PROFESSIONAL archaeologists, scholars and amateur historians have teamed up to uncover the mysteries of a community's Roman roots.

Digging near Sedgefield, County Durham, had a high-profile launch three years ago when celebrities from Channel 4's Time Team programme spent three days in Hardwick East Park, on the edge of the village.

Tony Robinson, who rose to fame as Baldrick in the Blackadder comedy series, fronted the programme, which included shots of archaeologist Phil Harding excavating a pottery kiln.

With the lure of confirming the existence of an important industrial settlement, specialists from Durham County Council and Durham University have carried on their work, helped over the past few weeks by schoolchildren and community groups.

Recent finds of Roman artefacts, including a complete jar, a bone toggle and high-quality Samian pottery, went on display at the site at an open day on Saturday.

The civilian settlement was made up of ditched enclosures lining both sides of a road from Brough-on-Humber to Old Durham, Chester-le-Street and Newcastle.

Residents made quality products for military personnel based in nearby forts, such as Lanchester and Ebchester and on the Roman Wall.

Durham archaeologist Dr David Mason said interest in East Park had been aroused in the mid-1990s when a geophysical survey and aerial photographs showed land disturbances and features hidden under a 17-acre stretch of the East Park fields.

The county council bought the land in 2001 with the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and now the site forms part of a planned restoration with the 18th Century Hardwick Park, across the A177.

Dr Mason said: "Together, we will have a story of a landscape over the past 2,000 years. On the present evidence, the heyday of the settlement occurred during the second half of the second century AD.

"We are only at the very beginning of exploring the settlement and understanding it. There is much more to find out."