WORK to enlarge a North Yorkshire primary school has unearthed a wealth of archaeological finds.

Construction work is on-going at the former Brooklyn House site in Langton Road, Norton to expand Norton School. The town is a known area of interest because of the Roman fort and road nearby and the work has so far uncovered:

• Buildings and structures including floor slabs

• The original Roman road

• Human remains including baby burials

• Animal bones

• A strange burial of two geese heads facing each other with a pair of wings placed over them

North Yorkshire County Council is investing £4million in the scheme, which is being project managed by NY Property Services, to create a new primary school on the site of Brooklyn House, which was previously used as a youth club and council offices. The school will be a satellite building to the existing Norton School in Grove Road, Norton, to increase its pupil capacity. The construction involves refurbishment of the existing building and a new extension.

The council’s principal archaeologist, Peter Rowe, said: “Because of the Roman interest, a planning condition was placed on the site to ensure that any remains were properly recorded before the development took place. An enabling works phase was carried out from August 1 - October 21 prior to the main construction work. The main contractor for the enabling phase was Simpson (York) Ltd, which employed John Buglass Archaeology to carry out the archaeological excavations. The excavations have uncovered a substantial number of finds and evidence for several significant buildings, considerably more than anyone anticipated.’’ Construction work started in November to be completed by August.