MARK NEWMAN carries his "baby" about with him with pride. Quite rightly, for the baby mentioned is the result of 12 years' work.

It is a 3in-thick volume of the archaeological and historical survey on Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal.

This is the second edition that Mr Newman has completed. As archaeological advisor for Yorkshire, the North-East and the north-east Midlands for the National Trust, the research has been a joy.

But 120 other people have also helped in many different ways, all necessary to help the fieldwork, he said.

Main subject tackled in the volume is the creation of the designed landscape of Studley Royal. It is proposed in the study that the origin of landscape gardening at Studley was not at the order of John Aislabie in 1718 as popularly thought, but on the instruction of his father, George Aislabie, about 1670, said Mr Newman.

Trustees managing the estate on behalf of the under-age Aislabie heirs in the mid-1680s ensured that George Aislabie's embryonic ideas survived the transfer of the estate into the hands of his sons.

The survey also provides information on the general management of the archaeological resource, and a summary of the 718 archaeological sites identified on the property to date.

"You discover new things about the place all the time, so you have to keep updating the survey. Having said that, I don't think I will be doing another yet for a while," he said.

For seven years, the magnificent grounds were Mr Newman's "back garden", when he had an office there. Being taken on a tour of the grounds by him, items of interest being pointed out along the way, is a delight. He is a charming, eloquent man whose enthusiasm and love of the estate is obvious. This wasn't so much an interview as an enlightening stroll back into history in one of the country's finest gardens.

While undertaking both editions of the survey, Mr Newman has come across many intriguing stories about the family.

"For instance, George Aislabie, who came from yeoman stock, married well and became lord lieutenant of the county, a man of importance. But he challenged the wrong man to a duel in 1675, and was slit from the wrist to the elbow and bled to death.

"Popular belief is that he was defending his sister's honour which he believed had been disgraced, but looking closer at the story, there is great evidence that George and his wife were busy trying to swindle one of his wife's sisters out of several property interests."

The estate was left in trustee's hands, as women were not allowed to inherit, as his sons were then but children. His first son committed suicide at university, the second went to university too, but found the delights that London could offer much more exciting and squandered lots of money before coming home. He was a colourful character and spent huge amounts building dog kennels and buying swanky clothes. He died aged 44.

John, the third son, then inherited. He became chancellor of the exchequer but was disgraced after a shares scandal.

"To most people, Fountains Abbey is the shining light and obscures everything else; they feel the abbey 'owns' the park, not the other way around. But the fuller picture paints a very different story. The reality is that in the deer park, we found earthwork remains of a medieval village abandoned in the fourteenth century.

"It would be difficult to say that this was more important than the abbey, but it is all part of the wider picture and you only understand aspects of archaeology when you put all the pieces of the picture together. For example, in 1990 excavation of part of the village was made possible during repairs to the stable block.

"We found a row of stones which showed where a house had stood in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The strange thing was that the house had bread ovens at either side. I say this because all corn produced on the land had to be taken to the lord of the manor's mill to be ground into flour and bread baked at the village bakehouse.

'So why was this man so important to have his own ovens? We deduced from this that he was the miller, and not answerable to anyone else. In fact, the ovens in his home would be comparable to today's wonderful fitted kitchens."

Further from this, Mr Newman was able, through documents in archives, to trace the owner of the house.

"In 1392, a Widow Horner sold her house and land to the lord of the manor and in the village shut down.

"From all this we get the full picture of an old lady, the last of a family line which lived in the village for hundreds of years. It is no longer abstract, it is a real story. and this is how archaeology brings history to life, for me and for the nation.

"As well as the important historical and archaeological finds, there are some very racy, colourful stories.

"The history has become embodied in me over the years, and I find it difficult to accept that other people don't know the history when I give lectures," he said.

"Have you space for more stories?" he asked.

Sadly not