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W.

W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and me, welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnan and me William Durample.

You're very excited about today aren't you? I'm very excited this takes me back to my teens.

Yes so tell us why because in my head I have another nickname for you because of this story that you're going to tell. You are in my mind the venerable bead because this is a bead story.

Well I was very not venerable, aged 17, when I first arrived in the Vickers Garden at

Repton by the extremely unstable in charge of the site used to drive me to each day.

And this was me, I suppose, just beginning A levels,

and I was a mad keen archaeologist in those days.

And I'd read in a magazine about this site.

And for once in my life arrived at the right time.

On time!

In advance even, which is...

I'm already just believing this story right from the outset.

Okay, carry on. You arrived on time, yes,

right? No, in advance. In advance. And we stripped back the Vickers Garden and

found what turned out to be an enormous channel full of Vikings who had attacked

what had then been a very important Mercian royal center which had both I think a sort of political

center and was a religious center with around the shrine of St. Weston buried in

the church and some terrific fighting took place and what we were

...