Dig this... 'buried manor house' just a pile of stones

nlnews@archant.co.uk
17 May 2006

IAN Blair, senior archaeologist at the Museum of London, on site

ARCHAEOLOGISTS searching for the remains of a medieval manor house have been duped by a patch of underground gravel.

A team from the Museum of London - in a joint venture with Bruce Castle Museum - started the hunt at the end of February when they carried out a geo-physical survey in the park behind the Tottenham museum.

They had found out from historical documents that there might be a medieval manor house hidden there - and they were hoping they might have discovered its remains.

Last week, however, they did a test-pit investigation on the site, only to find out - in TV's Time Team style - that what they thought could be the long-lost manor house was in fact plain old gravel which had been there for centuries.

Roy Stephenson, archaeo-ogical archive manager at the museum of London, said: "We did think we had found something - what we thought was possibly the outline of the old manor house.

"We did out preliminary investigation the day before yesterday. The feature was natural. It was a patch of gravel.

Mr Stephenson insists this setback will not put his time team off.

He added: "It's a case of watch this space. We want to look immediately to the rear of the museum and at the relationship between the tower and the house. The tower is Tudor and the house is Jacobean."

The diggers hope to be back in the summer for the more extensive excavation they had already planned - which they hope will involve local schoolchildren and community groups.