RESIDENTS on Hartlepool's historic Headland have been given the chance to come even closer to their heritage.

Mark Simmonds has been appointed community archaeologist for the area, and is looking forward to helping residents uncover their roots.

Over the next three years, he will be encouraging people to join in a number of excavations on the Headland, which could uncover relics stretching from Saxon times to the Industrial Revolution.

As well as that, he will be raising people's general awareness of history and helping history groups track down further funding for their own projects and develop guided history walks around the area.

Mr Simmonds said: "When people take part in a dig, rather than reading about history in a dusty text book, they are actually unearthing items made and used by real people who lived many years before us.

"It really is touching the past and making a connection with the people who came before us, there is nothing quite as exciting and you never know what you might find."

Mr Simmonds has joined the team at Tees Archaeology, and his three-year post is funded by the North Hartlepool Partnership, which is using money from the Government's single regeneration budget to revitalise north Hartlepool and the Headland.