TOILET seats and potter’s wheels are among rare preserved artefacts of everyday Roman life to be seen by members of the public for first time at a top Hadrian’s Wall attraction.

The Vindolanda Trust has gained full support with a £1.3m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to secure the future of its internationally-significant collection of wooden Roman artefacts and enable the public to see many of them for the first time.

The Vindolanda site, possibly best known as the discovery place of Britain’s oldest surviving handwritten documents and thousands of ancient Roman shoes, also has a vast collection of other organic material, preserved in the anaerobic oxygen-free ground giving visitors a unique window on the past.

As well as examples of leather, textiles and flora, thousands of wooden objects have been excavated at the site – from water pipes and axles to a bread shovel, inscribed barrel staves and even a toilet seat.

Alongside the ancient Roman fort, the collection, which is recognised as a national treasure, tells the fascinating everyday story of those who lived and worked on the Northern Frontier nearly 2,000 years ago.

Unlocking Vindolanda’s Wooden Underworld’ project will expand the museum by creating a gallery with special display cases allowing temperature and humidity to be kept at safe levels, enabling significant pieces of the wooden collection to be taken out of storage.

Visitors will also hear the incredible survival story of the collection – from the science behind how they lasted two millennia to their conservation and the research that is uncovering their origins.

Patricia Birley, Chair of the Vindolanda Trust’s Development and Impact Committee, said: “We are extremely grateful to National Lottery players and the Heritage Lottery Fund for this generous grant towards a museum extension and activities programme at Vindolanda.

“The new extension provides an opportunity to exhibit some of our most rare and outstanding wooden finds which form an important part of our designated Roman collection of National importance.

Many of these incredible wooden objects, which include water pipes, building timbers, furniture, barrels and a toilet seat would have remained in storage and unseen without the support of the National Lottery. The new fit for purpose extension will be linked to an activity area creating a vibrant hub for visitors and volunteers”.

Meanwhile, a Roman bronze ear, over 1,600 years old that was found in Brompton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire, is coming under the hammer in Tennants’ sale of Antiquities in Leyburn on March 31.

The ear is one of only a handful of fragments of such high status bronze sculpture that have ever been found in Britain.