Derby Racecourse: Roman pottery found in football pitch dig

Archaeologists have found many historical artefacts on the site of a former Roman settlement

Hundreds of Roman artefacts have been found in a dig on the site of a former settlement in Derby.

Excavations were ordered to be carried out at the city's Racecourse playing fields before a football hub with three 3G pitches is built in its place.

Archaeologists confirmed pottery had been found in the dig with some pieces dating back further than Roman times.

The Racecourse was once one of three Roman settlements in Derby - or Derventio as it was called then.

Tim Cobbold, from Archaeological Surveys WYAS, said the team found "hundreds" of Roman pottery pieces but also found something more surprising.

Some of the objects date back more than 2,000 years

"We think we've found an Iron Age ditch with some pottery in it - that's quite a bit older than the Roman pieces," he said.

"It hugely exciting to find this sort of stuff - we never know what we're going to find."

George Charnley-Shaw one of the archaeologists, said: "Through these everyday objects, I love to imagine the people using them and what this landscape would've looked like back then.

"We're half a mile away from a Roman fort and we know this was a centre of pottery production at the time so it's great to try and imagine what it would have been like."

Archaeologists will be on the site until the middle of November

Twenty archaeological trenches will be dug until the middle of November - some up to 65ft (20m) long.

The trenches will be excavated in phases on weekdays. The specific investigation areas will be fenced off during the work, made safe and then the fences removed in preparation for the weekend's football.

Derby City Council said the area has undergone very little modern development and part of the site lies within the area of Roman Derby.