To celebrate the birth of Prince Edward and the 30th anniversary of his

accession in April 1538, Henry VIII had worked started on a new palace. An

architectural extravagance are named to indicate that it was to be without

equal none such or non-such. It was a labour of love, no expense was spared. Henry

had the medieval manor house and village of Cuttington knocked down so that he

could build a vast royal hunting forest and he lavished nine years and over

24,000 pounds or the equivalent of about 7.4 million pounds today on its

construction, although the palace was still unfinished at the time of his death.

Although none such remained in royal use for another 130 years in 1670, Charles

II granted it to one of his mistresses. Barbara Villiers counters a castle

main and before a dozen years had passed she had the palace demolished and

its materials sold off. Rumour has it to pay off her gambling debts. The exact

footprint of the Tudor palace therefore was unknown until local librarian John

Dent took on the challenge and in the summer of 1959 the palace was excavated

by a huge team of volunteers and workers led by archaeologist Martin Biddle, now

CBE, FBA, FSA and Emeritus Fellow at Hartford College Oxford where he was

professor of medieval archaeology. I'm delighted that Professor Biddle joins me

today to talk about this palace that was once one of the great wonders of the

world and rediscovering it in those heady days of the hot summer of 1959.

Professor Biddle it is an absolute joy to see you again. We met almost a decade

ago when we were up at the more, which is a palace that belonged to Henry VIII

for anyone else who's listening and it was wonderful to get to know you then

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