Ivan Clowsley

Time Team Norton Disney

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
So said Walt Disney — and who would have dreamed that, on 24th March 2013, when Time Team was cancelled by Channel 4, that 11 years later Time Team would be going as strong as ever and digging in the very village the Disney family were thought to come from!

Britain has so many historic villages, and once again I’d never heard of Norton Disney until about six months before the dig — but what a lovely little village it is. I’m not sure the villagers had ever seen or experienced anything like this before, and they didn’t know what to expect as 50 or so archaeologists, camera crew, technicians, and support staff turned up to help uncover the history of their community.

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Day 1

The sun was shining — always a bonus — and the forecast was good until Day 3, when the weatherman said we’d get rain. We arrived on site early, before 9am, to set up at the Village Hall and prepare for dozens of villagers and volunteers to register for the dig.

The hordes soon started to arrive, armed with spades, sieves, buckets — you name it — oh, and cakes. Lots and lots of cakes, of every description!

I was outside the hall stewarding the volunteers. They had to be patient, as it took time to register them all, and then Carenza needed to brief them. About 10:45 they all headed off to their Test Pits (TPs), keen but uncertain. That’s where me and the other experienced diggers stepped in to guide them through the process.

Some volunteers had previous experience, so Dani gave me a list of the novices’ TP numbers to check on first. Off I went to TP3: a team of four, all with a keen interest in archaeology but no digging experience. The pit location was already marked out, so that saved us a job. I advised them where to put the spoil heap, then we got the turf off. Christine was in charge of paperwork, so I went through that with her. I had a list to get through, so I promised to return and moved on.

I can’t remember how many gardens I visited, but TP14 sticks in my mind — a lovely bunch. They’d already got the turf off, so I talked them through the next steps.

Lunch was a quick stop at the Green Man pub. No beer allowed, but the food was excellent. The day continued at a hectic pace as I walked up and down the village. Everyone was having a great time. By close of play, I’d walked about 6.5 miles — I was pretty tired, to say the least.

Our hotel was on the edge of Lincoln, with a pub next door. We ate there in the evenings, chatting about the day’s events, finds, and catching up. There must have been upwards of 50 of us, and serving us all was quite a challenge for the hotel staff — but eventually, we were all fed.

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Day 2

Saturday meant even more volunteer diggers at the Village Hall and more test pits being opened. After an hour of admin and a briefing, everyone leapt into action.

Meg caught hold of me and asked if I’d do a bit of filming with her for social media — which was fun. Then it was back to rushing around, guiding our pottery expert Jane and a historic buildings expert to the Geo Dome.

After another wonderful lunch at the Green Man, I headed back to TP3 to hear they’d found something. Stewart had turned up, studying his Lidar printout, and spotted a causeway he wanted to trace. Lo and behold, it showed up in TP3! Brilliant. We filmed with the help of Robert, our American friend, and various others turned up with cameras to take a look.

Meanwhile, some test pits were starting to hit natural and were being closed down and backfilled. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and meeting some famous faces.

I checked in on the main trenches where Hilda and Chris were digging — they had some really good stuff coming up. I also popped into the church, with its tombs of the Disney family’s descendants. A very atmospheric and pretty little building.

And that was Day 2 over. Back to the hotel for a beer — if there was any left!

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Day 3

No briefings today, just a couple of people to register, so digging could restart early. We were working against the clock now: all digging had to stop by midday.

I mentioned to Carenza and Dani that my TP3 team might need help with the cobbled surface, so I based myself there but also checked in on other pits, including my other favourite team at TP14. They weren’t finding much, so I advised them to dig one more context, then backfill if they found nothing.

Back at TP3, Dani suggested putting in a sondage to see how deep the cobbled area was and whether anything was underneath. It turned out to be only one layer of stone with loamy soil beneath. That was it — final recording done, then time to backfill.

Halfway through, Dani called me back to the Village Hall to help volunteers bring in finds trays and paperwork. At 4pm we had a little party — with (yes, you guessed it) more cake! Emily, the director, gave a few words of thanks to the villagers, then John and Stewart cut a special Time Team cake.

Penny sliced it up — and managed to slice her finger at the same time, miraculously without getting a drop of blood on the cake! Luckily, Kerry was on hand to bandage her up. Then the rain started — but the digging was already finished. Perfect timing.

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Another dig over, and the three days had flown by. Another fabulous project. I love the community digs: meeting new people, helping them discover more about their shared history, and hopefully igniting a love of archaeology is so rewarding.