THE contribution of Sedgefield Local History Group to the dig has been praised.
Group members did much of the ground work for the excavations that led specialists from Channel 4's Time Team to unearth the Roman village at Hardwick Park.
Durham County Council archaeologist Fiona Macdonald invited the Time Team crew to Hardwick's East Park after aerial photos suggested a Roman road may have run through the site.
She said that the work started with a geophysical survey, which can pinpoint features under the ground.
Ms Macdonald said: "Then in the ploughed field, some members of the Sedgefield Local History Society did some field walking.
"They collected from the surface anything that was ploughed up and they found quite a lot of pottery. That was really useful because that put a date on what we were looking for.
"It was on the strength of that that we started the trenches."
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