On an archaeological dig along the route of HS two,
archaeologists haven't covered signs of occupation from the
prehistoric from the nineteenth century. Early excavations
revealed signs of bronze age, iron age, and Roman people but
what archaeologists didn't expect to find with the
well-preserved remains of an extensive Elizabethan Garden.
With comparisons to Kenilworth Castle, and even Hampton Court
Palace, our team of archaeologists led by Wessex
Archaeology have revealed ornamental Elizabeth and
Gardens of national significance. So join me as we
explore these tremendous gardens and the aristocratic
families who walked in them as we uncover the history of
Coleshill's past.
So Stu, whereabouts are you taking me now? So we're just
coming down to our amazing gate house that we've uncovered
recently and we're just finishing off now. We're just
taking the final pieces of the spoil away. And this has been
utterly amazing. I don't think I'll ever get the chance to see
something like this again. Uh let's have a closer look. So
are we okay just to walk along here? I see it looks very clean
at the moment. We won't go too much closer. Okay. The height
of it. It feels like we're kinda at the entrance to a
castle almost. Why is that? It really does feel like an
entrance to a castle and although this isn't quite a
castle, it's very similar to one and that they really want
to show off the wealth that they have and really show their
power importance in this area. It's very similar to another
castle just down the road which is Max Stoke Castle but again,
there, it's not a true castle. It has a large gate house and
has walls around the outside but it's actually just a
fortified manor house but with really massive walls and a huge
gatehouse and we know this house here and it's earlier
history was actually owned by the same family. So we suspect
that the gatehouse here either took inspiration from the
gatehouse at Max Stoke or even potentially this gatehouse gave
the inspiration to the one at Max Stoke. And we know that the
the family who first built this they fell into a little bit of
political disrepute didn't they? They did. They made a bit
of a grave error. So what we think in terms of the dating we
think it was potentially built around 1314 hundred. But
there's something more intriguing that we know that in
1494 Um Simon DeMontford he he spent more money on the house
and he actually had it fortified and it doesn't say
what he fortified. We just know that he fortified it in some
form. And if there's anything that would ever say
fortification it would be this gatehouse. So we suspect that
we might have actually a very specific date as 1494 for when
this was built. And that's because Simon DeMont he started
wanting to support Perkin Warbeck in the rebellion
against the king in the later year. Unfortunately that didn't
go to plan and Simon Digby had Simon DeMunder portrait at the
Tower of London and from that, Simon Digby actually took hold
of the house and all of the possessions associated with it.
Wow and he's seeking to really appreciate why the Digby and
the DeMar family may not have got along so well from that
result. No, definitely not and you would be a bit annoyed,
wouldn't you if uh your kind of opposing family came to your
big house and took over your gatehouse from you about even
having a battle. And did and did this gatehouse stay up
during the Digby rain, if we can call it that? It did. So,
what we we we hypothesize at the moment and this is what's
really exciting and really is the most incredible thing about
this site is we actually think it was taken down in the or
just after the civil war or around the civil war that
started in 1642 and what our kind of belief at the moment is
that actually the first battle of the civil war took place
right in this spot and not up the road two miles away at
Curbworth Bridge. So what we know about the Digby family at
this time is they were a royalist family. They spotted
the king at this time. And we know at Curbworth Bridge there
was the first battle that civil war and that was obviously
between the royalists and the parliamentarians. So, what we
know is the royalists were kind of escaping up through the
country and they went up to Kirworth Bridge. Now, the
parliamentarians chased them from Kenilworth Castle. They
chased them. Chased them through trying to head them off
to go into battle. So, they went up through the countryside
through Warwickshire. But what's interesting is we know
that this point here is on that route to Curbworth Bridge and
we know here as well, there's another bridge just behind me
on Birmingham Road across the River Coal. So, it's another
really key strategic point in the area between Birmingham and
Coles Hill itself. So, you know, what gives us more
evidence for that? What, you know, ties that together because at
the moment, we're saying it's Royalist family and there's
parliamentarians coming past it. So, that's our history but
why is it archaeological evidence? So, where we get that
from is behind us on this amazing gatehouse, we have
multiple shots from musket bull fire on it. So, we think we
have up to forty-two impacts from musket balls and there's
musket balls all littered in the soil that we've taken away.
So, we found that through metal detecting and through kind of
through the soil and from that we can see that this gatehouse
was attacked and we believe looking at the other
archaeological evidence on site that the house was then pulled
down later on it's in the civil war so we think what's happened
the house being attacked in 1642 then the Digby's have had
to kind of flee the area and at that point when they've come
back maybe 510 years later they've taken down the old
house and then they've rebuilt a new one on top of the
original one. Now what are our plans next for this area? Are
we gonna dig anymore? So we've got a bit more to dig out. So
just behind you this area that we need to dig out. We're gonna
be taking all of that area out and we'll be able to have a
really good look and see what we can find. So we've actually
found a couple of shoes in this area already. So we're gonna do
that and then we're gonna try and do some different
techniques. So we're gonna be looking at trying to really
well record these musket balls um by taking high quality
photos and then we're gonna try doing lasers and try and create
a 3D model out of this building. So it can be
preserved throughout history so everyone can always come back
and refer to this gate house and see it as a great example
for medieval architecture. Amazing. Well, let's get this
last bit slop out and hopefully find some shoes. Let's hope so.
Brilliant.
The remains on the site at Coleshill are truly incredible but
archaeologists have only just started scratching the surface.
What happens next is gonna be lots of work in post X where
our specialists will look at the fines that examine the
environment remains to uncover more of Coleshill's amazing past.