A building site in Warboys has become home to an archaeological dig, after historic artefacts were found on the site.

Evidence of hundreds of years of continuous occupation stretching back 2,000 years has been found at the Bellway site off Farriers Way in the village.

The artefacts found on the site, which will be called The Furrows, include pottery, coins and evidence of Roman roads and roundhouses.

Steven Graham, project officer from Oxford Archaeology East, said: “Historically speaking, the site in Warboys is important, as it contains evidence that it was possibly inhabited continuously through the Iron Age, right through to the Roman and Anglo-Saxon era.

“This is very exciting and unusual, as most sites are only intermittently inhabited throughout their history.

“The traditional view is of one group who drive out another with violence, but we’re working to a hypothesis with this site that the people who lived here may have continued occupying the site from the Roman to the Anglo-Saxon period and just changed their cultural and belief systems over time, challenging the traditional view.”

The artefacts were found during an archaeological assessment of the site as part of the planning application for the new homes. When the site has been examined by experts and their finds recorded, groundworks for the new residential development begin.

Ben Smith, managing director for Bellway Homes, said: “It has been fascinating to see the progress made by the archaeological team at such a historically important piece of land and to learn more about the site’s past.

“We’re very much looking forward to building homes on the site, just like there were all those years ago.”

Bellway is due to begin work on site within the next two weeks. For more information on their homes in Warboys, visit bellway.co.uk.