Time Team unveils town stable secrets
Newmarket Journal - July 11 Time Team dig at the Palace House Stables in Newmarket. (L-R)Ian Shipp - FHDC Cultural Services Manager, Tony Robinson and Natasha Smith - FHDC Community Services Support Officer
NEWMARKET’S history, the royal palace of King Charles II, and the origins of its horse racing, will be featured in a Channel 4 programme set to go out on Sunday.
It was in July last year that Channel 4’s Time Team carried out a three-day archaeological excavation at the site of Newmarket’s Palace House Mansion and Palace House Stables, which were King Charles II’s original racing stables dating back to the 1660s.
Time Team researcher Alex Towson said the purpose of the visit was to try to answer the question of whether the stables were some of the first racing stables in the country, possibly in the world.
The team spent five days at the site when teams of archaeologists excavated trenches in the main stable yard and across the road between the mews and Palace House Mansion.
The lower two storeys of the house are all that remain of the royal palace which helped earn Newmarket the title of England’s second capital.
The area of the stable yard which was excavated was where it was thought a grand stable block once stood, extending across the yard and taking in the land where the trainer’s house was later built.
Owned by Forest Heath District Council, the house and stables are set to be transformed into the Home of Horseracing – a major cultural project consisting of a new racing museum, sporting art gallery and rehabilitation of racehorses – with funding being raised through an external trust and a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Those behind the £12 million project believe it will bring significant new tourism and wider economic benefit to the area and enhance Newmarket’s established reputation as the international centre of horse racing.
Forest Heath District Council leader Cllr James Waters said: “It’s exciting to think that our area will reach audiences nationally and also across the world.
“Hopefully people will be intrigued by the programme and will choose to visit the town and wider district as a result and create new enthusiasm for delivery of the Home of Horseracing initiative.”
l Time Team will be aired on Sunday on Channel 4 at 4.20pm.
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