15:26 > 0:15:29because this area was one of the earliest places
0:15:29 > 0:15:32where peat was dug in vast quantities.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35It was these diggings that later flooded
0:15:35 > 0:15:39to form the open water we call Broads.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Very little of the monastery survives.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45From the air, you get a great view of how the site would have looked
0:15:45 > 0:15:47as the surviving earthwork show up so well.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55This gatehouse is a remarkable survivor from medieval times.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58And the windmill built into it is just extraordinary.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00What I'm especially interested in
0:16:00 > 0:16:03is the earthworks I saw from the air.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13These banks and troughs aren't the remains of buildings,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16they're actually fishponds.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Now, fish was tremendously important to the medieval diet.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22And even more so to monastic communities.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25But these are among the best examples I've ever seen.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28But I think there's an element of display going on here, as well.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32I can picture the abbot coming down here with visitors and saying,
0:16:32 > 0:16:34"Look what we've constructed! Look what we can do!
0:16:34 > 0:16:37"See how well we look after our people."
0:16:37 > 0:16:39The fishponds are impressive,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42but the first thing people would have seen was the abbey church,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45of which only the ruins are visible today.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48This would have been quite an impressive church.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51It would have stood out in the local landscape, like a beacon.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54While it's very isolated today,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57in the Anglo-Saxon period, in the medieval period,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59the river is going to be a key way
0:16:59 > 0:17:02for transporting people and goods around.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04So this is actually likely to have been a highway,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06right next to a highway.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08And an awful lot busier than we see it today.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12The latest aerial photos of St Benet's have revealed evidence
0:17:12 > 0:17:15of a couple of additional buildings not seen before.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18This is a protected site, so we can't dig.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21But today, we're trying out something new.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23A remote-controlled flying camera.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26It's cheaper than a plane and can fly much lower,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29enabling us to get a completely new view of the site.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32And maybe also the buildings.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34There's a hint of something going on.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37What we're looking for are areas
0:17:37 > 0:17:40where the grass is just showing a slightly different shade of colour,
0:17:40 > 0:17:42responding to the archaeology below.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44You don't want to get too close to the river.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Well, there's something in there, isn't there?
0:17:50 > 0:17:54But they look like the sort of crop response you get on ditches,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57rather than buried walls, to me.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59What it would be nice to do is to turn him around
0:17:59 > 0:18:02and come back the other way and just see if the light...
0:18:02 > 0:18:05'Soon, we're seeing signs of the new buildings.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08'This is obviously a good year for that part of the site.'
0:18:08 > 0:18:11- Yeah, so this is... - There we go. Perfect.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14If you can keep him there, that's perfect.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17This is the bit that then turned into the Chequers pub,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20which is possibly the abbot's lodging.
0:18:21 > 0:18:22That's definitely it!
0:18:22 > 0:18:25- That's as clear as day, isn't it? - Mm.
0:18:25 > 0:18:26That's lovely.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31So, has Tim any idea of what they might be?
0:18:31 > 0:18:32Well, given their location,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36which is very close to the south side of the monastic church,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38where you've got the cloister and,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41obviously, the refectory and dormitory,
0:18:41 > 0:18:43it could be something related to cooking.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45So you could have a cookhouse, a bake house,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48brew house, something like that,
0:18:48 > 0:18:52that's associated with the living quarters of the monks, I suppose.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55Now, they tend to be a bit detached because of the fire risk, of course.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Absolutely. Which would fit with this.
0:18:58 > 0:18:59We've got a two-celled building.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01You can see two little buildings
0:19:01 > 0:19:03that are part of one rectangular structure.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05It's intriguing, though, isn't it?
0:19:05 > 0:19:07It's intriguing and frustrating, I think.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10It would be nice to know a little bit more.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13We got closer to the site than you can get with an aircraft
0:19:13 > 0:19:16and there's definitely tantalising hints of features out there
0:19:16 > 0:19:20that require investigation. No firm conclusions.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23But no-one has ever seen the site in quite this way before.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Oh, there's the edge of the fishponds there. That's nice.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32- They're fantastic. - Yeah. They're showing up well.
0:19:32 > 0:19:33Oh, look at that!
