THE remains of up to 90 bodies have been discovered in the Cotswold Water Park at what is thought to be the largest Roman burial ground in Gloucestershire.

The discovery has been made by a team from Oxford Archaeology which is investigating the site prior to it being developed for holiday homes.

The site covers over three hectares of the water park and archaeologists believe it may have been a resting place for Romans from a nearby third-century Romano British farmstead, the remains of which were discovered 20 years ago.

Archaeologists at the site believe most of the adults were buried in wooden coffins due to the number of nails surrounding the bodies.

The majority of the children, however, were buried in stone-lined cysts and the team has found one child's grave covered in lead - an extremely valuable substance at the time, indicating that the parents would have been rich.

Granville Laws, in charge of the dig, told the Standard: "Stone-lined coffins suggest they spent a bit more time and effort over how they buried their dead.

"This leads us to believe the farmstead was more well-to-do than the average Roman settlement."

Some of the skeletons were decapitated but project manager Ken Welsh suggests that this was not how they died as many Roman grave sites have their own burial rituals and that decapitating the bodies and placing the head at the feet was not uncommon.

Some of the bones removed from the graves will now be analysed to try and determine how they died, how old they were when they died, and exactly what time period they lived in.

Dr Simon Pickering, director of conservation at the Cotswold Water Park Society, was not surprised to learn of the discovery because of the rich Roman history of the area.

He said on Tuesday: "Corinium was the second capital of England during the Roman occupation. It is more surprising to me a burial site of this size has not been discovered already."

Mr Welsh confirmed that this was a significant find and the team would be fully investigating the discovery.

He said: "When there are human remains involved it is important to treat them very carefully. We will be out here for a few months in the summer, so there could be a lot more for us to uncover."