Time Team: Time Team - Risehill

Tony Robinson and company venture to the wild and windswept heights of the Yorkshire Dales to uncover a story of murder, suicide and heroic endurance against the elements. In an archaeological first, Time Team investigates a settlement lived in by the Railway Navvies, probably the toughest, most lawless breed of the Victorian era. The Risehill camp was built during the construction of the Settle to Carlisle railway and the men and women who lived here spent almost five years digging a ¾ mile tunnel through solid rock by hand. In an effort to celebrate these unsung heroes of the Industrial Revolution, the archaeologists uncover the houses, workshops and even the latrines built on this isolated hill. One digger experiences the harsh, beer soaked day to day life of a navvy who was expected to shift up to twenty tonnes of rock per day - by hand. The conditions are appalling as ferocious winds and torrential rain continuously hinder the dig. Trenches flood and diggers become bogged down in thick, cloying mud but slowly a story emerges of a resilient community who survived not just the harsh environment but terrible working conditions and poor pay to produce a monument that is still in use today.