ARCHAEOLOGISTS found evidence of a major fire when they excavated part of the Darlington College of Technology site in Catterick.

The team of student archaeologists from Darlington College of Technology raced against time to uncover long-lost artefacts buried at the college's campuses in Darlington and Catterick.

Award-winning archaeologist Margaret Manchester, who teaches part-time at the college, led the digs, which were organised to coincide with TV programme Time Team's Big Dig, which was billed as Britain's biggest-ever mass archaeological dig.

Channel 4 Time Team challenged thousands of people across the country to dig a one-metre square test pit - with some of the findings appearing on the show, which is presented by Tony Robinson.

At the pit in Catterick, the diggers found evidence of a major fire from the area, as well as slag, indicating it was an industrial site in the early 1900s.

The nine-strong team of students had hoped to find Roman artefacts, but the oldest find turned out to be an 18th Century coin in Darlington.

Ms Manchester will now carry out tests on some of the materials found to discover more about the history of the college sites.

She said: "I teach an evening GCSE archaeology class at the college and the students, who are aged between 40 and 70, are big fans of the show and it was great experience for them to take part in a dig.

"The Catterick site was a little disappointing, but in Darlington we found an old coin, which we think is Georgian, but I'm having it tested.

"We also found bits of Victorian pottery."