The prospect of the history books being re-written this coming weekend following the Channel 4 Time Team Special ‘The Lost Battlefield of 1066′ moved a tad tantalisingly closer on Sunday (November 24) as preview snippets of what we might expect began trawling across the network hourly
We would do well to be neither too excited or too dismissive of the possibility that actual relics of the battle have been found at long last, after a search of close to 1,000 years.
Enthusiasts and academics will point to the quality of output by the channel and the fact that by the end of a recent programme about the Long Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon that there did indeed appear to be a solution to the two and half thousand year mystery of both where the Gardens were located and their nature.
Sceptics will point to the fact that the Time Team Special Dig appears to be going over recently dug history in the form of a book by historian John Grehan in 2012, which whilst interesting, was highly speculative in its findings that it was the Normans who advanced on Kind Harold and his men, one mile away from where he battle is said to have taken place. Sadly not a jot of ‘verifiable’ archeological evidence was offered to support the book’s ‘key finding’.
If evidence now has been found to support the theory behind the book, then we are in for a revelation that will be game changing in relation to the ‘understood’ story.
It remains to be seen what evidence will emerge in the programme.
The Channel Four media room is being unusually tight lipped about what the programme will reveal, to an extent that is making some commentators (the ones with the Phil Harding hats) sweaty palmed in anticipation.
The possibility that we might be in for an exciting ride as we sit down to see Sir Tony Robinson give one of his well scripted expansive arm waving incursions into the possible history of an empty field, does exist.
Having said that, after twenty years the viewers are now well versed with the script.
As he disappears downwards into a ditch headfirst into his own imagination, sadly, that is often not just where the programme begins, but where it ends,.
Perhaps at this stage, we should just reserve judgement.
Of course the implications, should the team have unearthed ‘evidence’ of any description, are significant, because as well as new findings about the actual location of the battle, it would of course presumably with it unlock other evidence which could point to other key events along the Norman arrival timeline that, to be honest are still, almost all, shrouded in mystery.
We know that William of Burgundy arrived, with perhaps as many as 8,000 men. We know he got here because he took over the throne, and in the process, changed the course of English history, but that is about it folks, whatever the hundreds of books on the subject tell us about what happened.
We know that a battle took place somewhere near the place we now call Hastings, but in spite of the received wisdom that the abbey in Battle marks the place where the event took place, apart from the accounts that we all know and love, there isn’t a jot of evidence that this is the site of the battle.
Of course the programme, does represent an set of interesting possibilities.
If any key remains or relics can be identified as ‘contemporaneous’ with the events, that really would be something, but it does sound so unlikely as to be in the realms of fantasy.
They will be telling us next that the remains of Richard III have been discovered in a car park in Leicester directly underneath a parking space marked with the letter R.
Whilst the programme may not take us any closer to ‘the truth’ of the event, nonetheless, it will be interesting to see what ‘discoveries’ have been made.
TIME TEAM SPECIAL
Sunday 1 December, 8:00pm.
Channel 4
The Lost Battlefiled of 1066
