SCHOOL leaver Julie Storer was just 17 when she started work on excavations on the site of Dorchester's Roman baths in 1978.

She was among a team that found coins, pottery, a patterned mosaic, the ruins of bathrooms and even the burned remains of a boy's skeleton.

Today she revealed 23-year-old aerial photographs of the town centre site - now buried under a long stay car park at Wollaston Fields - to illustrate its potential.

The show comes amid increased calls for the ruins to be developed as a major tourist attraction to pull more visitors into Dorchester.

Miss Storer, who lives in Orchard Street, said: "I had started work on the site on a job creation programme, but hoped to go to art college.

"There were loads of people on the dig and it was hard work. We had to go down about 16 ft and we found all sorts of things.

"There was pottery, some coins, what were probably drinking vessels and a patterned mosaic."

She added: "The remains of partially burnt skeleton were also found.

"It was probably a boy who was sent in to clean the fires and must have got burned to death."

Archaeologists excavated part of the site in the late 1970s and a report was compiled for the Department of the Environment.

They also found the remains of a giant wooden henge which pre-dated the Romans and stretched from the current town centre to Salisbury Fields.

Neolithic antler picks from 2,500 BC are on show at the Dorset County Museum, but there are another 1,000 items from the site stored away.

Much of the stone from the baths was robbed from the ruins. The Romans built the complex nearly 2000 years ago when the town was a settlement known as Durnovaria.

It would have been used as an ancient leisure centre with a series of baths, but there has also been speculation that part of the building would have been used as a brothel.

Miss Storer penned drawings for the official Department of Environment report on the site, which was covered with sand for protection and reburied.

Miss Storer, who met partner Steve Brissenden on the dig, said: "There were five baths, which went up and down in stages of heat.

"There was also a Roman road, which ran in a southerly direction.

"It was in quite good order and you could see the trackings."

She added that a later electronic survey of the site revealed that more undiscovered buildings rested under the site.

Now campaigners hope the area - which includes a district council car park and a social services building - could be developed as a tourist attraction with the help of lottery cash.

They claim parts could be reconstructed along the lines of similar buildings in Bath and that a visitor and interpretation centre could be built.

Roland Hansard, from Crossways, and Derek Moody, from Dorchester, were also on the dig.

Mr Moody claimed part of the site could look 'spectacular and impressive' when interpreted.

But he said that the project would cost a lot and there would have to be sensible consideration of the wider picture - such as transport links and town infrastructure.

He added that it could cost up to £6 million with annual running costs of £1.5 million.