Not a Blot on the Landscape - Castle Howard, Yorkshire

Synopsis

Time Team travels to Castle Howard to look for the lost village of Henderskelf, which was demolished around 1700 to make way for the new castle constructed on the estate and its formal gardens. But the exact placement of the village is uncertain. The geophysical survey is unable to help much so the team relies on a map from 1694 and visible lumps and bumps. Geophysics produces better results in their search for the lost village church of Henderskelf. Stewart advances their investigation significantly when he discovers a more detailed sketch of the village on the back of another old map from c. 1700 in the Castle Howard archives, but it scales poorly onto a modern map. When this is done, the team realizes that some of their trenches have missed target buildings altogether. Armed with all this evidence, the archaeologists finally get to grips with the elusive Henderskelf – which seems to have been utterly removed between 1700 and 1720 when the new castle was erected.