ARCHAEOLOGISTS have praised builders for helping save historic Roman finds.
Anwyl Construction halted work on its Croes Atti housing development at Oakenholt, near Flint, in January after uncovering evidence of a Roman era industrial site.
The area was cordoned off for three weeks as experts from Earthworks Archaeology, backed by Rhyl-based Anwyl Construction as well as by the Welsh historic buildings organisation Cadw and the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, carried out a survey.
They found a Roman road and buildings where lead mined on nearby Halkyn Mountain was smelted before being shipped, probably by barge down the river Dee to Chester.
Will Davies, Cadw officer for Clwyd and Powys, said: “This resolved what could have been a really bad situation because there was no obligation on Anwyl’s part to allow this archaeological work to take place and they were even willing to step in with funding.
“In the past similar finds have simply disappeared because we’ve had less willing developers to deal with. This site could easily have been flattened.
“Instead we have a satisfactory situation where we could have had a disaster and we have had a classic piece of development-led archaeology.
“The site has been identified and preserved for the record and rather than being lost for posterity.”
Andy Davies, Anwyl Construction technical director, said: “It has gone very well and we have worked very well with the archaeologists.
“We have found Roman remains in the past and we knew there was a possibility of finding something here so we were very aware of what we were doing.”