TIME Team's Professor Mick Aston got it spot on when he said that the dig at Throckmorton was one of those occasions where something good has come out of a tragedy.

He was, of course referring to earlier this year, when the disused airfield became a mass burial pit for the carcasses of 120,000 cows, sheep and pigs wiped out by the foot and mouth crisis.

The popular Channel 4 archaeology show was filming at Throckmorton airfield, near Pershore, over the weekend. While they were on site the archaeologists unearthed history going back as far as 500BC - The Iron Age and hoped to go even further back in time.

When the Journal visited the site last Friday the team had found a Roman brooch with the pin still intact, an Iron Age razor and lots of Iron Age pottery.

Mick said finding the brooch was a rarity, as all that's normally left is pottery and bone.

"Anything else normally rots away," he said.

Mick, who is on a year's sabbatical from lecturing at Bristol University, added: "What we've found so far is mainly Iron Age, about 500BC and onwards before the times of the Romans.

"By the end of this dig, we might even be able to push it back a bit further. It's been a really productive site and it seems that we've uncovered predecessors of this farming community, which lived across this area.

"It's a normal bit of countryside and I like that sort of archaeology, without the gold and the aristocrats."

Time Team came to the site after county archaeological officer Malcolm Atkin got in contact with the show. Now he is delighted with the results.

"It's been very exciting. We thought there might be Bronze Age barrows or Iron Age huts, as we were able to tell from the geophysics there was something here, but not what it was.

"Having the Time Team crew here has enabled us to look at a much bigger area, with some truly remarkable results.

"We've found a very extensive Iron Age complex, from the middle to late periods of the age.

"We've now found the boundary for an Iron Age settlement and we've also found a progression from Iron Age on one side of the runway to Roman on the other and the density of archaeology has surprised everyone."

Of the other dig, which was taking place on DEFRA land, Malcolm said: "We will continue to excavate on the site for at least another week."

He added that this is the largest archaeological project that has come out of the foot-and-mouth crisis and one of the most important discoveries in recent years in Worcestershire.

"We've been extremely pleased with the co-operation we have received from DEFRA, QinetiQ and JDM contractors.

"We've taken a lot of photographs and later will be offering talks and displays around Worcestershire," said Malcolm

It is hoped the TV programme will be screened in March next year.

* A NEW archaeology group has been given a cash injection by The Countryside Agency.

The Four Parishes Archaeology Group received the first part of a £25,000 grant from the agency's Local Heritage Initiative, which will help to get the group started.

The group, which covers the parishes of Pinvin, Wyre Piddle, Hill and Moor, and Bishampton/Throckmorton, has been awarded the money over three years.

The first part, a cheque for £7,210, was presented to them last Saturday by Time Team presenter Tony Robinson and will be used to give members proper training for archaeological fieldwork.

Local Heritage Initiative advisor Chris Tomlin said: "We would like to hear from people setting up projects in Worcestershire, whether they are for history or national heritage."

For more information, contact Chris Tomlin at The Countryside Agency on 0121 233 9399.