0:19:35 > 0:19:37No landscape ever stays the same
0:19:37 > 0:19:40and the Broads are still changing.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42From their industrial origins providing fuel,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46the business of the waterways today is leisure.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50But what many of those exploring the rivers and creeks won't know
0:19:50 > 0:19:53is there used to be many more Broads than there are today.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Aerial photos are helping track down those that have been lost.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03Hickling is a great place to try and look for lost Broads.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Because it was a much, much bigger Broad.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09And the traces of that, if you look hard enough, can be seen all around.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12There's bits of partially-reclaimed Broad,
0:20:12 > 0:20:13bits that have been fully reclaimed.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17But there are soil marks and little clues of its former extent.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Just circling round now.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Starting off from the known quantity of the Broad as it is today
0:20:24 > 0:20:27and trying to work back through time.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30There were two other Broads up here.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34Gage's Broad and Wiggs Broad. And they've entirely disappeared.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37There's nothing at all now in terms of open water.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Finding lost Broads is notoriously difficult.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44Below me now is Horsey Windpump.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47This area has some of the biggest expanses of Broads
0:20:47 > 0:20:48anywhere in Norfolk.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52Historian Tom Williamson has been using historic photos and maps
0:20:52 > 0:20:55to look for the lost Broads.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Tom, this map is really interesting.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00It's a transcript from a map.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04And the thing that interests me most is that there's lots of water here.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06Lots of things called Broads
0:21:06 > 0:21:09that don't appear on a modern Ordnance Survey map.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Absolutely. And this surveyed 1794-1795, published 1797.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16So actually, it's not that long ago.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18In the great scheme of things, it's not that long ago.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20- A couple of centuries. - Where did they go?
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Partly, they go through deliberate drainage.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27But a lot of them, particularly sort of more inland,
0:21:27 > 0:21:29they disappear through natural processes.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34The Broads are artificial and they gradually silt up
0:21:34 > 0:21:37and they get encroached on by marginal vegetation.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39I mean, it's an ongoing process.
0:21:39 > 0:21:40Now, I've been flying over this area
0:21:40 > 0:21:43and you would think it would be quite easy
0:21:43 > 0:21:45to spot these former great bodies of water.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47Actually, not so easy.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49A lot's happened over the years.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51These earlier photographs, taken in the '40s,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54it's these dark patches we're looking for.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56I mean, these are dead giveaways, aren't they?
0:21:56 > 0:21:57Yeah. That's Gage's Broad.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00which is certainly still there in the early 19th-century.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02It's shown on the enclosure maps for Hickling.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06It goes rapidly after that, as far as we can tell.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10What I like about the photographs is they don't lie.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13The photograph is absolutely definitive.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16There was a Broad here, there's no question about it.
0:22:16 > 0:22:17- And this was its extent.- Yeah, yeah.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23And by studying aerial photos, many taken by the RAF in the 1940s,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26an incredible 39 areas of lost Broads
0:22:26 > 0:22:29have been rediscovered, including Gage's Broad.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31The landscape has changed so much,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33I couldn't see anything of the Broad from the air.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Everything just appears dark green or wooded.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38But on the ground, it's obvious
0:22:38 > 0:22:42this area is very different to the farmland around it.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46We're right in the middle of Gage's Broad, or what was Gage's Broad.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49I mean, there's water and it's sponge-like now.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52So you can see it's had a watery ancestry,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54there's no doubt about that.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58So right across here, you would have had water.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Um...a couple of metres deep or so,
0:23:01 > 0:23:02at the time that map was made.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06And in this case, we know why the Broad disappeared.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11It gets enclosed by a parliamentary act in, I think, 1808.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14At a time when food prices are rising fast.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16It's the Napoleonic Wars, the French Wars.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21And they put in the commissioner's drain.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24They dig it right through, it just takes the water out.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26- This is not gradual encroachment, not gradual loss.- No, no.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29This is a deliberate concerted attempt to very quickly
0:23:29 > 0:23:32get this area into productive agricultural use.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Yeah. It's a classic example of that late 18th-19th century improvement.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40You improve the environment to produce more food.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46So we've seen how the transformation of the landscape
0:23:46 > 0:23:47began in the Bronze Age,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49was stripped for fuel during medieval times
0:23:49 > 0:23:52and how we're continuing to shape it today.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56There's one last question I'd still like to answer.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59What happened to the Roman town of Caistor St Edmund?
0:23:59 > 0:24:02And was it used by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors?
