MONEY has been found to back an extensive archaeological investigation at Longdon Marsh.

Work restoring a 120-acre area of the marsh at Hill Court Farm to its original wetland status will be delayed until April while a team of Oxford archaeologists investigates discoveries at the site.

These include crop marks, suggesting the area was farmed and occupied in Roman times, and coins, brooches and pottery from the Roman period.

The wetland restoration project has already been delayed a year because of the finds.

More funding was needed to protect the archaeological interests and allow the restoration of the wetland to go ahead.

The future of the project was in jeopardy until the Heritage Lottery Fund provided the £80,000 needed to carry out the archaeological investigations.

The fund has already given the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust £723,000 of the £1 million required for restoring the wetland.

Andy Graham, water for wildlife officer at the trust, said the archaeological investigations would be of use when restoration work on the marsh began.

"It's not just about the people and their pots it's about how the marsh was formed and the vegetation there," he said.

"The work will help us understand the development of these sites."

It is thought Longdon Marsh was formed after the ice age when it was a large lake that gradually became infilled.

Agricultural drainage schemes begun in the 1870s reduced the once extensive wetland to a few areas in field corners.

The Worcestershire Wildlife Trust hopes the restoration project will attract wildlife such as water vole and shrews, wading birds like lapwing, snipe and curlew and a variety of insects and wetland plants to the marsh.