Several days ago we noticed that some earthworks had been undertaken adjacent to one of our not so often visited Roman sites. Calling in to see the farmer we obtained permission to search the spoil heaps. Many corroded coins were located as well as some broken artefacts. Visible were numerous pieces of tile, pottery and a good liberal scattering of flaking Oyster shells. We spent about three hours here overall. Just as we were about to leave, my Explorer XS gave a good signal. The final target lay about 9 inches below in thick recently excavated blue clay. When I first saw it I thought it was a Dupondius sized coin. But clearing away the sticky clay I saw a pin and catch plate....it was a brooch!!! Now Roman brooches are reasonably common finds but not one like this. Incredibly after some 1600 years it had remained deeply buried, consequently the rich golden gilding had survived almost intact. This is a late Roman disc brooch and it's easy to see where the influence came from for the later larger Saxon disc brooches. Many late Roman brooches were gilded but we think it's fair to say very few found retain much of it.