Time
Team
Series 14
4. The Druids Last
Stand
February 4th 2007
Anglesey
In the summer of 2006 Time Team led an excavation of an Ironage (Celtic) site on Anglesey. In view of the association of the Druids, I was asked to build a wickerman for the 'cameo' feature. It turned out to be more than they had bargained for!
With the aid of the local archaeological society, in the three days allowed, we produced a 20ft monster, looking an awful lot like Phil Harding...
The first day was fine and sunny. Little did we know the weather was about to deteriorate as the build progressed.
This is some of the archaeological group preparing part of the frame.
Three days hard work was about to be put to the test.
Some of the problems were unexpected. The high winds meant we had to put guy-ropes on it to keep it up. The tide was driven by the winds and soaked the sand around the base at every high tide, making it unstable.
In spite of it all, we were happy with the results.
At sunset on the last day of the dig, the Team arrived. Phil had not been told of the likeness, and spent a lot of time grinning at it.
He was, of course, asked to set fire to it at the appropriate moment.
The end of a perfect day, Phil in flames...
The Time Team crew were very pleased with the results, and as you can see from the Postcard at the top of this page, a photo of the wickerman has been used to advertise the whole season.
Those of you in Britain can watch the programme on Ch4 on the 4th of February 2007
Click here to go to the Time Team website
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