"The past is a different country...."

"...They do things differently there" is a quote I've heard many times and with many attributed sources but it was brought to mind today when I stumbled across a gem in the film archives. No, not Youtube but British Pathe, the home of the newsreel.

If you don't know what a newsreel is then this might completely go over your head but I was excited to find that British Pathe have a newsreel online of the excavation of Nonsuch Palace back in 1959 and it seems a million miles away from Channel 4's Time Team with the 1950's version having well-scrubbed students assisting the fatherly archaeologists excavating the site.
If you were to go there today you'd find just an area of grass and weeds but the newsreel shows just how big the original site was and what an excellent building would still be standing if one of Charles II's mistresses hadn't had it demolished and sold off to pay her gambling debts.


Ah well.

British Pathe - Nonsuch Palace 1959
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=888