By RACHEL SPENCER

A WANDER in the snow helped archaeologist James Balme to piece together a Roman puzzle which had been perplexing him for 12 months.

James, from Rixton, has found artefacts from as long as 4,000 years ago in his search of a site in Warburton, on the outskirts of Lymm, with the handle of a Roman bronze flagon being his most recent find.

James found the handle when he followed a tractor which was turning over earth in the field, and initially he thought it was a piece of a rare Saxon bronze brooch.

But when he showed it to the farmer who owns the site, they matched it up with another find from the previous year to make the handle of a Roman wine flagon.

A rare early first century Roman dolphin brooch with inlaid silver decoration and still retaining its original bronze spring mechanism was found the same day, providing further evidence of early occupation of the site, which James believes may have been an Iron Age village, then a Roman farm.

James has also found a piece of Saxon brooch, which has been carved and gilded with gold leaf, which is unusual and not normally found in Cheshire.

The Saxon period is generally seen as the Dark Age as archaeologists find few artefacts from this era, but this is James' second discovery in three years.

A delighted James said: "The site has now produced Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon artefacts, as well as medieval material, and is quickly becoming one of the most important sites in the area.

"All the latest finds are to be examined and recorded by Nick Herepath, finds liaison officer for the north west of England, and this will be filmed for a forthcoming documentary."

Experts from Manchester University will descend on the site next week and an electronic survey of the site is imminent.

This should provide an accurate plan of the underlying foundations of the settlement.