0:24:02 > 0:24:04It's the final day of the dig there
0:24:04 > 0:24:07and the last chance to retrieve evidence from the ground.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13One of the nicest little things that have come out has been this tile,
0:24:13 > 0:24:18- which you can see has got some paw prints in it.- Ah, yeah.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Which we think are the paw prints of a puppy
0:24:20 > 0:24:24that was clearly misbehaving as they were drying.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27We also have this, which is...
0:24:27 > 0:24:33a rather lovely spout on a mortarium, a mixing bowl, really.
0:24:33 > 0:24:34And it's supposed to be a lion.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39And the later they get, the potters start getting a bit mischievous
0:24:39 > 0:24:41and putting thumb marks above them.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43So they start looking like bats or...
0:24:43 > 0:24:47It gives the impression of Mickey Mouse, really.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52They just get bored with doing these artistic lions, you think,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54and start creating havoc with them.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58The finds are fascinating and have helped to prove
0:24:58 > 0:25:01that the ditches were being filled in during the second century.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03But they don't help explain
0:25:03 > 0:25:07where people went to live after Caistor was abandoned.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10For that, we need to head over to the other side of the river.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Last time I was here, there were just hints
0:25:13 > 0:25:17that this might be an Anglo-Saxon feature. What is it?
0:25:17 > 0:25:19Luckily for us, it has turned out to be
0:25:19 > 0:25:21- an Anglo-Saxon sunken-featured building.- Great!
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Which is wonderful.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27It's a biggie as well, isn't it?
0:25:27 > 0:25:31It is. It's quite substantial. Um...
0:25:31 > 0:25:34we've got a lovely post at one end.
0:25:34 > 0:25:40It's a big, er...sub-rectangular cut into the gravel.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43From the middle of it, we've had this material.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45Oh, yes! Wonderful. Well, there's no doubting that.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48That's not Roman, that's brilliant Anglo-Saxon pottery.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50What other finds have come out?
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Um...well, we were always drawn to this field
0:25:54 > 0:25:58- because of the occurrence of these. - Oh, yes!
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Wonderful Anglo-Saxon coins.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Relatively few of them have turned up,
0:26:04 > 0:26:10but enough to demonstrate quite a significant presence here.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13These things are so rare, aren't they?
0:26:13 > 0:26:16I mean, they didn't throw coins around like the Romans, did they?
0:26:16 > 0:26:19I mean, you know, it's just truly incredible
0:26:19 > 0:26:21to find something like this.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24Again, it was the aerial photography that just gave that first hint
0:26:24 > 0:26:27that there might be something different going on here.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30This find takes the story of this site
0:26:30 > 0:26:32forward in time, beyond the Romans.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35And there's an interesting relationship here, isn't there?
0:26:35 > 0:26:38Between the Roman town and what came after it.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42I think we're looking at multiple little centres
0:26:42 > 0:26:47of Anglo-Saxon occupation around the area of the town.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51As far as we know, not within the walled area, but scattered around.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56But...Caistor's an extraordinary and unusual site
0:26:56 > 0:27:00because it has no modern occupation on top of it.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04The only parallel sites in England are Wroxeter and Silchester.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07And neither of those have really had
0:27:07 > 0:27:11this scale of Anglo-Saxon occupation on them.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13So really, having this here
0:27:13 > 0:27:17significantly increases the importance of it as a site.
0:27:19 > 0:27:20At West Stow in Suffolk,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24there's a reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon village.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28This gives us a pretty fair impression
0:27:28 > 0:27:32of how the Saxon settlement at Caistor St Edmund would have looked.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35It was actually a great achievement from the archaeological team
0:27:35 > 0:27:36to find buildings like this.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39They're notoriously difficult to find.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43What they've proved is that the Roman town was abandoned completely
0:27:43 > 0:27:48and people returned to a simpler way of life, back to the villages.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59My journey through the Broads
0:27:59 > 0:28:02has revealed far more than I ever thought possible.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07For the first time, we've found traces of Bronze Age settlement.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10We've revealed lost Broads that only now exist
0:28:10 > 0:28:13as faint traces on aerial photographs.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15And we've discovered Saxon settlement.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18And this is giving us a great insight
0:28:18 > 0:28:21into the end of that Roman town at Caistor St Edmund.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23There's a lot more out there to be discovered
0:28:23 > 0:28:26and I can't wait for my next flight.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29What I do know is that I'll be looking at the Broads
0:28:29 > 0:28:31in a totally different way.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd