GAZETTE & HERALD: ARCHAEOLOGISTS are hard at work on the Goldiggers site in Chippenham in a bid to uncover the secrets of the past but Heritage Centre manager Mike Stone says they are unlikely to find any legendary castle.

Odd fragments of folklore hint at the existence of a castle on the site centuries before it became a Gaumont cinema and Goldiggers nightclub but Mr Stone said there was very little evidence to support the theory.

"There is simply no documentary reference to the existence of a medieval castle there," he said.

The experts moved on to the site on Monday last week and began digging in search of any historical remains.

To date they have uncovered fragments of medieval pottery, animal bones, and evidence of the presence of pits.

The lingering myth of a castle on the site dates back to 1812 when John Britton visited the town and pointed out a mound on the site which he thought was possibly the remains of a medieval fort.

A pub in the Market Place was also called the Castle and an Ordinance Survey map of 1886 names the site as a possible location for the castle of King Arthur though some experts believe this was a mistake and should have read King Alfred, who had a summer residence in Chippenham in the 9th century.

A picture of the site in 1904, before the cinema was built, does show a small mound.

Mr Stone said a dig in the 1930s when the cinema was built did bring to light a selection of prehistoric flints, which tallied with the discovery of flints beneath the Heritage Centre.