Schools, volunteers, local historians and professional archaeologists have been delving deep into Tadcaster’s past, to find out about the Roman town, its Norman castle – and a memento to a long-ago bare knuckle prize fight. STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

MOST teenagers would jump at the chance of a few hours away from school. Throw in a bit of mud, a few secrets, and the chance to step back in time, and what could be better? Especially if it all counts towards your classwork.

As part of their vocational life skills qualification, teenagers from Tadcaster Grammar School helped uncover the secrets of the past when they took part in an archaeological dig in the town centre.

Tadcaster Historical Society had been given £10,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to excavate the site of the town’s former Norman motte and bailey castle, near the banks of the River Wharfe behind St Mary’s Church.

Nothing much of the old castle remains – it was levelled centuries ago, and stone cottages were eventually built on the site instead.

Those, too, were demolished in the 1960s. But the two-week dig, which finished earlier this week, uncovered plenty of evidence of what they were like, as well as shards of medieval and Roman pottery – and even some stone-age flint.

Wendy Binns, Tadcaster Grammar’s publicity officer, said one of the most exciting finds was the bowl of a clay pipe, minus the stem. The pipe had been made to commemorate a boxing match, she said – the first international bare-knuckle fight, which took place at Farnborough on April 17, 1860 between American John Carmel Heenen and the UK’s ‘Brighton Titch’ Tom Sayers.

“The fight was illegal and was broken up by the police after more than two hours and the fighters escaped with the loot,” Wendy said. In a lovely twist, the clay pipe commemorating the event was itself dug up on April 17 – 155 years to the day after the day the fight was held.

On the same afternoon the clay pipe was found, a crushed limestone surface was also discovered – the possible remains of an ancient Roman road.

Other finds during the course of the dig, which was led by John Firth of the Tadcaster Historical Society, with the support of professional archaeologists, volunteers and schoolchildren, included some colourful mid-19th century slipware pottery from the West Riding, a piece of Roman grey ware pottery, several large pieces of a 19th century cream and brown glazed pot, possibly from Hammonds Brewery in Tadcaster, a small medicine bottle, Iron Age pottery and a Neolithic flint.

“The dig has also uncovered some large animal teeth, part of a jawbone and the complete skeleton of a dog, which has probably been buried for at least 100 years,” Wendy said. “The bones have been carefully lifted and bagged for further examination.”

The pupils had a great time on the dig, said Deborah Parker-Starbuck, Tadcaster Grammar’s vocational skills coordinator and class teacher.

They were so enthusiastic that their tutor Jon Palmer had to arrange two groups, she said. One student, after getting back from the dig, said: “If someone cannot go next week, please can I go again?”, she recalled. “All students agreed that this was such a fantastic once in a lifetime opportunity and they all really enjoyed helping to discover Tadcaster’s past.”

Taking part in the dig was probably one of the best things he had done on the vocational life skills course so far, admitted 15-year-old Jack, a Year 10 pupil at the school.

“It was a great experience, lots of fun and I really enjoyed being there.”

Classmate Joe, also 15, got to go on the dig twice. “I was really excited the first time I went, but it was brilliant that I could go again,” he said. “I found part of a wall, part of a floor, part of an iron fireplace – and a bit of china pot.”

Children from Riverside Primary School also took part in the dig. “We gave them some sieves, and let them try to find things,” said Mr Firth. “They really enjoyed it.”

The dig has now finished. Earlier this week, a mechanical digger arrived to fill in all the trenches and return the site to the way it had been.

For the historians and archaeologists, however, the long job of cleaning and cataloguing is just beginning. “And then we’ll need to put together the story of the site,” said Mr Firth.

It is a story that may involve stone age hunters, iron age potters, the Roman town of Calcaria, a Norman castle built from the stone of the old Roman town – stone which may later have been used to strengthen the river defences – and, from 1840 to the 1960s, those stone cottages. Not forgetting that memento from the first bare knuckle prize fight.

It is a story that will be told in full later this year in an exhibition that will be held in the town.

The full details are yet to be confirmed. But it sounds like one not to be missed.