RECYCLING Viking style is at the heart of a Channel 4 Time Team special centring on York’s Hungate dig.

In “The Real Vikings: A Time Team Special”, presenters Tony Robinson, Mick Aston and Phil Harding will look at the legacy of the Vikings around the UK and in particular at Hungate in York city centre.

The programme, which is due to air next week, features footage filmed in York last summer and looks at a Viking cellar lined with timber recycled from an Anglo- Saxon boat.

Peter Connelly, director of Hungate, said: “We looked not only at the artefacts, including a Viking age knife, but also the site, how it’s structured and building techniques. This included one example where we used a cellar dug into the ground that would have been used to keep food and perishables cool.

“We were able to show that it had been lined with timbers from an Anglo-Saxon boat that came from southern England.”

He said the episode also shows how the origins of modern town planning can be seen through the Viking discoveries, showing how the footprints of their buildings and streets formed some of the template for modern York.

A spokeswoman for Channel 4 said: “The Hungate dig uncovers the thousand-year-old Viking remains of streets, houses and a trading centre. Using all this research, Tony Robinson and his team paint a new and much more complex picture of these skillful and enterprising people.”

The Real Vikings: A Time Team Special will broadcast on Monday, October 11 at 8pm on Channel 4.