CAMPAIGNERS fighting to have Roman baths uncovered in Dorchester have received vital backing after the results of an excavation were revealed.

Nearly 25 years after archaeologists scoured the area that is now the Wollaston Fields long stay car park, experts have now lifted the lid on the discoveries they made there - including more than 2,000 Roman and mediaeval artefacts.

A report of the dig was supposed to have been published at the time, but English Heritage later admitted it had bungled the excavation study.

Now an interim report on the dig, detailing more than 2,000 iron objects, 150 copper alloy objects and one silver object, has been released to the Dorset Echo and West Dorset District Council.

The report is published after tourism campaigners and history enthusiasts pressed for the baths to be uncovered, to make Dorchester one of the most important Roman towns in the country.

Archaeologist Bill Putnam, from Stratton, who worked on the excavation of the baths in 1977, said: "The main obstacle to this project has been the lack of a published account of that dig.

"We now have an interim report including outline plans of the site which go some way towards designing a method of displaying the baths.

"We look forward to the publication of a full report at the earliest opportunity."

The finds at the site included a necklace of glass beads, a bronze finger ring and 240 coins.

The report also details the many rooms discovered, including a cold room, or fridgidarium, a hot room, or caldarium, and a furnace room.

The dig also revealed four phases in the building of the complex, starting with the building of the earliest bath house in Portland limestone.