Archaeologists have found a number of previously unknown sites of historic interest thanks to investigative trench work along the route of an onshore cable route for an offshore wind farm.

Archaeologists have found a number of previously unknown sites of historic interest thanks to investigative trench work along the route of an onshore cable route for an offshore wind farm.

The onshore side of the operation to build the 315 megawatt Sheringham Shoal wind farm will see a 13 mile long cable laid between Weybourne and Salle, near Reepham.

Evaluation work has seen 125 trenches dug by experts NAU Archaeology on behalf of wind farm operators StatoilHydro and Statkraft.

County archaeologist David Gurney, of the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, said the trenches had revealed 'several areas of interest and potential which are currently being excavated'.

In a regular report about recent excavations and finds, Mr Gurney added: 'These include a possible late Iron Age or early Roman building with a clay floor, late Saxon and early mediaeval occupation and structures close to the River Bure, and at least two areas where multiple intersecting ditches may represent multi-period settlements and enclosures.'

Mr Gurney's report also reveals other finds of interest in Norfolk, including 20 early mediaeval burials within the graveyard of the former St Clement's church at Keswick, in Bacton.

And at Gunthorpe, near Melton Constable, a 'remarkable but incomplete' Roman gold bow brooch dating to the third or fourth century had been found.