Time Team: The Team's Favorite Digs

There's a problem in the chocolate-box village of Bitterley in Shropshire. The village's school and cottages cluster prettily around the green. But the village church and the manor house lie more than half a mile away, on the other side of a lumpy, bumpy empty field.

Tony Robinson and the Team head to Dunwich, a village that's lite­rally falling off the edge of the UK. Coastal erosion has eaten away most of this once-bustling settlement, and before the whole place is lost to the sea, there's a last chance to find out more about the lost origins of this dramatically situated town.

Tony and the Team visit Newmarket, the birthplace of horseracing, in search of the earliest archaeological traces of the sport of kings. They dig in the heart of the historic town, in search of the remains of King Charles II's racing stables - arguably the world's first stables dedicated for racing.

Tony leads the Team to the village of Beadnell on a beautiful stretch of the Northumbrian coast, to explore an unusual promontory, from which mysterious fragments of human bone have emerged over recent years.

Two hundred years ago, Swansea was one of the wealthiest cities in the country, if not the world. The source of those riches was neither the coal nor the steel recently associated with the area, but copper.

Tony and the team rip up the pristine lawns of Paul Whight's stately home in search of the secrets of its illustrious former owners: the De Veres, including the dissolute Earl of Oxford.

Eight hundred years ago the people of Kenfig on the south coast of Wales thought they had built the perfect town, nestled round a harbour with easy access to the sea and a sheltered position. The town appears to have been a thriving commercial success but then it vanished, leaving just a few castle walls to mark its existence.

The Roman legionary fort of Caerleon in South Wales is one of the most famous and best preserved Roman sites in Britain. But just outside the fort, archaeologists have discovered signs of yet another huge structure leading from the fort down to the river.

For generations a family of Somerset farmers have been wondering if there was ever actually a castle on top of the hill they call Castle Hill. Records show there was a Norman castle in the area, but they are not clear about exactly where and there are several likely locations.

Tony and the Team don their hunting green, pick up their bows and arrows and head for the fringes of Sherwood Forest, where residents of Clipstone village in Nottinghamshire believe some impressive ruins in a farmer's field may have played a part in the ancient tales of Robin Hood and Bad King John.